SOURCE: Miles, Robert. “Avatars of Matthew Lewis's The Monk: Ann Radcliffe's The Italian and Charlotte Dacre's Zafloya: Or, The Moor.” In Gothic Writing, 1750-1820: A Genealogy, pp. 160-88. London: Routledge, 1993.

In the following excerpt, Miles investigates the feminist perspective operating in Zofloya, and claims that Dacre's examination of the stereotypes of gender and feminine desire make her the most interesting of the minor female Gothic writers.

Zofloya: Or, the Moor

Charlotte Dacre's Zofloya: Or, The Moor (1806), is in two respects a female version of Lewis's The Monk: a woman, Victoria di Loredani, now occupies Ambrosio's role, while the sexual politics of the Gothic are viewed from a ‘feminist’ perspective.¹ In his review of The Monk, Coleridge distinguishes between Radcliffe's physical miracles, of which he approves, and the ‘moral miracle’ of Ambrosio's transformation (from austere father to libidinous monk) of which he does not. Transgression of nature's physical laws...