The Castle of Otranto
Horace Walpole 1764
This novel follows a castle ruler whose plans for his family unravel amid strange events. A giant helmet falls from the sky and crushes his son on the morning of his wedding.
137 pages 2h 39m reading time
- Widely seen as the first Gothic novel, the book that started a whole kind of fiction.
- Mixes old-style romance, full of wonders and ghosts, with the more realistic novel of everyday people, a blend Walpole himself said he was trying to create.
- Imagines a family haunted by an old crime, where a stolen inheritance comes back to punish the people who hold it.
- Set the pattern for later Gothic stories with its gloomy castle, secret passages, frightened young heroine, and cruel ruler hiding a dark past.
- Inspired writers such as Clara Reeve and Ann Radcliffe, whose novels helped lead to later works like "Frankenstein" and "Dracula" and to modern horror.
Born from a dream
Walpole said the story began with a dream of a giant armored hand on the staircase of an old castle.
Disguised as a translation
The first edition pretended to be an English translation of an old Italian tale found in a family's library.
Critics changed their minds
When Walpole admitted he wrote it, some reviewers who had praised the "ancient" tale turned against it.
Written in two months
Walpole wrote the novel quickly, in about two months, often working late into the night.