The Castle of Otranto (AmazonClassics Edition)

By: Horace Walpole

Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies

Hours before his wedding, fifteen-year-old Conrad, heir to the house of Otranto, is crushed to death. His father, Manfred, Lord of Otranto, sees only one recourse to protect the family lineage. He will divorce his wife and marry the boy’s bride-to-be. Her wishes be damned.

When the fearful and resistant Isabella takes flight, Manfred follows in mad pursuit. But it is he who must outrun a greater fear: a curse cast on his family generations ago.

In 1764, with its wild-eyed tyrant, virtuous damsel, secret passages, and supernatural omens, The Castle of Otranto ushered in a new literary genre: the gothic novel.

Revised edition: Previously published as The Castle of Otranto, this edition of The Castle of Otranto (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions.

Public Domain (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

A Classic Reading

Great story hopefully you will find it enjoyable too. The narration was really good.

Meh

I mean, the only reason to do this is to understand all of the tropes that he created for the later authors – tropes that the later authors seriously improved upon. This is not a great work of literature it’s just a weird, rushed, archetype that you ought to be exposed to if interested in literature/Gothic fiction

Melodrama

It’s hard to listen to this as anything other than satire. Great narrator too. I thoroughly enjoyed!

This is an old book.

It's a short story written about a catastrophe happening to a family. It has ghost story elements wrapped in a mystery. Like I said in the headline it's old, uses antiquated words and might require a few reads.

Excellent narrator

The narration does more than justice to the delightfully overwrought story. This was a pleasure to listen to.