The story of what happened after Conrad, the son of Manfred, the prince of Otranto, mysteriously died beneath his armor is the subject of "The Castle of Otranto". With its Gothic atmosphere and mysterious narrative, it is one of the important works of English literature. Horace Walpole's work, which influenced famous writers such as Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, and Robert Louis Stevenson and led to a new literary genre, shows the traces of Shakespeare's "Hamlet". The story's引人注目的 aspect is the supernatural events that occur as Manfred, who abandons his wife after Conrad's death and wants to marry his son's wife Isabella, gradually begins to turn into a monster. Despite Manfred's desire to divorce his wife for Isabella, he clashes with the Catholic priest Jerome for religious reasons, mirroring Henry VIII. With the involvement of ghosts, Walpole presents a revenge story similar to "Hamlet" to the reader. In the book, where Isabella escapes from the castle and the spirit of her son descends on the castle like a curse, the coincidence that the prisoner who is similar to Conrad, Manfred's son captured in the dungeon, turns out to be the son of the Catholic priest Jerome surprises the reader even more. In the story where Manfred threatens everyone around him with death, the tragic details such as the unfortunate death of Isabella's father who comes to Otranto to save his daughter increase the sense of tragedy. Walpole's finale, like Shakespeare's problematic tragedies, is happy but flawed.

I think "The Castle of Otranto", which is quite fluent and mysterious, should be read by everyone, and it is a true testament to why Walpole is so valuable.

London, United Kingdom
29.11.2019

Alp Turgut

An easy to read, rather odd and quirky early gothic novella awaits. It features a giant helmet, a giant foot, and ghosts galore. So many strange and exciting things happen within its pages. Prince Manfred's ancestors had fraudulently obtained Otranto Castle. On the very day of Conrad, Manfred's son, was to marry Isabella, a giant helmet falls on Conrad and kills him. Manfred, desperate to beget a son, decides that he will marry Isabella himself. But first, he must divorce his wife. Isabella, however, has no desire to marry Manfred and manages to escape from Otranto Castle. This novella, first published in 1764, is truly an entertaining read that will transport you to a world of mystery and the supernatural.

The daddy of gothic fiction, who is highly influential to the horror genre as a whole, introducing the classic themes of love, death, suspense & supernatural beings, unfortunately, does not stand the test of time.

The beginning holds great promise, presenting an atmospheric tale filled with mysterious deaths, supernatural occurrences, and characters who are corrupted by their insatiable need for complete power, sorrow, and death. However, as we continue reading, the story seems to lose its way in the midst of all the romance. Suddenly, there emerges a love triangle, a damsel in distress, a prince in disguise, and matters of the heart take center stage.

While I can indeed appreciate Walpole's genius in creating this new literary genre, I am extremely glad to witness that the gothic/horror genre has since evolved into something entirely different. It has branched out and developed, incorporating new elements and ideas, and has continued to captivate audiences in new and exciting ways.

When researching the history of the Gothic story, I precisely reached the root, that is, exactly this book. From here begins the journey of this kind which later produced masterpieces and had a great impact on world literature. Of course, the truth is that this story is probably not particularly good, although it is definitely an essential read mainly for historical reasons.

However, we cannot simply dismiss it. It holds a significant place in the development of literature. It shows us the evolution of certain themes and styles over time. By studying this Gothic story, we can gain insights into the cultural and social context in which it was created. It may not be a literary gem in the traditional sense, but it has its own value and importance.

Moreover, it has inspired countless other works of literature. Many modern authors have drawn inspiration from the Gothic genre and have incorporated its elements into their own writing. So, even though this particular story may not be perfect, it has played a crucial role in shaping the literary landscape as we know it today.

I debated between two and three stars for this.

On one hand, it's not a fantastic story by any means. In fact, it's so dated and ridiculous in many places. The plot sometimes seems far-fetched and the characters a bit one-dimensional.

However, on the other hand, it has great importance to the genre. It helped bring about Gothic literature, which is a significant contribution. For this reason alone, I have to love it a bit.

Luckily, I did not swoon while reading this novel, although it was close. My husband had to bring me some smelling salts to revive and strengthen me, poor, feeble woman that I am. :) But in all seriousness, despite its flaws, this book has its charm and historical value. It's a reminder of the evolution of literature and the influence it can have on future generations.

