So, I didn’t actually enjoy reading this book. It’s so cheesey that it’s hard to believe that anyone could actually be moved by it. The supernatural events are knee-slappingly funny (uhh, giant helmet anyone?) when they’re supposed to be slightly terrifying. The characters, well, the characters are mostly just cardboard cut outs. The plot – the only thing that the book actually has in abundance – is absolutely and totally ridiculous. Compound all of this with Walpole’s manic obsession with abrupt changes in topic as well as the lack of indentation to indicate a new line of dialogue, and the book is almost painful to read.

But I still think it was worth it. For all the ridiculousness of it, the book seems to be more of a compressed outline than a novella, which makes it a ridiculously quick read. Most of what I find ridiculous and cliche was actually innovative at the time, and reading the book helps set the backdrop for the genre of Gothic literature of which The Castle of Otranto was the first.

When you read it, prepare for a reading in the history of literature; if you go in expecting good literature you will be disappointed.