The cover page is adapted from Gothic Windows in the Ruins of the Monastery at Oybin, a painting completed circa 1828 by Carl Gustav Carus. The cover and title pages feature the League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by The League of Moveable Type. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Gustav_Caruswww.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/
The Castle of Otranto
Chapters (9)
- Sonnet to the Right Honourable Lady Mary Coke 0:00
- Introduction 0:50
- Epigraph 5:45
- Preface to the First Edition 5:55
- I 13:19
- II 1:05:29
- III 1:56:30
- IV 2:45:36
- V 3:31:37
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The Castle of Otranto is considered to be the first “Gothic” novel—that is, containing a combination of tropes, like hidden passages, haunted paintings, mysterious sounds, skeletal ghosts, ancestral curses, and unexplained deaths, that essentially invented the genre later made famous by authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, or Henry James. Walpole made a point of creating a novel that blends supernatural elements with more realistic depictions of characters and events.
The plot centers around Manfred, the lord of Otranto Castle, who has just witnessed the death of his son under mysterious circumstances, just as his son was about to be married. Manfred is thrust into a galloping and melodramatic series of events that lean heavily on the supernatural.
Walpole initially published The Castle of Otranto under a pseudonym, claiming that his work was a translation of an ancient Italian manuscript. This framing, along with the purposely archaic writing style, gives the supernatural airs of the novel a decidedly authentic flavor. In later editions Walpole acknowledges his authorship.
Otranto remains a fast-paced and familiar read, thanks to the variety of recognizable tropes it introduced and made popular.