Horace Walpole

The Castle of Otranto (Annotated) Horace Walpole

Differentiated book- It has a historical context with research of the time-The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, is a book first published in 1764 and generally regarded as the first Gothic novel. In the second edition, Walpole applied the word 'Gothic' to the novel in the subtitle: "A Gothic Story". The novel fused medievalism and terror into a style that has endured ever since. The aesthetics of the book have shaped modern Gothic books, movies, art, music, and the Gothic subculture. The novel started a literary genre that would become extremely popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, with authors such as Clara Reeve, Ann Radcliffe, William Thomas Beckford, Matthew Lewis, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson and George du Maurier. Otranto Castle was written in 1764 during Horace Walpole's tenure as MP for King's Lynn. Walpole was fascinated with medieval history, building in 1749 a false gothic castle, Strawberry Hill House. The initial edition was titled in its entirety: The Castle of Otranto, A History. Translated by William Marshal, Gent. From the Italian original by Onuphrio Muralto, canon of the Church of San Nicolás in Otranto. This first edition was intended to be a translation based on a manuscript printed in Naples in 1529