Categories: Literary Studies: C 1800 To C 1900 Literary Studies: Fiction, Novelists & Prose Writers Classic Books & Novels Romance Romance Books


Zofloya : or The Moor
3.56 (1,991 ratings by Goodreads)
Paperback Oxford Worlds Classics English
By (author) Charlotte Dacre , Edited by Kim Ian Michasiw


`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 Victorias progress from spoilt daughter of indulgent aristocrats, through a period of abuse and captivity, to a career of deepening criminality conducted under Satans watchful eye. Charlotte Dacres narrative deftly displays her heroines movement from the
vitalized position of Ann Radcliffes heroines to a fully conscious commitment to vice that goes beyond that of `Monk Lewiss deluded Ambrosio. The novels most daring aspect is its anatomy of Victorias 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 womens writing, the novels 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.
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Product details

Format Paperback | 320 pages
Dimensions 129 x 195 x 16mm | 225g
Publication date 01 Sep 2008
Publisher Oxford University Press
Publication City/Country Oxford, United Kingdom
Language English
Illustrations note 1 frontispiece
ISBN10 0199549737
ISBN13 9780199549733
Bestsellers rank 64,280