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stoneysmh 's review for:
The Castle of Otranto
by Horace Walpole
As the "first Gothic novel," The Castle of Otranto deserves respect. It kickstarted a new movement of English literature featuring supernatural elements and psychological horror. Much is owed to this book for its profound influence on the literary scene that ultimately led to some genuinely great classics.
That being said, the book itself is nothing too special to read today. It has aged fairly poorly, leaving many of its attempts at shocking twists and dramatic moments feeling completely cheap and underwhelming. Most sentences are action or expository dialogue purely aimed at furthering the plot. Considering this, and Horace Walpole naming Shakespeare as an influence in the book's prologue, I imagine that this story would have been better suited as a play. Ultimately, while nothing offensive or outright bad, The Castle of Otranto is better appreciated for its historical importance than its intrinsic quality as a work of fiction.
That being said, the book itself is nothing too special to read today. It has aged fairly poorly, leaving many of its attempts at shocking twists and dramatic moments feeling completely cheap and underwhelming. Most sentences are action or expository dialogue purely aimed at furthering the plot. Considering this, and Horace Walpole naming Shakespeare as an influence in the book's prologue, I imagine that this story would have been better suited as a play. Ultimately, while nothing offensive or outright bad, The Castle of Otranto is better appreciated for its historical importance than its intrinsic quality as a work of fiction.