The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story (Oxford World's Classics)

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole was written in the 18th Century and heralds the Gothic style of literature favoured by writers of this period. As the renaissance is a revival of the Middle Ages art and architecture for France and Europe, Medieval literature is the revival of the dark ages with its mysterious void of historic records and influence by religion and the Celtic pagan beliefs of this era.The story begins with the `Preface to the First Edition' referring to a document found in the library of a Catholic family, printed at Naples in 1529. This sets the location and period of the story being Italy and the end of the Middle Ages between 1095 and 1243 related to the era of the first Crusades. The narrator is attempting to qualify the existence of the characters and provide a background for the reader. The narrator summaries the authors authenticity of the story by stating that the story cannot be founded on truth but that the story as a saga is a moving epitome of a historic record.The introduction of the characters follows the prelude: Manfred the Prince of Otranto, his wife Hippolita, his beautiful virgin daughter Matilda and his sickly and homely son Conrad who is contracted to marry the Marquis of Vicenza's daughter Isabella. There is some tension from the urgency to have this marriage fulfilled on Conrad's birthday and before it can occur, Conrad is killed by a giant Helmet that falls from the sky. It is the same helmet that belongs to the black marble figure of Alfonso the Good , who was the last known surviving heir to the Castle.This strange event is the beginning of the very extraordinary plot which involves a young man Theodore who is arrested for the murder of Conrad. The plot reveals that Manfred has arranged the union of his son to the daughter of Marquis of Vincenzo as a political move to secure the rightful ownership of the castle. The castles original owner Alfonso, died and bequeathed the ownership of the castle to Manfred's great grandfather who was his personal servant at the time. Prince Manfred announces to Isabella that he will marry her in place of his son and Isabella flees to escape the Prince's madness.As Isabella retreats, Manfred observes that the portrait of his Grand Father has come to life, and leads Manfred away giving Isabella time to evade Manfred's pursuit. She finds in the depths of the castle a passage and chamber that houses the young man arrested previously. He helps her escape through a secret trap door and remains behind to protect her retreat from the approaching Prince. The young man's bravado and chivalry is above his station as a poor country peasant which appears to be his downfall when he is imprisoned in the tower for his trouble and Manfred sentences him to death immediately.Father Jerome, the friar from St Nicholas's church, is approached by the Prince to arrange the divorce of his wife to allow the sanction of his marriage to Isabella. The friar rejects the Princes demands yet Hippolita his wife, sides with the Prince displaying her loyalty to him. The friar leaves before he is committed to a decision to allow him to investigate Isabella's needs. The peasant boy reveals his name is Theodore and the friar discovers this is his forgotten son and that he is indeed noble of blood as the Friar was the Count of Falconara and begs for his son's life. There are more twists in this story than a snake in a bucket.At this time a band of knights arrive at the castle to meet with the prince to challenge him for the release of Isabella on behalf of the Marquis of Vicenza. The Marquis' quest comes from a vision to save his daughter and is guided to the castle by a hermit who gives him a giant sword to carry to the castle.Isabella who had been hiding from Manfred in the sanctuary of the church again flees to the forest and is pursued by the Prince and his army. The knights also follow with the aim to discover Isabella's hiding place before the Prince. Meanwhile, Matilda hears of the Theodore's plight and sets out to rescue him. Theodore falls in love with Matilda at first sight and is reluctant to leave her, only for the sake of finding Isabella that he agrees to leave in a suit of armour and sword.Theodore finds Isabella in a cave on the escarpment but he is confronted by a knight who challenges Theodore to fight. The knight is nearly fatally injured and announces to Isabella that he is indeed her father, the Marquis of Vincenzo. Isabella accuses Theodore of murder and again he finds himself defending his actions.On their return to the castle Manfred sees Theodore in his armour and believes he is the spectre of Alfonso standing before him. Theodore's story is told and his linage is revealed to the Marquis yet his freedom still remains within the hands of Manfred. Meanwhile Manfred continues to pursue his marriage to Isabella whilst matching the Marquis with his daughter Matilda as a concession. This is derailed when the spectre appears again causing the Marquis to withdraw himself and his daughter from their arrangement This angers Manfred to a madden rant. Seeking the tyrant boy he suspects to be accompanying Isabella in the chapel, drives a knife into the chest of the person he believed to be Isabella only to find it was Matilda he slay.The final scene sees the spectre return to announce Theodore the true heir of Alfonso and true prince of Otranto.Horace Walpole has created a classical medieval tale with The Castle of Otranto, with its setting in an Italian castle of the Middle Ages. A cold and darkened place that contains magical and mysterious episodes with portraits that come to life, visiting spirits, a mysterious hermit living in a cave, the absurd appearances of giant helmets, feet and hands that appear suddenly from nowhere. These are the hallmarks of Gothic writings typical of the 18th century.The style of Walpole's story is a lot of fun; a light hearted novel that has themes of courtly love, death and chivalry carries the essence of Gothic literature through to the 20th century. The extreme nature of Walpole's writing is delivered through giant helmets falling from the sky to the extreme good and bad nature of the characters. The plot is continually twisted by death and coincidences such as the arrival of Theodore and his relationship with the castles. Walpole's novel is extremely influential to many Gothic writers. For those writers that had read this book, we can find common traits that can be found in many of their novels. Gothic stories, even though serious in nature, follow the same themes and ideas as found here. The Castle of Otranto is entirely characteristic of 18th century literature and this is why it still remains a popular novel today.[...]

