Literary critics generally agree that Horace Walpole's 1764 novel, The Castle of Otranto,

inaugurated an entire genre which would subsequently come to be known as Gothic

fiction. Walpole was the first to employ a range of narrative conventions that would later
exert a considerable influence over many other writers.
The third son of the statesman Sir Robert Walpole, Horace Walpole was instrumental in
both the Gothic revival in architecture and the development of the Gothic novel. He had
a keen interest in the gothic styles of the medieval era and successfully attempted to
recreate these at Strawberry Hill, his house in London. It was within the Gothic interior
of Strawberry Hill where he claimed to have literally dreamt up the idea for Otranto,
completing the text in less than two months.
Romance and Realism
Otranto looks back to a remote medieval past yet also forward to a new form of
narrative. By the 18th century, the so-called Age of Reason, the rationalist ideas of the
Enlightenment were prevalent and the word 'Gothic' was a derogatory term generally
applied to the Middle Ages, having connotations of barbarity and superstition. In the
architecture of the mid 1700s, neoclassicism, with its emphasis on symmetry and order,
was the fashionable style. The realist novel meanwhile, with its attempts to represent
the world from an objective perspective, was rapidly becoming the respectable form in
literary fiction.
The first and second editions of Otranto were each accompanied by a preface. In the
preface to the first edition, Walpole invented an elaborated back story where he
assumed the character of a translator, William Marshal, who has happened upon an
ancient Italian manuscript dating from the 1500s. This manuscript is by a one 'Onuphrio
Muralto' and purports to relate a story dating from the time of the Crusades. In the
preface to the second edition however Walpole revealed that William Marshal is a
pseudonym, and that the manuscript and Onuphrio Muralto were entirely fictional.
These prefaces are significant to the development of Gothic fiction as they both contain
certain motifs which would become integral to the language of subsequent Gothic
narrative. In the first preface we have the act of looking back to a remote and distant
time - the setting of medieval Italy is alien and exotic. Critics have frequently interpreted
the Gothic novel's emphasis on the dim and distant past as representing the 'return of
the repressed', both in historical and psychological terms. In the second preface
Walpole expresses his intention of creating a new form of narrative through merging the
genres of ancient and modern romance.

Gothic Conventions
As well as the medieval setting, there are numerous other aspects of Otranto which
would ultimately become the stock ingredients of Gothic fiction. One of the most
prominent of these is the figure of the castle, which in Walpole's novel, as in many other
Gothic novels, is central to the narrative. The novel's castle is a vast and oppressive
building, the quintessential Gothic edifice replete with towers, turrets, long galleries, and
a labyrinthine network of subterranean vaults and passages.
The principal characters of Otranto would later go on to become Gothic stereotypes. We
have the imperilled heroine in Isabella, the somewhat bland and ineffectual lover
Theodore, and a tyrannical older man in the form of Manfred, prince of Otranto.
Manfred's only son Conrad was engaged to be married to Isabella and after his death,
Manfred decides to divorce his wife Hippolita and marry the young woman himself, in
order to perpetuate his bloodline. Isabella however is deeply repulsed by Manfred's
advances and attempts to flee from the castle. The scene where she makes her escape
through the building's subterranean vaults is an early instant of what would become a
stereotypical scene in subsequent Gothic novels: "The lower part of the castle was
hollowed into several intricate cloisters; and it was not easy for one under so much
anxiety to find the door that opened into the cavern" (p.27).
Isabella's flight is one of many scenes which could be considered undeniably Gothic.
Others include the portrait of Manfred's grandfather which suddenly comes to life and
Frederic of Vicenza's terrifying encounter with the figure "of a skeleton, wrapt in a
hermit's cowl" (p.106), a scene which Walter Scott described as a masterpiece of the
horrible. The gigantic plumed helmet which appears to have fallen out of the sky and
crushed Conrad in the castle's courtyard is arguably more surreal than Gothic, as are
the giant armoured appendages which appear within the castle. The reappearance of
Alfonso the Good, "dilated to an immense magnitude" (p.112) and his assent to the
heavens are an example of the 'marvellous' in Gothic, because of their extravagant
reworking of natural laws.
Unlike the supernatural manifestations in Ann Radcliffe's fiction, Walpole doesn't
attempt to give any rational explanation for Otranto's cavalcade of spectres. He does
however attempt to undermine their intensity, especially through the characters of the
domestics. The servants Bianca, Diego and Jaquez are frequently utilized for comedic
purposes, particularly in relation to their masters and mistresses.
Prophecies and Revelations
A central theme of Otranto is inheritance. The ancient prophecy outlined at the
beginning provides the impetus for the plot, that of Manfred retaining lordship of Otranto
by effectively securing his family's succession. However the prince's plans are thwarted
when Theodore's true identity is disclosed and he is revealed to be of noble blood and
the rightful heir to the castle. The novel's supernatural machinery is frequently used as a
means to portray this particular revelation. There are several other revelations
associated with that of Theodore's inheritance, including the real identity of his father
Friar Jerome, and the nefarious deeds of Manfred's ancestors.
Walpole never wrote another novel, although The Castle of Otranto provided the
template for many more novels. The merging of romance and realist conventions into a
form which would later be designated 'Gothic' inspired several subsequent generations
of writers.
Source:
Walpole, Horace. ([1764] 1998) The Castle of Otranto, ed. W.S. Lewis, Oxford
University Press.