Horace Walpole

The Castle of Otranto Horace Walpole

The Castle of Otranto is a 1764 novel by English writer Horace Walpole. It is generally regarded as the first gothic novel. The novel merged medievalism and terror in a style that has endured ever since. The aesthetics of the book shaped modern-day gothic books, films, art, music and the gothic subculture. The novel initiated a literary genre which would become extremely popular in the later 18th and early 19th century. The Castle of Otranto tells the story of Manfred, lord of the castle, and his family. The book begins on the wedding-day of his sickly son Conrad and princess Isabella. Shortly before the wedding, however, Conrad is crushed to death by a gigantic helmet that falls on him from above. This inexplicable event is particularly ominous in light of an ancient prophecy, "that the castle and lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it". From that moment on, many strange things will happen in the castle.