Radcliffian

English

Alternative forms

• Radcliffean

Etymology

Radcliffe +‎ -ian

Adjective

Radcliffian (comparative more Radcliffian, superlative most Radcliffian)

1. Of or pertaining to Ann Radcliffe (1764–1823), English pioneer of the Gothic novel.
   • 1924, Herman Melville, chapter 10, in Billy Budd‎^[1], London: Constable & Co.:

     And yet the cause, necessarily to be assumed as the sole one assignable, is in its very realism as much charged with that prime element of Radcliffian romance, the mysterious, as any that the ingenuity of the author of the Mysteries of Udolpho could devise.