The Castle of Otranto and the Mysterious Mother

by Walpole, Horace; Frank, Frederick S.

• ISBN13: 9781551113043
• ISBN10: 155111304X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-02-01
• Publisher: Broadview Pr

Summary

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	9	(1)
List of Illustrations	10	(1)
Introduction	11	(24)
Horace Walpole: A Brief Chronology	35	(9)
Publication History of The Castle of Otranto and The Mysterious Mother	44	(6)
Using the Edition	50	(7)
The Castle of Otranto; A Gothic Story	57	(110)
Preface to the First Edition	59	(6)
Preface to the Second Edition	65	(6)
Sonnet to the Right Honourable Lady Mary Coke	71	(96)
The Mysterious Mother; A Tragedy	167	(90)
Preface to the 1781 Edition	169	(2)
Advertisement from the Publishers	171	(86)
Appendix A: Walpole's Correspondence and Strawberry Hill	257	(31)
1. The Castle of Otranto in Walpole's Letters	257	(10)
2. The Mysterious Mother in Walpole's Letters	267	(13)
3. The Little Gothic Villa at Strawberry Hill	280	(8)
Appendix B: Responses and Reactions	288	(18)
1. Three Early Reviews of The Castle of Otranto	288	(5)
2. Notices of The Mysterious Mother	293	(3)
3. Two Poems: Ann Yearsley's ``To the Honourable H---e W---e, on Reading The Castle of Otranto December, 1784'' and John Courtenay's ``Letter the Seventh, Naples, April 16, 1793''	296	(6)
4. Comments on The Castle of Otranto and The Mysterious Mother by Early Readers	302	(4)
Appendix C: Aesthetic and Intellectual Backgrounds	306	(22)
1. The Graveyard Poets: Alexander Pope, Thomas Parnell, John Dyer, David Mallet, Edward Young, Robert Blair, Mark Akenside, William Collins, Thomas Warton the Younger, Thomas Gray	306	(9)
2. From James Hervey's Meditations Among the Tombs	315	(2)
3. From Bishop Richard Hurd's Letters on Chivalry and Romance	317	(4)
4. From Edmund Burke's A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful	321	(7)
Appendix D: Sir Walter Scott's Introduction to the 1811 Edition of The Castle of Otranto	328	(13)
Glossary	341	(10)
Bibliography	351