Gothicism's origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled " A Gothic Story ".

The Castle of Otranto ( 1764 ) is usually regarded as the first Gothic novel.

Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto ( 1764 ) is often regarded as the first true Gothic romance.

** Matilda in The Castle of Otranto – She is determined to give up Theodore, the love of her life, for her cousin ’ s sake.

** Theodore in The Castle of Otranto – he is witty, and successfully challenges the tyrant, saves the virginal maid without expectations

** Father Jerome in The Castle of Otranto – Jerome, though not evil, is certainly weak as he gives up his son when he is born and leaves his lover.

The importance of setting is noted in a London review of the Castle of Otranto, “ He describes the country towards Otranto as desolate and bare, extensive downs covered with thyme, with occasionally the dwarf holly, the rosa marina, and lavender, stretch around like wild moorlands … Mr. Williams describes the celebrated Castle of Otranto as “ an imposing object of considerable size … has a dignified and chivalric air.

In literature, Gothic novel combines dark elements of both horror and romance: English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto is one of the first writers who explored this genre.

Otranto (; ) is a town and comune in the province of Lecce ( Apulia, Italy ), in a fertile region once famous for its breed of horses.

The district between this promontory and Otranto is thickly populated and very fertile.

It is strategically located between the Strait of Otranto and the entrance to the Bay of Vlorë and has an area of with no civil population.

In English texts, his title is often translated as Duke of Otranto.

Like Isabella in The Castle of Otranto, she is introduced as an acceptable marriage partner for Lorenzo but plays an unessential part in the plot.

The theme of the crumbling, haunted castle is a key feature of Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto, a late 18th century novel which largely contributed in defining the Gothic genre.

The Castle of Otranto is a 1764 novel by Horace Walpole.

This inexplicable event is particularly ominous in light of an ancient prophecy " hat the castle and lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it ".

Theodore is then revealed to be the true prince of Otranto and Matilda dies, leaving Manfred to repent.

The first and most obvious connection to William Shakespeare is presented by Horace Walpole himself, in the preface to the second edition of Otranto, in which he " praises Shakespeare as a truly original genius and the exemplar of imaginative liberty, as a part of a defense of Otranto's design ".

The genre has ancient origins which were reformulated in the eighteenth century as Gothic horror, with publication of the Castle of Otranto ( 1764 ) by Horace Walpole.

* Horace Walpole-The Castle of Otranto " a story, translated by William Marshal, Gent., from the original Italian of Onuphrio Muralto ", the first Gothic novel

The immense, overwhelming presence of Gormenghast Castle ; its ' umbrageous ceilings ', its ' empire of red rust ' and the way in which it shapes and deforms the personalities of those who dwell in and under it, marks Gormenghast out as one of the great Gothic edifices, as Hill House in Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House or Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto.

Horace Walpole's 1764 novel, The Castle of Otranto, invented the Gothic fiction genre.

Manfred's name was borrowed by the English author Horace Walpole for the main character of his short novel The Castle of Otranto ( 1764 ).

* Horace Walpole-The Castle of Otranto

Early examples in this genre include Matilda in Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, Emily in Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho, and Antonia in Matthew Lewis's The Monk.

He also achieved great success as Raymond in The Count of Narbonne, a play taken from Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto.

“ Hamlet and Horace Walpole ’ s The Castle of Otranto .” SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900.

While he tried to write a novel like Horace Walpole ’ s The Castle of Otranto, he mainly adhered to theatre, writing The East Indian, but seven years elapsed before it appeared onstage at Drury Lane.

* Blackstone audiobooks unabridged presentation of Horace Walpole's classic Gothic Romance " The Castle of Otranto "' and audio adaptation of " The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari ".

He translated various literary works into Italian, notably, John Milton's Paradise Lost and Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, as well as other writings of Milton and Lucan.

* The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, 1924

In addition to this, the sombre and sweeping tone of his Meditations Among The Tombs ( for example, " the dreadful pleasure inspired by gazing at fallen monuments and mouldering tombs ") has led to his being placed amongst the 18th Century ' Graveyard School ' of poets, rendering his work an important influence on Horace Walpole ’ s ' The Castle of Otranto ' of 1764 and consequently, the entire genre of Gothic Literature and the later Romanticism which the genre fuelled.

His originality lay in combining the popular Oriental elements with the Gothic stylings of Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto ( 1764 ).

In Spring 2008 she was invited to exhibit at the famous Strawberry Hill House in London, home of Horace Walpole, who wrote the first Gothic novel " Castle of Otranto ".

He took a similar approach for Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, Victor Hugo's Les Misérables and others.

Though Lewis's novel could be read as a pastiche of the emerging genre, self-parody was a constituent part of the Gothic from the time of the genre's inception with Walpole's Otranto.

The gloomy villain, forbidding mansion, and persecuted heroine of Sheridan Le Fanu's Uncle Silas ( 1864 ) shows the direct influence of both Walpole's Otranto and Radcliffe's Udolpho.

This work described the fascination with supernatural fiction in English literature from the publication of Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto in 1764 to Charles Maturin's ' Melmoth the Wanderer ' in 1820 on to modern times.

During the 1990s he started his own publishing company, Vertigo, which, among other things, has published a Swedish translation of Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (" Borgen i Otranto, 1996 ) in Paul Soares ' translation.

** Manfred in The Castle of Otranto – unjustly accuses Theodore of murdering Conrad.

** Bianca in The Castle of Otranto – a gossip, helps characters get valuable news, provides comic relief

** Diego and Jaquez in The Castle of Otranto – they appear to talk about random things, and argue foolishly with each other in order to lighten the air of the novel.

This trend of using Gothic architecture began with the Castle of Otranto and was to become a major element of the genre from that point forward.

The buildings in the Castle of Otranto, for example, are riddled with underground tunnels, which the characters use to move back and forth in secret.