Prince Manfred was the lord of the Castle of Otranto. His wife was Hippolita, his son was Conrad, and his daughter was Matilda. In order to achieve a political alliance, Conrad was to marry Princess Isabella, the daughter of the marquis of Vicenza. Unfortunately, an extraordinarily large helmet fell upon Conrad, killing him. This object was an extreme enlargement of the helmet on a statue of Prince Alfonso the Good, an earlier ruler of Otranto, that was in the church of St. Nicholas, adjacent to the castle. Coincidentally, the actual helmet from the statue was discovered to be missing. After briefly grieving the loss of his son, Manfred decided that Conrad was a sickly, puny child and unworthy of the beauty of Isabella. Hippolita had given Manfred only the one son. So, Manfred decided that he would marry Isabella and that she would give him many sons. This was unacceptable to Isabella. She attempted to escape from the castle to take refuge in the adjacent church. Manfred chased her. Thus begins the novel The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. As the story progresses, more characters are introduced, and, as they say, the plot thickens.In some places, The Castle of Otranto is described as “the earliest and the most influential of the Gothic novels.” It has “a series of catastrophes, ghostly interventions, revelations of identity, and exciting contests.” There are coincidences, misunderstandings, mistaken identities, and plot twists in the story. In a way, this book made me think of a Charles Dickens novel, Great Expectations, one of my favorite books of all time. Of course, the two books were written in different centuries, have different settings, and are written in different styles. However, the aforementioned revelations of identity, coincidences, and other features are in both books.Reading The Castle of Otranto has its challenges. The style of writing is different from the style of writing in modern novels. Also, the dialog is not placed in quotations marks and placed on separate lines. Still, the book indicates who is saying what, with a few moments of confusion if you try to read too fast. If you read deliberately, if not slowly, you can follow the story clearly. After awhile, you don’t notice the unusual sentences. You hear everything in your head, as it is stated by the characters or the narrator, with complete understanding. I had to look up some words like orison and casque, but that didn’t happen often.In chapter 1, Manfred insults people with the word “blockhead.” This is how Lucy insults Charlie Brown in the Peanuts comic strip. In the Oxford University Press World’s Classics edition, it says that it is from the text of 1798, the last that Walpole himself prepared for publication. It also states that this edition has been edited. However, I doubt that blockhead was inserted in place of some other word by the editor. Apparently, the word “blockhead” has a long history.I didn’t read the Introduction before reading the novel. I was concerned that it would contain “spoilers.” And, with all the twists and turns of the story, you won’t enjoy reading it as much if you were told about them in advance. I will read the Introduction next. I did read the preface to the first edition and the preface to the second edition before reading the novel itself. I found it interesting that the first preface presents the book as a translation of an Italian book, and that the second preface notes that the claim of the book being a translation is false and apologizes for the deception. Although, I did find it relatively easy to read the novel’s style of writing, I did find it more difficult to read the prefaces. I will reread them now.The Castle of Otranto is an important book in literature and an enjoyable book to read. I recommend it.

Title: The Castle of OtrantoAuthor: Horace WalpoleNarrated by: Thomas CopelandPublisher: FILROUGEVICEVERSALength: Approximately 3 hours and 50 minutesSource: Purchased from Amazon.comThe Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole was a May selection for the JASNA Northwoods Book Club. The Castle of Otranto is considered to be the first Gothic romance novel. This is the type of novel that Jane Austen mocks in Northanger Abbey.The Castle of Otranto is set up like it was a found manuscript from a medieval Italian castle. Conrad, the heir to the house of Otranto, is mysteriously killed on the day of his wedding to the beautiful Isabella. After his death, his father, Manfred, makes a series of bad decisions as he tries to continue his dynasty. Will Manfred be stopped?I found this novel to be very entertaining and over the top. Unfortunately the audiobook itself was one of the worst audiobooks I have listened to. The audio quality was poor, very “tinny,” and it hurt my ears at times. There was a weird effect where some of the dialogue seemed to be said in an echoey room. I wasn’t sure why, there was no rhyme or reason to it. The narrator was monotone. This fun novel deserves a better audiobook.Reading this book did make me realize that this genre was rip for satire and I can see it in Northanger Abbey. It made me wish again that someone would make another movie version of Northanger Abbey that would focus more on the satire in the novel. We had a good discussion about this book in book club. It has made me want to read more early gothic novels.

Great Gothic novel, quick read, good edition of the book

Since there are novels so absolutely great as THE MONK, THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO or THE ITALIAN, there is no way I can put five stars in THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO. However, this novel is delightful and it is really worth reading, because it is the FIRST novel which was considered to be GOTHIC. You find in it all, absolutely all the conventions of the genre, which were then spread to all other Gothic novels. In my opinion, it is a book that every lover of Gothic literature should read and have in their library.

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Buon rapporto qualità /prezzo

The language that this is written in is like an extremely poor google translation from a foreign language! It is appalling and often incomprehensible.