SOURCE: "Gothic, Gothicism, and Gothicists," in The Adversary Literature: The English Novel in the Eighteenth Century—A Study in Genre, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1974.

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 and still should be. Walpole, in his way, was a genius of the large and the outlandish, and we can say that with him a subgenre came into being. Although we must be careful not to make him the sole founder of Gothic,³ we can agree with Varma that Walpole brought together the various elements that we now identify as typical: "the Gothic machinery, the atmosphere of gloom and terror, and stock romantic characters." (The Gothic Flame, p. 57)

Even more, Walpole had the supremely romantic tum of mind which...