The castle of Otranto : a gothic story ; and, The mysterious mother : a tragedy
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The castle of Otranto : a gothic story ; and, The mysterious mother : a tragedy
（Broadview literary texts）
Broadview Press, c2003
Available at 2 libraries
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 351-357)
Description and Table of Contents
Description
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.
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Introduction Horace Walpole: A Brief Chronology Publication History of The Castle of Otranto and The Mysterious Mother Using the Edition The Castle of Otranto
- A Gothic Story Preface to the First Edition Preface to the Second Edition Sonnet to the Right Honourable Lady Mary Coke The Mysterious Mother
- A Tragedy Preface to the 1781 Edition Advertisement from the Publishers Appendix A: Walpole's Correspondence and Strawberry Hill The Castle of Otranto in Walpole's Letters The Mysterious Mother in Walpole's Letters The Little Gothic Villa at Strawberry Hill Appendix B: Responses and Reactions Three Early Reviews of The Castle of Otranto Notices of The Mysterious Mother Two Poems: Ann Yearsley's "To the Honourable H---EW---E, on Reading THE CASTLE OF OtRANTO December, 1784" and John Courtenay's "Letter the Seventh,Naples, April 16, 1793" Comments on The Castle of Otranto and The Mysterious Motherby Early Readers Appendix C: Aesthetic and Intellectual Backgrounds The Graveyard Poets: Alexander Pope, Thomas Parnell, John Dyer, David Mallet, Edward Young, Robert Blair, MarkAkenside, William Collins, Thomas Warton the Younger, Thomas Gray From James Hervey's Meditations Among the Tombs From Bishop Richard Hurd's Letters on Chivalry and Romance From Edmund Burke's A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful Appendix D: Sir Walter Scott's Introduction to the 1811 Edition of The Castle of Otranto Glossary Bibliography
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