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The Castle of Otranto (AmazonClassics Edition)  By  cover art

The Castle of Otranto (AmazonClassics Edition)

By: Horace Walpole
Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
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Publisher's summary

Hours before his wedding, fifteen-year-old Conrad, heir to the house of Otranto, is crushed to death. His father, Manfred, Lord of Otranto, sees only one recourse to protect the family lineage. He will divorce his wife and marry the boy’s bride-to-be. Her wishes be damned.

When the fearful and resistant Isabella takes flight, Manfred follows in mad pursuit. But it is he who must outrun a greater fear: a curse cast on his family generations ago.

In 1764, with its wild-eyed tyrant, virtuous damsel, secret passages, and supernatural omens, The Castle of Otranto ushered in a new literary genre: the gothic novel.

Revised edition: Previously published as The Castle of Otranto, this edition of The Castle of Otranto (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions.

Public Domain (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Featured Article: What Is Gothic Fiction? A Genre Explainer


Some of the most popular and enduring novels and short stories are works of Gothic fiction, including Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. These creepy, creaky literary classics have the power to transport listeners to foggy moors and crumbling estates, where wolves howl in the night and shadows lurk in the hallways. But Gothic fiction is more than just cobwebs and candelabras.

What listeners say about The Castle of Otranto (AmazonClassics Edition)

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A Classic Reading

Great story hopefully you will find it enjoyable too. The narration was really good.

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This is an old book.

It's a short story written about a catastrophe happening to a family. It has ghost story elements wrapped in a mystery. Like I said in the headline it's old, uses antiquated words and might require a few reads.

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Meh

I mean, the only reason to do this is to understand all of the tropes that he created for the later authors – tropes that the later authors seriously improved upon. This is not a great work of literature it’s just a weird, rushed, archetype that you ought to be exposed to if interested in literature/Gothic fiction

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1 person found this helpful