The Castle of Otranto, published in 1764, is considered the first Gothic novel. Horace Walpole first presented it as a translation of an Italian manuscript printed in Naples in 1529, supposedly discovered in an old Catholic family library in the north of England; in the second edition he admitted his authorship and explained that he had tried to blend ancient romance, with its marvels, and modern fiction, with its natural characters.
Horace Walpole · CatalogHorace WalpoleHorace Walpole · CatalogHorace Walpole (1717-1797), son of the first British prime minister, was a politician, collector, letter-writer and builder of the Gothic house Strawberry Hill.The Castle of Otranto
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Horace Walpole
Short biography: Horace Walpole in Great Lives