Summary:
Analysis of the preface to Horace Walpoles' Castle of Otranto.
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 and the modern" in one step altogether, the Castle of Otranto. A novel he claimed to have written immediately after being inspired by a dream, "I waked one morning...from a dream, of which all I could recover was, that I had thought myself in an ancient castle...I saw a gigantic hand in armour. In the evening I sat down and began to write" (Letter, 9th march 1765). On the other hand many would more quickly agree that the writing of this novel was a mere 'specialized development of his taste as a virtuoso and collector' (Holt et al. 230). All the same.....
This is a free excerpt of 135 words. There are 2,380 words (approx.
8 pages at 300 words per page) in the full essay.
Read the rest of this Essay with our Castle of Otranto Preface Analysis Access Pass.
