The Castle of Otranto

The Castle of Otranto
	Title page from the third edition
Author	Horace Walpole
Language	English
Genre	Gothic, horror novel
Publication date	1764
Publication place	England

The Castle of Otranto is a novel by Horace Walpole. First published in 1764, it is generally regarded as the first gothic novel. In the second edition, Walpole applied the word 'Gothic' to the novel in the subtitle – A Gothic Story. Set in a haunted castle, the novel merged medievalism and terror in a style that has endured ever since. The aesthetic of the book has shaped modern-day gothic books, films, art, music, and the goth subculture.^[1]

Walpole was inspired to write the story after a nightmare he had at his Gothic Revival home, Strawberry Hill House, in Twickenham, southwest London. Claiming he saw a ghost in the nightmare—which featured a "gigantic hand in armour"—Walpole incorporated imagery from this into the novel, and also drew on his knowledge of medieval history.^[2]

The novel initiated a literary genre that would become extremely popular in the later 18th and early 19th century, with authors such as Clara Reeve, Ann Radcliffe, William Thomas Beckford, Matthew Lewis, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson and George du Maurier.^[3]

^ Cite error: The named reference Allison was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference Nightmare was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ "Paul Murray's top 10 gothic novels". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 July 2017

[Allison-1] Cite error: The named reference Allison was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Nightmare-2] Cite error: The named reference Nightmare was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[3] "Paul Murray's top 10 gothic novels". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 July 2017

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