The Castle of Otranto and The Mysterious Mother

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Broadview Press, 2003 M01 2 - 357 pages

This Broadview edition pairs the first Gothic novel with the first Gothic drama, both by Horace Walpole.

Published on Christmas Eve, 1764, on Walpole’s private press at Strawberry Hill, his Gothicized country house, The Castle of Otranto became an instant and immediate classic of the Gothic genre as well as the prototype for Gothic fiction for the next two hundred years. Walpole’s brooding and intense drama, The Mysterious Mother, focuses on the protagonist’s angst over an act of incest with his mother, and includes the appearance of Father Benedict, Gothic literature’s first evil monk.

Appendices in this edition include selections from Walpole’s letters, contemporary responses, and writings illustrating the aesthetic and intellectual climate of the period. Also included is Sir Walter Scott’s introduction to the 1811 edition of The Castle of Otranto.

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Contents

Acknowledgements
9
List of Illustrations
10
Introduction
11
A Brief Chronology
35
Publication History of The Castle of Otranto and The Mysterious Mother
44
Using the Edition
50
The Castle of Otranto A Gothic Story
57
Preface to the First Edition
59
2 The Mysterious Mother in Walpoles Letters
267
3 The Little Gothic Villa at Strawberry Hill
280
Responses and Reactions
288
2 Notices of The Mysterious Mother
293
Ann Yearsleys To the Honourable H W
296
4 Comments on The Castle of Otranto and The Mysterious Mother by Early Readers
302
Aesthetic and Intellectual Backgrounds
306
2 From James Herveys Meditations Among the Tombs
315

Preface to the Second Edition
65
Sonnet to the Right Honourable Lady Mary Coke
71
The Mysterious Mother A Tragedy
167
Preface to the 1781 Edition
169
Advertisement from the Publishers
171
Walpoles Correspondence and Strawberry Hill
257
3 From Bishop Richard Hurds Letters on Chivalry and Romance
317
4 From Edmund Burkes A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful
321
Sir Walters Scotts Introduction to the 1811 Edition of The Castle of Otranto
328
Glossary
341
Bibliography
351
Copyright

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About the author (2003)

Frederick S. Frank is Professor Emeritus of English, Allegheny College, Meadville, PA. His books include The First Gothics: A Critical Guide to the English Gothic Novel (Garland, 1987) and The Poe Encyclopedia (Greenwood, 1997).

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