The Castle of Otranto

About the book

An extraordinary disaster interrupts preparations for a marriage at Otranto, throwing the ruling family's plans into disorder. Manfred's determination to preserve his position sets further events in motion, drawing younger people into conflicts between dynastic ambition and their own safety or attachments. Walpole fills the castle with passages, discoveries, looming objects, and supernatural disturbances that make inheritance a physical source of unease. The narrative moves with the abruptness of a dream, allowing public authority and private fear to occupy the same charged spaces. Its pleasures are those of heightened invention rather than psychological understatement. Beneath the spectacular incidents lies a persistent question about legitimate possession: what happens when a family's claim to rule is less secure than the building through which it exercises power?

• Inheritance
• Power
• The supernatural past

Why read it

For the bold, theatrical invention of a Gothic castle story in which architecture and ancestry become active threats.

English text