Horace Walpole

a gothic story

The Castle of Otranto

Abigail Mills

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. 

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. 

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. 

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

A bad husband is better than no husband at all. 

The next transition of his soul was to exquisite villainy. 

After the death of his only son on his wedding day, Manfred, the Prince of Otranto, determines to marry the bride-to-be, setting himself on a course of destruction.

A Gothic Story

Kendall McClain

The first gothic story written- a true trailblazer<3 very interesting and absurd plot. It was giving cheesy Shakespeare with all the tragedy and the sudden revelations that everyone is related lmao I liked it but some parts were too far fetched

Marie

The Castle of Ontranto

Joey Baker

Yo why do old people talk all gay and shit?

Fuckin wall of text: The Novel(la)

Despite being only 100+ pages, this shit was hard to get through. 

Dude's son was finna get some pussy (finally!), dies on his pussy-gettin day, and his dad is like "smdh. Now I got no son, and my bitch too old". So rather than letting good pussy go to waste, he decides he finna cash his old bitch in for a new one. So he tries to rape, and she's like "ong you cappin rn!" and runs away. 
Yada Yada Yada, the girls dad shows up, and the Dude (prince) was like "yo, sorry about your daughter. But I see you eyeballin my hot ass 14 yo daughter. How about you can have my daughters pussy if I can have yours?"
DEAL!! exclaims the father. 
And uh, the prince stabs his own daughter? Then, fucking, the ghost finally shows up, and he a big ghost. And he's like yo, yung Theodore (central character I never mentioned) over there is my blood, cuz" then flies away to heaven and St. Nicholas is in the sky. 
Then it all comes full circle when Ted, who really wanted pussy off the prince's daughter and is sad now he won't get the chance to hit, decides that, yeah, maybe he could get some pussy off Isabella after a good month mourning period.

Millie

the father of gothic literature is also tagged on here as horror, but the real dread came from not knowing if the next page would be more mind-numbing than the last.

Melody Izard

Supposed to be the first Gothic novel. I think perhaps I just discovered I most positively am not a fan of the Gothic novel. 
There is a giant of some sort and a mean king and a charming good princes and an attempt at murdering a queen so that the mean king can marry the young princess who was supposed to marry his son - who he thinks is dead but really is not. And it was just confusing and tedious to me.

Laurie Abrial

Honestly this is quite a ridiculous story😂 not well put together, with annoying characters with unrealistic backgrounds! Fortunately it was a quick read

Neveen Badr

** spoiler alert **
           Laughter 
Passion 
Weeping
Melancholy 
Knighthood

Church
A grave 
Ghost
A young woman is distressed 
Death of almost everyone 

This novel is perfect!

Anna V

It was extremely sexist, but it is kind of OLD, so. Also, everyone is extremely forgiving.

Alexia Cambaling

Erin 

I once took a goth class in my first year of uni where the entire class was dedicated to gothic subculture and it was great. We watched Psycho, I wrote my final paper on Harry Potter, and we read this book. I had never read anything like it before, but I found it oddly intriguing. Would probably read again outside of a class context to see if I feel any differently.

a gothic story / Horace Walpole ; edited by W.S. Lewis with a new introduction and notes by E.J. Clery.

The castle of Otranto

Sarah Sammis

ellie 💐💌⭐️

Arianna M

Francesca

In "The Castle of Otranto," Manfred is a usurper who wants to consolidate his reign over Otranto by marrying his weak son off to Isabella, heir to a more legitimate prince. But there is an old prophecy which warns against such moves, and on the day of the wedding a gigantic iron helmet falls over Manfred's son's head. This monstrous mishap is only the beginning of this funnily creepy tale. But the plot, though wild and entertaining, is the least important thing about this 1764's novel. The really attractive, entertaining and literarily important thing is the creation of stereotypes: the foul weather; an ancient, dark castle full of closed halls, secret passages, corridors and doors; frightening apparitions; wicked tyrants desperate for fertile women; virtuous and pure ladies; heroic lads; dark and cold forests where ghosts appear, etc. Horace Walpole, who seems to have been an interesting man, must have had enormous fun writing this tone-setting book, which has had plenty of children in literature. Though imperfect in literary terms, "The Castle of Otranto" is well worth reading if for no other reason than to discover where many of the commonplaces in Gothic literature come from. The characters in "The Castle of Otranto" are more like "types" than living human beings. That said, the book is a breezy example of an early novel, before the Victorians got hold of the form and made the books longer and more "respectable." Author Horace Walpole was the son of the prominent 18th century politician Robert Walpole, who is satirized in John Gay's "The Beggar's Opera" and in a number of works written by Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope. Perhaps fortunately, Robert Walpole passed away before Horace wrote this book!

The Castle of Otranto a gothic story

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