'The power of escaping': Charlotte S. Hilbourne's Gothic Romance Fiction.

The article presents a profile of 19th-century American author Charlotte Shaw Hilbourne, focusing on her works in the genre of Gothic romance fiction. Details regarding her life working in textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts and her existence as a working-class author are provided. Several of her works are examined including her novels "The Dreamer. An Original Tale" and "The Diamond Necklace, or The Island Recluse: A Tale of Interesting Incidents and Adventures, Connected with the Life of a Young Nobleman, in Pursuit of His Birthplace and Parentage." Autobiographical elements of her novel "Effie and I; or, Seven Years in a Cotton Mill" are also explored.