The Castle of Otranto

By Horace Walpole

Subjects: Church work with prostitutes, Gothic revival (Literature), Gothic fiction (literary genre), Women, Gothic literature, English Horror tales, Lay missionaries, Fiction, gothic, Fiction, historical, general, Fantasy fiction, Italy, fiction, Fiction, mystery & detective, general, Vampires, Inheritance and succession, open_syllabus_project, Fiction, Spanish language, British and irish fiction (fictional works by one author), Castles, Conduct of life, English literature, Translations into Russian, Castle of Otranto (Walpole, Horace), Fiction, horror

Description: This book is the earliest and most influential of the Gothic novels. First published pseudonymously in 1764, The Castle of Otranto purported to be a translation of an Italian story of the time of the crusades. In it Walpole attempted, as he declared in the Preface to the second edition, "to blend the two kinds of romance: the ancient and the modern." He gives us a series of catastrophes, ghostly interventions, revelations of identity, and exciting contests. Crammed with invention, entertainment, terror, and pathos, the novel was an immediate success and Walpole's own favorite among his numerous works. - Back cover.