The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole is considered the founding text of the gothic genre. The novel centres on the character of Manfred, the prince of Otranto and his family. Beginning from the mysterious death of Manfred's only son and heir Conrad's death, which is crushed under the weight of a gigantic plumed helmet. This supernatural event leads to the events, which follow. All of which are meant to restore the rightful heir to Otranto amongst mysterious deaths and haunting. The heap surrounding this novel is obvious as it is the first book of its kind and would mark the beginning of a fabulous genre of fiction. Also adding to its fascination is the claim that the novel actually came to its author in a dream. It is for this reason no doubt that there has continued to be such interest in this book.

Personally, I found this book to be too overly dramatic. It read more like a comedy then a serious work of fiction. Furthermore I found the portrayal of women to be slightly ideal in nature. This book to me just played into the basic fairytale Disney-like formula of bad vs. good and right vs. wrong. It was to a degree entertaining and a must read as it is a precursor to future fiction within this genre. But overall it was more then slightly boring

When I read about this book, it sounded unique and fascinating and I was excited to get my hands on it. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed in the book.

The writing style, was very dense, and tends to use run-on sentences and jump from person to person in a way that I found hard to follow and distracting. The language was from an earlier era, but that in and of itself would not have been an issue, as I enjoy both Chaucer and Shakespeare immensely.

Although the story and characters were interesting, the writing style really took away from my enjoyment of the book. I found myself frequently having to go back and re-read sections two, and sometimes three times to be sure I was staying with the plot. As an avid reader, I never have to do that in any other type of book, so I don't think this was me.

I wouldn't recommend this, which I always hate to have to say about any book, but I just did not enjoy it.

A wonderful novel! Full of interesting and entertaining characters. An excellent gothic novel. I couldn't put it down until I was finished, what a page turner. I definately recommend it!