The Castle of Otranto

The Castle of Otranto is a 1764 novel by Horace Walpole. It is generally regarded as the first gothic novel, initiating a literary genre which would become extremely popular in the later 18th and early 19th century, with authors such as Charles Maturin, Ann Radcliffe, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe and George du Maurier. Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 - 2 March 1797) & mdash; also known as Horace Walpole & mdash; was an English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician.