The Castle of Otranto

Clara Reeve's early gothic novel, The Old English Baron, is paired with Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, the work that inspired it. Hers is the story of Edmund, the peasant-hero, who discovers his rightful heritage through mysterious portents, and whose loyalty and integrity are put to the test in bringing the villain to justice. With an emphasis on probability and domestic virtue, The Old English Baron plays an important role in the transformation of the gothic genre. While the Castle of Otranto initiates a tradition of horror, with violent deaths, tyrannical power and tragic doom. The Old English Baron redirects the gothic towards homosocial bonding, paternal goodness and, ultimately, sentimental domesticity. "Fond of medieval romance and mystery as a dilettante's diversion, and with a quaintly imitated Gothic castle as his abode at Strawberry Hill, Walpole in 1764 published The Castle of Otranto; a tale of the supernatural which was destined to exert an almost unparalleled influence on the literature of the weird." - H. P. Lovecraft, "Supernatural Horror in Literature"