This site traces Adeline's journey through France as is found in Radcliffe's 1791 The Romance of the Forest, beginning in Paris and ending at the home she makes with Theodore. The various place-names on the map below are actual locations visited by Adeline. Significantly, during all moments having to do with travel to and from, and habitation in the Abbey of St. Clair, Radcliffe uses fictional place names. Because she also purposely obscures the time it takes to get to and from the Abbey--a technique she carefully does not employ later on--it is impossible to place the Forest of Fontainville or the Abbey of St. Clair on the map. This literal sphere of romance, then, has been demarcated as the "World of Romance" in the box below.
In addition to exploring both time and place in The Romance of the Forest, this site is designed to provide a unique repository for the novel's potential primary geographical sources. The map above is taken from Thomas Stackhouse's 1790 edition of An Univeral Atlas (ESTC T209765). The full version of this Atlas, and others like it are available here.
Thank you for visiting.
Thank you for visiting.
