Horace Walpole's literary productions reflect an extraordinary range of talents and interests: author of the first and most influential Gothic novel in English and of the first example of Gothic drama...
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Horace Walpole was a significant figure in literary history, but his reputation would stand even higher if he had excelled in what today are regarded as the "major" genres. He wrote a pioneering book ...
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Horace Walpole is known to literary scholars as the founder of a significant literary genre, the gothic novel, which he initiated with the publication of The Castle of Otranto, A Story. Translated by ...
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In this preface, written in 1765, alpole explains his intentions in writing the book: "to blend the two kinds of romance, the ancient and the modern."
The favourable manner in which t...
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In the following excerpt from The Gothic Flame (1957), Varma conjectures about the impetuses to Walpole's composing The Castle of Otranto and discusses its strong and lasting influence on the G...
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In this essay, Karl discusses elements of different genres found in The Castle of Otranto.
So much of The Castle of Otranto seems nonsensical today that it is hard to believe it was taken seriously...
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In the following essay, Ehlers analyzes the theatrical elements of The Castle of Otranto.
Perhaps no eighteenth-century writer has elicited more conflicting responses than has Horace Walpole. Known...
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In the following excerpt, Phelps considers the historical importance of The Castle of Otranto.
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The events which the story narrates are supposed to have occurred sometime in ...
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In the essay that follows, Frank explores the iconography of The Castle of Otranto as a fully developed Gothic inversion of positive value systems.
The amazing preeminence of the Gothic novel from ...
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In this essay, Watt contends that the elements of the "imaginative matrices" of The Castle of Otranto that particularly structure the Gothic tradition are Walpole's treatment of t...
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In the following essay, Dole suggests that Walpole borrowed a number of Shakespearean characters, themes, and motifs in writing The Castle of Otranto in response to current political events.
Horace...
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In the following excerpt from his Memoirs, Grimm expresses a favorable opinion of The Castle of Otranto.
I alluded, on a former occasion, to a romance, in the old Gothic style, written by Mr. Horac...
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In the following introduction to the 1811 edition of The Castle of Otranto, Scott cites Walpole's originality in initiating Gothic literature.
The Castle of Otranto is remarkable not only fo...
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In the following excerpt from The History of Fiction (1814, 1816), Dunlop declares The Castle of Otranto to be true to its Gothicism but a failure at meeting Walpole's intentions.
The produc...
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In this excerpt, Birkhead enumerates the qualities of The Castle of Otranto that appealed to the popular taste of Walpole's contemporaries and briefly describes its legacy for later romances.
...
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In this essay, Holzknecht reevaluates Walpole's importance to the historical development of drama by examining the romantic elements of The Castle of Otranto alongside the unacted drama The Mys...
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In this excerpt, Summers describes the importance of Walpole's extravagant residence, Strawberry Hill, to understanding The Castle of Otranto and briefly surveys the critical reaction to the no...
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Horace Walpole (1717-1797) invented the Gothic novel in his attempt to blend wildness and imagination of the old romance, in his own words "an attempt to blend the two kinds of romance, the ancient a...
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The Castle of Otranto
Horace Walpole
Critical Essay by Horace Walpole
Castle of Otranto Preface Analysis