Overall, I'm glad I read it, and while it may not be a five-star masterpiece, it's still a worthwhile addition to any literature lover's collection.

Good gracious, this book is truly wild. At certain points while reading, I was completely at a loss as to whether I should approach it like a tale of King Arthur or a Monty Python skit. It presents itself as a Gothic novel, yet there is an abundance of unintentional (or perhaps intentional?) humor, despite the presence of dark elements.

Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto holds great significance as it was labeled as the first Gothic novel, thus being the pioneer of its kind in a long line of this tradition. However, the funny thing is that at times, this book seems to be a parody or caricature of itself or the genre in general. This is due to the bizarrely “comical” elements and the over-the-top quality of how things are presented.

When one thinks about the Gothic tradition, this novel really has it all. From giant helmets crashing to the earth, portraits that move, gigantic knights who suddenly appear, apparitions with dire warnings, prophecies and curses, scheming princes, maidens in peril, noble and honorable peasants, and a healthy dose of melodrama, The Castle of Otranto covers all the bases.

The novel’s main storyline and premise revolve around Prince Manfred’s attempts to maintain his reign and avoid a curse as he endeavors to have his son Conrad marry the Marquis’ daughter, Isabella. However, things do not unfold as planned when a giant helmet comes hurtling down and kills Conrad right before the wedding. Manfred, having seen a vision and fearing the ancient prophecy, now decides to take matters into his own hands and marry Isabella himself. But Isabella flees and escapes to safer havens. From here, we are introduced to a plethora of characters and encounter various situations and conflicts that we must navigate through.

I felt that the plot was a bit disjointed and muddled, especially in the second half of the book. As mentioned earlier, there is a certain campiness to this story and plot that causes even the “scary” parts to lack the element of tension that one might expect to find in similar books. I read somewhere that the author’s inspiration for this book (along with his admiration of Shakespeare’s works) stemmed from a dream he had that contained the basic elements that构成 this story. This makes sense, considering how scatterbrained the story is and how the flow of the book feels.

In the end, I do appreciate the novel’s relevance and historical significance as a precursor to the Gothic tradition. However, one can easily find much higher-quality Gothic novels elsewhere. That being said, this was definitely a unique reading experience.

Despite its publication date which makes it the forerunner of novels of the genre, I find that this is a truly gothic masterpiece.

In fact, the gothic is not a style identifiable only with terror or horror but rather a melancholy and a sense of impending catastrophe that hangs over the head of the human race guilty of certain acts. For this reason, often and willingly, there are representatives of the ecclesiastical class.

These characteristics accompany the entire novel, from beginning to end.

At the center of the story is the greed of the sovereign of Otranto, Manfred, whose family is hit by a series of misfortunes due to his stubbornness in wanting to keep the power for himself even at the expense of the life and health of his own loved ones.

In doing so, he defies a prophecy that predicted that when he no longer had male children, he would have to renounce the throne.

The story is accompanied by various types of supernatural events, including the ghosts of princes and hermits.

Perhaps at a certain point it really becomes a bit too complicated in the various love intrigues and cupidity is pushed to the extreme, leaving almost no male protagonist immune.

However, these aspects did not overly disturb me.

The weakest aspect is the way it is written, although I believe the style is appropriate for the times in which it was written. Perhaps a bit too focused on the dialogues and not enough on the perspectives of the characters.

In addition, I find that the prince's is true madness, and described as such, a very innovative element for the era.

Certainly the conclusion is sad but undoubtedly just from a moral point of view, given that all the possibilities of redemption offered to the prince lead to nothing.

A villain so theatrically despicable you just know he's stroking his mustache every time he speaks. He is the kind of character who oozes malevolence from every pore. His actions are calculated and his words are laced with venom. You can almost see the devious plans churning in his mind as he stands there, with that self-satisfied smile on his face. He is the epitome of evil, the kind that makes your skin crawl and your blood run cold. Whether he is plotting to take over the world or simply causing chaos for his own amusement, one thing is for sure: this villain is not to be underestimated.

And if you want to see more of this despicable character in action, be sure to check out the Video review.

Credited as the first gothic novel, this is indeed a quite sensational melodrama that had a profound impact on the reading public in 1764. Thomas Gray's comment to Walpole, stating that it made "some of us cry a little, and all in general afraid to go to bed o’nights," vividly portrays the intense effect it had. Interestingly, there is a somewhat playful tone underlying the tragedy. If you have a penchant for the gothic genre, then this book is bound to appeal to you.

