Peer-Reviewed Journal Details
Mandatory Fields
Morin, Christina
2019
Unknown
Irish University Review
‘The Adventures of Miss Sophia Berkley: Piracy, Print Culture, and Irish Gothic Fiction’
In Press
()
Optional Fields
49
2
Published in Dublin by the prominent Catholic printing firm of James Hoey, The Adventures of Miss Sophia Berkley (1760) has been identified in recent years as an earlier Irish gothic fiction than Horace Walpole’s putatively pioneering gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto (1764). The discovery that Sophia Berkley is, in fact, a re-print of an earlier London publication, The History of Amanda (1758), casts significant doubt on the novel’s contribution to the development of Irish gothic literature. This essay argues that attention to the particulars of the novel’s publication history as well as its later misidentification paints a revealing picture of popular publishing in Dublin in the latter half of the eighteenth century. It further contends that Sophia Berkley’s identification as early Irish gothic – although mistaken – has proven instrumental in scholarly re-evaluations of late-eighteenth century Irish gothic literary production.
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