Horace WALPOLE

The Castle of Otranto is considered to be the first "Gothic" novel--that is, containing a combination of tropes, like hidden passages, haunted paintings, mysterious sounds, skeletal ghosts, ancestral curses, and unexplained deaths, that essentially invented the genre later made famous by authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, or Henry James. Walpole made a point of creating a novel that blends supernatural elements with more realistic depictions of characters and events.The plot centers around Manfred, the lord of Otranto Castle, who has just witnessed the death of his son under mysterious circumstances, just as his son was about to be married. Manfred is thrust into a galloping and melodramatic series of events that lean heavily on the supernatural.Walpole initially published The Castle of Otranto under a pseudonym, claiming that his work was a translation of an ancient Italian manuscript. This framing, along with the purposely archaic writing style, gives the supernatural airs of the novel a decidedly authentic flavor. In later editions Walpole acknowledges his authorship.Otranto remains a fast-paced and familiar read, thanks to the variety of recognizable tropes it introduced and made popular.

By Horace Walpole

The Castle of Otranto

Abigail Mills

The next transition of his soul was to exquisite villainy. 

A bad husband is better than no husband at all. 

A by-stander often sees more of the game than those that play, answered Bianca. Does your

Seize him, continued Manfred, and bind him - the first news the princess hears of her champion shall be, that he has lost his head for her sake. 

Is my honesty the price I must pay for this dear youth's safety?

 For me! cried Theodore: let me die a thousand deaths, rather than stain thy conscience. 

It is sinful, replied the friar, to cherish those whom heaven has doomed to destruction. A tyrant's race must be swept from the earth to the third and fourth generation. 

The Castle of Otranto quotes

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