For a more in-depth exploration of the Gothic Times of Horace Walpole, check out the link at https://blog.longreads.com/2014/12/10....

"The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think." - Walpole

I recently read Northanger Abbey. While I did enjoy it, I felt that I was missing out on half of the jokes. Although I was vaguely aware that Gothic novels involved scary old castles, fair maidens, and old curses, I had never actually read one. So, I finally decided to read one. (After buying it, putting it on my to-be-read pile, and then forgetting about it until yesterday.)

As it turns out, The Castle of Otranto is actually the first novel that was published as a "Gothic Novel" in its second edition. And wow! It truly is one. Just half a page in, the only son and heir of Manfred, the highly unlikeable lord of the castle, has already died. (Only minutes before his wedding, after a piece of a statue that seemingly appeared out of nowhere fell on him.) Half a page later, Manfred has condemned an unsuspecting bystander to death just for remarking on the similarities between the piece and a statue in the castle. Then, he tries to persuade Isabelle, his son's not-quite-widow, to marry him. (She refuses, among other reasons, because Manfred's wife is still alive.) It continues at that rapid pace, and the 100 pages are filled with everything. There are mistaken identities, birth-marks that reveal a person's true heritage, curses, and enough murder, manipulation, and bloodshed to rival many contemporary thrillers.

As a result, it reads more like a parody that crams all kinds of Gothic tropes together rather than something that (at least to some extent) wanted to be taken seriously. However, it is definitely an enjoyable read. And because of its shortness and the fact that it was the first Gothic novel, it's not a bad place to start if you're also curious about Gothic fiction.

This review also appears on Witty Little Knitter.

The Castle of Otranto is considered the first Gothic tale, published in 1764. I read it out of curiosity to see what the beginning of Gothic terror would be like. I really enjoy novels of this genre, and this one was quite interesting with its drama full of twists.

The story follows Prince Manfredo, who has a son and a daughter. When his son dies on his wedding day with Princess Isabella, Manfredo decides to marry Isabella to maintain his power. He plans to divorce his selfless wife and marry someone who could be his daughter, while strange apparitions haunt the people in the castle.

It was a short tale where everything moved quickly, so there was no time to get lost or bored. We quickly learn that Manfredo only cares about his son and is obsessed with his legacy. He even considers his wife infertile for only giving him one son. He is a cruel and selfish man, a classic novel villain. However, he has moments of fragility or is affected by what is happening, but he consciously decides not to change his behavior.

I liked how proactive some of the protagonists were. Isabella, for example, didn't let her destiny take over but fought hard against it. It was an interesting contrast with Hippolita, who was the peak of a submissive woman, leaving her whole life in the hands of her husband and expecting her daughter to do the same. That's why I liked having characters like Matilda or Bianca, who to a greater or lesser extent were able to go against what they were told and seek their own destiny. Especially Bianca, who I feel was a very Shakespearean character, the classic shameless servant willing to say what she thought without fear of reprisals.

Another interesting character was Theodore, the simple and poor boy who was suddenly accused of killing Conrad and ended up being a very important character for the plot. He was the classic hero, the noble character who told the truth and was willing to help those in need. Also, the classic hero who fell in love immediately and was willing to do anything for his beloved. The ending he had seemed curious to me, a mix between cruel and surprisingly happy.

The book felt very Shakespearean in the sense that, despite being short, it had several characters who appeared out of nowhere and turned out to have a great connection with a protagonist. It also had several of those twists like "I am your father", "I am the true heir", and so on. At one point, instead of having that Gothic terror, it felt like a highly entertaining drama.

It also had a paranormal component related to a curse and the true heir of the castle. I liked the scenes related to it and the way the characters reacted to what was happening. I liked how it used the paranormal element to intertwine it with the plot of its characters, at first little by little, with details that the characters didn't give importance to, so that in the end it took a more prominent role.

Overall, The Castle of Otranto was a short novel full of action and entertaining drama to read, where the ambition of one man leads to a series of events that change the lives of all the people living there.

