A Sicilian Romance

Set in the late sixteenth century on the wild coast of Sicily, this early Gothic tale follows the misfortunes of the noble Mazzini family, dominated by a cold and tyrannical marchese. His daughters Julia and Emilia are kept secluded in a crumbling, half-ruined castle haunted by strange lights and mysterious sounds from a long-abandoned wing.

When Julia falls in love against her father's wishes, she resists his attempt to force her into a loathsome marriage and flees, beginning a harrowing journey of pursuit, captivity, and discovery through wild landscapes, subterranean passages, and ruined abbeys. As the family's buried secrets come to light, the supernatural terrors of the castle prove to have all-too-human causes.

An influential example of the early Gothic romance, the novel pairs picturesque scenery and brooding atmosphere with persecuted heroines, a domineering patriarch, and a heroine's flight toward freedom and love.