The Castle of Otranto (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading): A Gothic Story

By Horace Walpole and Annie Pecastaings

With its fantastic apparitions, its ominous prophecies, and its complicated underground passages, The Castle of Otranto heralded a new genre, the Gothic novel, still present in our literary landscape today. Walpole's novel accomplished what no other novel had attempted before: to make readers enjoy what they shuddered to read, in other words to find beauty amidst literary materials ostensibly laced with ugliness and horror.

Yet, far from being the fruit of deliberate planning, The Castle of Otranto was born of a dream that came to haunt Walpole's sleep one night in June 1764. The next day, all that Walpole could recall of the dream was that "I had thought myself in an ancient castle. . .and that on the uppermost banister of a great staircase I saw a gigantic hand in armour." Later that evening, Walpole "sat down, and began to write, without knowing in the least what I intended to say or relate." A classic was born.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Release date: Sep 1, 2009
• ISBN: 9781411430198

Horace Walpole

Horace Walpole (1717-1797) was an English writer, art historian, Whig politician, and a man of letters, a group of intellectuals dedicated to solving society’s problems. As the youngest son of a prime minister, Walpole was born into a noble family and became an Earl in 1791. Long before that, Walpole was an elected member of parliament, where he represented the Whig party for thirteen years. Because Walpole’s house, called Strawberry Hill, had its own printing press, he was able to enjoy a prolific writing career, publishing many works of fiction and nonfiction. Walpole has been credited for creating the gothic literary genre with his novel The Castle of Otranto.