**"The Castle of Otranto: A Gateway to Gothic Literature"**

The Castle of Otranto (1764) is the story that inaugurates my favorite genre today, the Gothic. It has been over five years since I read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in November 2014, a work that shook the pillars of my existence. That was the Gothic narrative that led me to seek in other places the aspects I had loved of this classic. However, the journey to other shadowy lands would officially begin with H. P. Lovecraft, an author in whom the entire tradition of the Gothic novel is conjugated with the philosophy that shapes part of our present thinking.

Thanks to Lovecraft, I discovered the authors who were the pillars of the Gothic novel. It was not only a pleasant discovery but also during that approximation to the origin, I saw the centuries fold and reduce to mere chimeras when finding, hand in hand with my Master, souls very similar to mine. Thus, I discovered the beauty of the picturesque landscapes of Ann Radcliffe in The Romance of the Forest and The Italian, her virtuoso and valiant heroines, and the chiaroscuros of her villains; the orientalism and the elegant darkness of William Beckford; the macabre, cruel, and lucid narrative of Matthew Gregory Lewis, who will always be for me the most outstanding of the classic Gothic writers; the sensitivity, the purity, and the unfulfilled longings of Mary Godwin Shelley; the Faustian and Byronic Charles Robert Maturin...

However, it took several years for me to appreciate the contribution of the father of the Gothic novel. My first approach to The Castle of Otranto was made at some point during the first half of 2015, and I vividly remember the boredom that the first pages of this novel caused me. I was also offended that the tone was not the one I had found in the novels of Ann Radcliffe, whose solemn beauty had so fascinated and seduced me. The truth is that I gave up reading a single word more until a little over a year ago when I read the story of Horace Walpole included in the anthology Gothic Frenzy. There I rediscovered the author through a story that, although it had not contributed much to me personally, seemed worthy of consideration. For this reason, and also motivated by the atmosphere of these times, I decided to give The Castle of Otranto another chance.

Set in the times of the Crusades, between 1095 and 1243, Horace Walpole takes us to the Italian regions where the fictional principality of Otranto is located. The governor of those lands is a mature man named Manfred, and his consort is the affable and virtuous Hippolita. Both are the parents of two children, Matilda and Conrad. Manfred plans to marry his younger son to the princess Isabella, daughter of the Marquis of Vicenza, while his indifference to the fate of Matilda is increasingly evident. Manfred is a volatile, capricious, and conservative man who seeks at any price to perpetuate his lineage. But the catastrophe looms over the principality of Otranto when an accident ends the life of Conrad. Consumed by madness at seeing his desires frustrated, Manfred proposes to carry out the most perfidious of actions. But the secrets eventually come to light...

The Castle of Otranto has not only turned out to be a pleasant read but also seems to me to be a document of great value. As I commented above, what made me abandon the reading back in 2015 was that Horace Walpole did not take his story too seriously, and the tone of The Castle of Otranto was not that of the great novels of Radcliffe, nor was the complexity of the plot the same as that of the novels of the author. But in Maddalena, or the Fate of the Florentines, I could see that what I had taken for "not very serious" was rather the bitter laughter of the poet, a clear influence of the theatrical works of Shakespeare. Horace Walpole is an author who finds a certain fascination in the pathetic, and this is one of the points on which his narratives are based. Thus, when I read The Castle of Otranto, I discovered that, although here that effect is not as achieved as in the aforementioned story, it does manage to generate that atmosphere to a lesser extent at the end of the novel.

Besides that, the rhythm is good and without ups and downs, thanks to the action, the family conflicts, and their curious resolutions. The characters are not the great thing and remain in the clichés of the time, but their actions have a complex point that I could not avoid appreciating, especially in the case of Manfred.

Of course, we are fully entitled to think that now it may seem to us a facile or even Manichean novel, but the truth is that we cannot deny that in the time The Castle of Otranto had a great impact and was a gift from heaven for the avid readers of this type of stories. It is true that there is no color between The Monk of Matthew Lewis and The Castle of Otranto, but let us remember that the great masterpieces are made thanks to the fact that other authors have previously paved the way. All great authors owe their success to their influences, and nothing in literature falls from the sky by the grace of God.

Having said this, I urge you to read The Castle of Otranto not as a great work (perhaps that was my mistake the first time) but as a text that can serve us as a springboard to more complex and accomplished works of the genre. Here we can see the essential characteristics of a classic Gothic text in a much more accessible way than in other later works.