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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Eliza, Or The Unhappy Nun: Exemplifying The Unlimited Tyranny Exercised By The Abbots And Abbesses Over The Ill-Fated Victims Of Their Malice In The Gloomy Recesses Of A Convent. Including The Adventures Of Clementina, Or The Constant Lovers, A True And Affecting Tale., Unknown
Gothic Archive Chapbooks
The tale of Eliza is framed by an unnamed narrator, a British man who traveled France during the French Revolution. A convent, said to be run by a strict abbess stood on a hill near the village, and he heard rumors that an Englishwoman had been kept there. As the narrator prepared to return to England, insurgents came to the village, burning the convent brutalizing the nuns, and murdering the abbess. Though the narrator is sympathetic to King Louis XVI and the French aristocrats whose homes were looted, he believes that the cruel abbess deserved her fate. While exploring the …