The Castle of Otranto

Credits and rights

Original writer

Horace Walpole

Publisher of this edition

BoingyBooks Classics

Original publisher

Project Gutenberg

Adaptation credits

John Shoufler / BoingyBooks Classics — digital edition

Original source / edition

The Castle of Otranto (1764)

License

Public Domain

License link

https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

Rights and adaptation notice

This work is in the public domain. John Shoufler published this digital edition through BoingyBooks Classics. The original work remains public domain and may be copied, adapted, and shared.

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (1764)

The very first Gothic novel. A giant helmet falls from the sky and crushes the heir of Otranto on his wedding day. Supernatural terrors, secret passages, and prophetic curses follow in this wildly imaginative tale that launched an entire literary genre.

Historical Significance:
Horace Walpole published The Castle of Otranto in 1764, initially pretending it was a medieval manuscript he had merely "translated." When its popularity encouraged him to reveal his authorship, he subtitled the second edition "A Gothic Story" — coining the genre name. The novel created the template for all Gothic fiction: the gloomy castle, the tyrannical patriarch, the imprisoned maiden, the supernatural revenge, the hidden identity revealed. Without Otranto, there would be no Frankenstein, no Dracula, no Jane Eyre, no Wuthering Heights, no Edgar Allan Poe.

This public domain classic was originally published in 1764. Free to read and share.