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rainbowfishy 's review for:
The Castle of Otranto
by Horace Walpole
this was nothing but TEA and DRAMA!!!!! honestly i am shocked that people often rate this so low because i had an amazing time reading this!!! you can totally see why this is considered the first gothic novel - it’s soo moody and atmospheric. a huge haunted castle, ghosts and apparitions, pure terror, religious complications… what’s not to like!!! you can clearly see the foundations for common gothic themes - love vs lust, human compulsion vs divine will, secrets vs truth, parent vs child, etc… are any of us free from prophecy? to what degree do we have free will? these quotes really sum up what I think Walpole was trying to say:
“We are all reptiles, miserable, sinful
creatures. It is piety alone that can distinguish us from the
dust”
“heaven does nothing in vain; mortals must receive its divine behests with lowliness and submission. It is our part to deprecate its wrath, or bow to its decrees”
this feels congruous with what i’ve heard gothic novels were attempting to do, that is serve as a counterpoint to the ongoing Enlightenment and scientific ideals that were rising in popularly… the gothic’s purpose is to remind us that there are always things beyond our human control, things we can’t explain, things we just have to FEEL and live through, and that that is often misery, and terror, and sorrow… that these emotions are painfully human and it’s hubristic to think you could outrun them… but i digress!
i loved how tangled the human drama was, and i thought that the book was very satisfyingly paced. each new scene revealed a little more, or something new that complicated the plot… at some points i gasped! i rarely do that!!!! I also loved playing Who Would Play Her for all these characters lol. perhaps i loved this more because i was going into it willing to accept a certain level of Camp from this, because i honestly didn’t know what to expect from a novel this old. the translation i read from was a little funky in places but overall the text was very accessible. I loved this!! and just in time for October!! yayyy
“We are all reptiles, miserable, sinful
creatures. It is piety alone that can distinguish us from the
dust”
“heaven does nothing in vain; mortals must receive its divine behests with lowliness and submission. It is our part to deprecate its wrath, or bow to its decrees”
this feels congruous with what i’ve heard gothic novels were attempting to do, that is serve as a counterpoint to the ongoing Enlightenment and scientific ideals that were rising in popularly… the gothic’s purpose is to remind us that there are always things beyond our human control, things we can’t explain, things we just have to FEEL and live through, and that that is often misery, and terror, and sorrow… that these emotions are painfully human and it’s hubristic to think you could outrun them… but i digress!
i loved how tangled the human drama was, and i thought that the book was very satisfyingly paced. each new scene revealed a little more, or something new that complicated the plot… at some points i gasped! i rarely do that!!!! I also loved playing Who Would Play Her for all these characters lol. perhaps i loved this more because i was going into it willing to accept a certain level of Camp from this, because i honestly didn’t know what to expect from a novel this old. the translation i read from was a little funky in places but overall the text was very accessible. I loved this!! and just in time for October!! yayyy