HORACE WALPOLE’S “THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO”: BACKGROUND STUDY; SETTING ANF PLOT

CONTENT

1. The Biography of Horace WalPole
2. Background Study
3. The Setting of ‘The Castle of Otranto’
4. The Plot of ‘The Castle of Otranto’

The Biography of Horace WalPole

Horace Walpole was born in London in 1717 and died in 1797. Being from a privileged background, he attended the prestigious Eton College and the University of Cambridge. He became a parliamentarian in 1741 and remained so until 1768. As a man of letters, he contributed to arts history with his anecdote of painting in England, a four-volume study. In addition to early 7000 letters, his fame as an artist rest largely on The Castle of Otranto, which is generally regarded as the pioneer Gothic fiction. Some of his other works include The Mysterious Mother (1768), On Modern Gardening (1780), and the Hieroglyphic Tales (1785)

Background Study

Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto is generally regarded as the first Gothic fiction. The term Gothic was used by Renaissance critics to describe some German’s tribes believed to be responsible for the fall of classical Rome.