The Castle of Otranto

**A Giant Helmet Falls and the Gothic Novel Is Born**

**Horace Walpole's First Novel**

**Ancient Prophecy, Haunted Corridors, and Dynastic Crime**

**The Book That Gave a Genre Its Name**

*Before the celebrated masterpieces came The Castle of Otranto: a first book in which Horace Walpole's defining concerns were already taking shape.*

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The Castle of Otranto is a novel by Horace Walpole. First published in 1764, it is generally regarded as the first Gothic novel. In the second edition, Walpole applied the word 'Gothic' to the novel in the subtitle - A Gothic Story. Set in a haunted castle, the novel merged medievalism and terror in a style that has endured ever since. The aesthetic of the book has shaped modern-day Gothic romance/horror books, films, art, music, and the Goth subculture. Walpole was inspired to write the story after a nightmare he had at his Gothic Revival home, Strawberry Hill House, in Twickenham, southwest London. Claiming he saw a ghost in the nightmare-which featured a "gigantic hand in armour"-Walpole incorporated imagery from this into the novel, and also drew on his knowledge of medieval history.

The Castle of Otranto tells the story of Manfred, lord of the castle, and his family. The book begins on the wedding day of his sickly son Conrad and princess Isabella. Shortly before the wedding, however, Conrad is crushed to death by a gigantic helmet that falls on him from above. This inexplicable event is particularly ominous in light of an ancient prophecy: "That the castle and lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it." Manfred, terrified that Conrad's death signals the beginning of the end for his line, resolves to avert destruction by marrying Isabella himself while divorcing his current wife, Hippolita, who he feels has failed to bear him a proper heir in light of the sickly condition of Conrad before his untimely death. However, as Manfred attempts to marry Isabella, she escapes to a church with the aid of a peasant named Theodore, who had correctly identified the giant helmet that had killed Conrad as having come from the giant statue standing before the church. Manfred accuses Theodore of having sorcerous responsibility for the helmet having been summoned. Manfred orders Theodore's death while talking to the friar Jerome, who ensured Isabella's safety at the church. When Theodore removes his shirt to be killed, Jerome recognizes a mark below his shoulder and identifies Theodore as his own son, and thus being of noble birth. Jerome, who has revealed himself to be of noble rank, begs for his son's life, but Manfred says Jerome must either give up the princess or his son's life. They are interrupted by a trumpet and the entrance of knights from another kingdom who want to deliver Isabella to her father, Frederic, along with the castle, as Frederic has a stronger claim to it (another reason Manfred wishes to wed Isabella). This leads the knights and Manfred to race to find Isabella.

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*“That the castle and lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it.”*

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**Why The Castle of Otranto Still Matters**

Read today, The Castle of Otranto offers more than the curiosity of a famous writer's beginning. It preserves the risks, experiments, and unresolved tensions of a literary voice before later success made that voice familiar.

*Return to the beginning, and discover how The Castle of Otranto first opened the path ahead.*