Product Description

`Few venture as thou hast in the alarming paths of sin.' This is the final judgement of Satan on Victoria di Loredani, the heroine of Zofloya, or The Moor (1806), a tale of lust, betrayal, and multiple murder set in Venice in the last days of the fifteenth century. The novel follows Victoria's progress from spoilt daughter of indulgent aristocrats, through a period of abuse and captivity, to a career of deepening criminality conducted under Satan's watchful eye. Charlotte Dacre's narrative deftly displays her heroine's movement from the vitalized position of Ann Radcliffe's heroines to a fully conscious commitment to vice that goes beyond that of `Monk' Lewis's deluded Ambrosio. The novel's most daring aspect is its anatomy of Victoria's intense sexual attraction to her Moorish servant Zofloya that transgresses taboos both of class and race. A minor scandal on its first publication, and a significant influence on Byron and Shelley, Zofloya has been unduly neglected. Contradicting idealized stereotypes of women's writing, the novel's portrait of indulged desire, gratuitous cruelty, and monumental self-absorption retains considerable power to disturb. The introduction to this edition, the first for nearly 200 years, examines why Zofloya deserves to be read alongside established Gothic classics as the highly original work of an intriguing and unconventional writer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37092 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Anne K. Mellor, UCLA
"This novel is superbly edited and introduced by Adriana Craciun..."

Nineteenth-Century Literature
"Like other editions in this fine series, this one provides an informative critical introduction, as well as several notable appendixes."

From the Publisher
The Broadview Editions series is an effort to represent the ever-changing canon of literature in English by bringing together texts long regarded as classics with valuable, lesser-known literature. Newly type-set and produced on high-quality paper in trade paperback format, the Broadview Editions series is a delight to handle as well as read.

Each volume includes a full introduction, chronology, bibliography, and explanatory notes along with a variety of documents from the period, giving readers a rich sense of the world from which the work emerged.

Customer Reviews

A new perspective on women in literature
For those used to the gentle, passive heroines of such gothic writers as Ann Radcliffe, Victoria di Loredani, the heroine of Charlotte Dacre's "Zofloya or the Moor", makes a refreshing change. She is a strong and violent woman, very passionate and she will go to any lengths to get what she wants.
I won't go into any further details of the plot but I would recommend this novel highly if you like unconventional styles of women's writing and aren't too easily shocked.

Erotically charged tale of passion and murder.
This tale of lust and murder, set in fifteenth century Italy, is a far cry from the novels of Jane Austen. Published in 1806, Charlotte Dacre's novel is firmly in the romantic tradition, with its theme of unbridled passion and its fatal consequences. It also has good Gothic credentials - violence, sex and magic are the key ingredients.

The basic premise is that Victoria di Loredani, an aristocrat born with a passionate nature, could have led a virtuous life had she been properly guided. Unfortunately her mother's adultery becomes the primary influence on Victoria's decelopment and we follow her descent from nobility into a life of crime, dissolution and degradation. Unfortunately the story dissipates into allegory towards the end, but despite this it is well worth reading. The plot is fairly well constructed and Dacre is an impressive stylist.

The notes to the Oxford World's Classics edition are generall helpful and unobtrusive. The introduction usefully places the novel in its literary and historical context.

Since 'Zofloya or The Moor' doesn't quite live up to its early promise I award it three stars.

Surprising, snappy and one to be read on a stomy night.
Initally very exciting this book unfortunatly trails off to a somewhat insipid ending, however there is still plenty interesting gore to be found throughout. It is a surprising novel in several ways; the protagonist is one of the most brutally unnerving females I have ever encountered and the eponymous Zofloya holds an aura of sexual suspension perfectly. A black slave who comands authority, awe and submission, no wonder this amazing novel was shunned from the traditional English cannon. Charlotte Dacre has created a female which would make even Lady Macbeth tremble. As well as an absorbing storyline there is also archaic spellings, snappy chapters and enough blood to make it a worthy advisary to the scottish play.