Following his son’s death Manfred seeks the advice of the Friar Jerome he wants to divorce his wife, Hippolita, and marry Isabella (who was to marry his son) so that he can have a male heir. Manfred, the castle’s lord, is crushed (ha, ha) after his son Conrad is crushed, literally, on his wedding day by a giant helmet that falls from the sky. The short novel takes place over three days (according to Manfred at novel’s end, anyway I found it hard to keep track of time) at the Castle of Otranto. The style of the book reminds me of what works I’ve read from that earlier period conversation tends to come second to description of conversation, and even what speaking there is doesn’t attempt to recreate the cadences of real speech, but exists to pass on information. It’s widely seen as the first Gothic novel, and although it was first published in 1764, Walpole claimed it came from a 1529 manuscript. Horace Walpole wrote The Castle of Otranto, and originally claimed that the work was a translation from the French. I am not one who can long resist reading a book that opens with a prince being crushed by a giant helmet on his wedding day. Although she wasn’t a big fan of the book, something about her description of the plot caught me. My interest in The Castle of Otranto was partly stirred by memorizing (well, trying to memorize) its baffling plot while I studied for the literature GRE, but mostly by Amanda’s review of the book over at The Zen Leaf. Sometimes I Can Only Think for One Sentence Tweets by ilifiįiled under: Book Reviews, Classic Fiction | Tags: book, book review, books, castle of otranto, classics, gothic fiction, horace walpole, literature.Review: Ismail Kadare’s The Palace of Dreams.Review: Karen Thompson Walker’s The Age of Miracles.Story Sundays: Katie Williams’s “Bone Hinge”.
#Longreads : David Segal's “The Dark Art of Breaking Bad”.Story Sunday: Salman Rushdie's "In the South".Story Sunday: Kelly Link's "The Wrong Grave".Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
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