Reading Order
The Castle of Otranto Reading Order
The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole is the founding text of the Gothic novel — the short, extravagant, and deliberately anachronistic romance that established all the conventions of the genre: the ancient castle with secret passages and subterranean vaults, the ancestral curse, the tyrannical villain, the endangered maiden, the supernatural appearances (a giant helmet that falls from the sky, a portrait that walks from its frame, a ghost), and the discovery of the rightful heir. Walpole first published the novel under the pretense that it was a medieval Italian manuscript discovered in a Catholic library and translated from the original Italian — a hoax that only he had to maintain for about six months before publishing a second edition under his own name. The novel is organized around Manfred, the usurping Prince of Otranto, who has built his power on a foundation he knows to be unjust (he is the grandson of the original usurper who poisoned the rightful prince), and who is destroyed by the supernatural manifestations of the wrong he represents. The Castle of Otranto is short, melodramatic, and deliberately literary (Walpole takes it less seriously than he might), but it established a tradition that produced Radcliffe, Lewis, Mary Shelley, Poe, Bram Stoker, and ultimately the entire Gothic mode in literature, film, and popular culture.
Where to start
The Castle of Otranto (1764) — the complete novel (it is short, about 100 pages). Best Gothic novel reading order: The Castle of Otranto → The Mysteries of Udolpho → The Monk → Frankenstein → Dracula.
Complete The Castle of Otranto Book List
- 1Buy
The Castle of Otranto
Horace Walpole·1764·The complete founding text of the Gothic novel — Manfred, Isabella, Theodore, and the supernatural appearances. Short (about 100 pages); the Oxford World's Classics edition with Michael Gamer's introduction is the standard modern edition - 2Buy
The Mysteries of Udolpho
Ann Radcliffe·1794·The companion — Emily St. Aubert in the castle of Udolpho. The companion as the full-length Gothic romance that realizes Walpole's conventions: where The Castle of Otranto is short and melodramatic, The Mysteries of Udolpho is four volumes long, psychologically precise, and uses the Gothic conventions to investigate female vulnerability and survival in a world of male tyranny - 3Buy
The Monk
Matthew Lewis·1796·Lewis's companion — the monk Ambrosio's fall. The companion as the transgressive and sexually explicit version of the same investigation: where Radcliffe uses the Gothic to investigate female vulnerability with the supernatural explained away, Lewis uses it to investigate male transgression with the supernatural taken literally and the erotic content made explicit - 4Buy
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley·1818·Shelley's companion — the creature and his creator. The companion as the Gothic novel's transformation into philosophical fiction: Mary Shelley uses the Gothic conventions Walpole established to investigate questions that are not Gothic at all — the nature of humanity, the ethics of creation, the relationship between creator and created - 5Buy
Dracula
Bram Stoker·1897·Stoker's companion — Count Dracula in Transylvania and London. The companion as the late Victorian realization of the same Gothic conventions: Dracula uses all the conventions Walpole established (the ancient castle, the supernatural threat, the endangered maiden, the hidden transgression) but organized through the Victorian investigation of sexuality, imperialism, and modernity - 6Buy
The Italian
Ann Radcliffe·1797·Radcliffe's companion — Ellena, Vivaldi, and the monk Schedoni. The companion as Radcliffe's finest novel and the most fully realized version of the Gothic romance she developed from Walpole's foundation: where The Mysteries of Udolpho is enormous and psychological, The Italian is more concentrated and dramatically intense - 7Buy
Northanger Abbey
Jane Austen·1818·Austen's companion — Catherine Morland and the Gothic imagination. The companion as the satirical response to the Gothic tradition that Walpole founded: Austen uses Catherine's Gothic-novel-inflamed imagination to investigate the relationship between the Gothic's conventions and actual human life, and the satire is affectionate as well as precise - 8Buy
The Turn of the Screw
Henry James·1898·James's companion — the governess and the ghosts at Bly. The companion as the late Gothic's transformation into psychological ambiguity: where Walpole's ghosts are unambiguously present, James's ghosts may or may not be real — and this ambiguity, which Walpole never imagined, is the foundation of the modern psychological Gothic
The Castle of Otranto — Frequently Asked Questions
What is The Castle of Otranto about?
The Castle of Otranto is about Manfred, the tyrannical Prince of Otranto, who is trying to preserve his line and secure his title — which rests on a usurpation, his grandfather having poisoned the rightful prince and stolen both his title and his castle. When Manfred's son Conrad is killed on his wedding day by a giant supernatural helmet that falls from the sky, Manfred pursues Isabella (the woman Conrad was to marry) in order to marry her himself and produce a new heir. The novel then follows the supernatural apparitions that gradually force the truth of the original usurpation into the open — portraits walking from their frames, a ghost in armor, thunder and lightning — until the rightful heir (Theodore) is revealed and Manfred is destroyed. The novel established almost all the conventions of the Gothic: the ancient castle, the ancestral curse, the tyrannical villain, the endangered maiden, and the supernatural manifestations of suppressed historical guilt.
Why is The Castle of Otranto considered the first Gothic novel?
The Castle of Otranto is considered the first Gothic novel for several reasons. It was the first English prose fiction to deliberately combine the settings, characters, and supernatural atmosphere that came to define the Gothic genre: the medieval castle, the tyrannical nobleman, the persecuted maiden, the ancient curse, and the supernatural events that manifest historical guilt. It also established the characteristic Gothic tone: the combination of terror and sentiment, of exaggerated emotion and elaborate setting, that distinguishes the Gothic from both realistic fiction and pure fantasy. Walpole coined the term 'Gothic' in his subtitle ('A Gothic Story') to indicate that the novel was in the tradition of medieval romance — the medieval castle and its feudal society — rather than in the tradition of the realistic modern novel. Subsequent writers (Radcliffe, Lewis, Clara Reeve, Matthew Gregory Lewis) all acknowledged Walpole's precedence, and the conventions he established are recognizable in everything from Bram Stoker's Dracula to the horror films of the twentieth century.
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