The Castle of Otranto

by Ann Radcliffe, Jane Austen, Horace Walpole

Book Overview

On the day of his wedding, Conrad, heir to the house of Otranto, is killed in mysterious circumstances. Fearing the end of his dynasty, his father, Manfred, determines to marry Conrad's betrothed,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0030119502
• ISBN13: 9780030119507
• Release Date: January 1963
• Publisher: Harcourt Brace College Publishers
• Length: 543 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Setting the Tone

"The Castle of Otranto" by Horace Walpole, is regarded as the first novel of the gothic genre. Indeed its short and simple story is filled with the supernatural, and what must nowadays count as caricatures for characters. The charm of the story lies within its historical relevance and what it brought to future stories within that genre, not in the story itself. Immediately the reader is introduced to the tyrannical prince of Otranto, Manfred, as he is about to marry his sickly son to the princess Isabella in a quest to secure his claim to the throne he may not be entitled to. When Manfred's son Conrad is struck dead, with no witnesses to his ghastly death, Manfred is at a total loss. He strikes upon the idea of marrying the young princess Isabella for himself; when he proposes the notion to Isabella, she is frightened and repulsed and runs away, seeking sanctuary within the castle's monastery. Then ensues Manfred's stalking of Isabella while trying to get out of his marriage to his extremely pious wife Hippolita, while all about the castle the servants and ruling family keep having dreadful visions. In the end these supernatural visions serve to bring justice to the rightful heir, a young man who unwittingly helps Isabella escape from Manfred's clutches only to fall in love with Manfred's daughter, Matilda. The theme is that of the sins of the father being visited upon the children (even generations later) and is not a new theme in modern literature, but an interesting choice and one that works with the supernatural means Walpole employs to bring it about. While "The Castle of Otranto" is a watershed in the gothic genre, it is by far not the best or most notable work of that period; yet without the blueprint laid meticulously out by Walpole, such greater stories may never have been written.

Leading the Way

Everything that can be said is almost certainly expressed in the comprehensive introduction to this fine edition.I will attempt to review it anyhow as I enjoyed this literary, pioneering work immensely and hopefully my pale (in comparision to Walpole's and his peers) words might incite others to enjoy the first(claimed to be by many anyhow) gothic book written.I am going to provide a brief synopsis although one has been provided in hopes of conveying how big and active the plot is of this novel. Manfred, Prince of Otronto prepares for his son' wedding day, but suddenly his son is crushed by a giant helmet. Not confident his wife would provide him with another male heir to carry on his line Manfred decides he wishes to marry his passed son's fiancee, Isabella. Fearing a marriage to tyrannical Manfred Isabella flees with help of the peasant Theodore, and finds sanctuary with the monk Jerome.As Manfred tries to convince Jerome to bless his marriage to Isabella(and grant divorce from his wife)emmisaries from Isabella's family arrive at the castle. There is question of the legimitacy to Manfred's claim to the princedom of Otronto it seems and the rightful heir is Isabella's father one of the reasons Manfred is so keen on a marital union between the families. This all happens in the first fifty or sixty pages, and even as summed up I failed to really express how much takes place in this little book. Let's just say this is a dense plot, so much happening in so little time.I tried to finish this book in time to post my review ofr it on Halloween, but The Castle of Otronto is not a book that can be called a fast read, nor is it a book you wish to skim pages on.Walpole successfully blended romance and supernatural suspense leading the way in a genre of fiction that is still emulated and popular to this day.The Castle of Otronto is a great Gothic novel and it is also a great novel period.

Best edition available

Finally someone has provided us with a readable, absorbing, and correct edition of this novel. I've always found this a difficult work, but the introduction and notes are wonderful, reading the book as camp and as opera. The hundreds of errors in the Oxford University Press edition are finally corrected here, and the appendix (providing 75 years of responses to Walpole's romance) makes for hilarious reading. Without question the best available teaching text.

I found this book very good and a bit scary.

Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole I found that this book, was a very good book. It was so good that I felt that I was in the book. Throughout most of the book I was feeling cold shivers dancing up and down my spine, especially when Manfred chased Princess Isabella. The one part that I didn't like was when the son of the friar was wrongly accused of killing Conrad, and then threatened with execution. I also didn't like it when Matilda died.