The Castle of Otranto (1764) is Horace Walpole's short Gothic novel of a haunted, prophecy-bound castle, in which the illegitimate ruler Manfred's plans collapse under a series of escalating supernatural omens, including a giant helmet that falls from nowhere to kill his own son. Walpole first published it anonymously, presenting the book as his own translation of a found medieval Italian manuscript; when a second edition followed within a year to strong sales, he acknowledged authorship and added the subtitle A Gothic Story, naming the genre the novel is credited with founding. Its combination of medieval setting, supernatural terror and a family curse driving the plot established a pattern later Gothic novelists, including Ann Radcliffe and Mary Shelley, would develop.
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Original Language Composed, From (Year) FAQs
How did Horace Walpole come to write The Castle of Otranto, and was it really a translation?
It began as a dream of a giant armoured hand, and the claim of translation from an Italian canon was a pretense by Walpole.
Walpole said the story grew from a dream. He recalled that he had thought himself in an ancient castle, a natural dream for a head filled with Gothic story, and that on the uppermost banister of a great staircase he saw a gigantic hand in armour. That evening he sat down and began to write without knowing what he intended to relate. The tale then professed to be translated by William Marshal, gentleman, from the Italian of Onuphro Muralto, canon of the Church of St. Nicholas at Otranto. That translator and his Italian original were a pretense, because the book is Walpole's own invention.
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Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
In Genre
The genre's founding work.
Source The Norton Anthology of World Literature
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Also in Language Atlas: the original language of this subject.
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Source The Castle of Otranto (Wikipedia)tier 2
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1. The Castle of Otranto (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Lead
First published in 1764, it is generally regarded as the first Gothic novel.
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The Castle of Otranto is a novel by Horace Walpole.
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The Castle of Otranto is a novel by Horace Walpole. First published in 1764, it is 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. Set in a haunted castle, the novel merged medievalism and terror in a style that has endured ever since.
View the Source 2. Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Norton Anthology of World Literature
W. W. Norton & Company
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