The Castle of Otranto is a 1764 novel by British novelist Horace Walpole.

Generally regarded as the

first Gothic novel, it is credited with inspiring the entire genre and the works of future authors
including Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, and Daphne du Maurier.

Set in a distant medieval realm, a kingdom is ruled by an arrogant and evil prince named Manfred. He
rules with an iron first, and has banished his wife to the castle dungeon. He has designs to marry
Isabella, the fiancée of his recently deceased son. However, his plans are foiled by a peasant who
helps Isabella escape. The book is filled with dark supernatural events, mysterious prophecy, and
karmic downfalls. All these elements would become common tropes in Gothic novels for the length of
the genre’s strength. Considered a classic and still taught extensively in college courses focusing on
genre writing, it was adapted into a 1979 short film by Czech director Jan Svankmajer.

The Castle of Otranto’s villainous protagonist is Manfred, a cruel lord of the castle, who treats his
family with as much contempt as he does his kingdom.
The story begins on the wedding day of his son Conrad and his intended, Isabella. Shortly before the
wedding, Conrad – who was always a sickly boy – is crushed to death by a massive helmet that
falls on him.
Tragic as this event is on its own, Manfred is especially worried by an ancient prophecy that states
“that the castle and lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family, whenever the real
owner should be grown too large to inhabit it”.
Manfred becomes paranoid that Conrad’s death signals the beginning of the prophecy and spells the
coming end of his family line.
He hatches a scheme to avoid his destruction by marrying Isabella himself. He divorces his
current wife, Hippolita, and locks her in the dungeon for the supposed crime of failing to bear
him a proper heir.
Isabella is horrified by the idea of being forced to marry Manfred. Before he can force her into the
wedding, she flees to a nearby church with the help of a kind peasant named Theodore.
Manfred marches on the church and orders the Friar, Jerome, to turn over Theodore for execution.
However, when Theodore removes his shirt to be executed, Jerome notices a birthmark on the
peasant boy’s shoulder and realizes that Theodore is in fact his own son.

Jerome begs for his son’s life, but Manfred is unmoved. He orders the Friar to either surrender the
princess or his son. Before Jerome can make his decision, they are interrupted by the arrival of
knights from another kingdom.

Manfred’s offer of a bounty to retrieve Isabella has attracted the attention of other Kingdoms,
each of whom are seeking the mad king’s favor. Isabella flees in the chaos, and the knights and
Manfred go in pursuit of her.Theodore is captured and locked up in a tower by Manfred to await
his death. However, he is soon freed by Manfred’s daughter Matilda. He races to a secret
underground church, where he finds Isabella.

Hiding Isabella in a cave that he’s blocked up to protect her, he fights the mysterious knights.
When he stabs one, he is horrified to discover that it’s actually Isabella’s father Frederic, from
the neighboring kingdom. He takes the wounded man up to the castle to help resolve the situation,
hoping that Frederic’s presence will make Manfred see sanity. When Frederic sees Matilda, he
falls in love with her immediately. He and Manfred begin to make a deal about each other’s
daughters, but Manfred has not forgotten Isabella. He plans to kill her,
and attacks her in the darkened church. However, he is horrified to discover that he has stabbed
his own daughter.

As Manfred grieves, a broken man, the prophecy is revealed and an image of Theodore is shown.
It reveals that he is actually the kidnapped son of the previous lord of Otranto, Alfonso.

Thus, Theodore is in fact that true heir, not Manfred.

Manfred abdicates the throne in his grief, and he and Hippolita retreat to a convent to spend out the
rest of their days. Isabella and Theodore are married, understanding each other’s grief but finding
comfort in each other.
The Mysteries of Udolpho, novel by Ann Radcliffe, published in 1794. It is one of the
most famous English Gothic novels. The work tells the story of the orphaned Emily St.
Aubert, who is subjected to cruelties by her guardians, threatened with the loss of her
fortune, and imprisoned in a number of castles but finally freed and united with her
lover. Many strange and fearful events (now classic devices of Gothic romances) take
place in the haunted atmosphere of the solitary castle of Udolpho, set high in the dark
and majestic Apennines.

The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Ann Radcliffe, was published in four volumes on 8 May
1794 by G. G. and J. Robinson of London. The firm paid her £500 for the
manuscript.
The contract is housed at the University of Virginia Library. Her fourth and most
popular novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho follows the fortunes of Emily St. Aubert, who
suffers, among other misadventures, the death of her father, supernatural terrors
in a gloomy castle and the machinations of an Italian brigand.
Often cited as the archetypal Gothic novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho, along with
Radcliffe's novel The Romance of the Forest, plays a prominent role in Jane Austen's
novel Northanger Abbey, in which an impressionable young woman, after reading
Radcliffe's novel, comes to see her friends and acquaintances as Gothic villains and
victims with amusing results.

Plot introduction
The Mysteries of Udolpho is a quintessential Gothic romance, replete with
incidents of physical and psychological terror; remote, crumbling castles; seemingly
supernatural events; a brooding, scheming villain; and a persecuted heroine. Modern
editors point out that only about one-third of the novel is set in the eponymous Gothic
castle,[3] and that the tone and style vary markedly between sections of the work.
Radcliffe also added extensive descriptions of exotic landscapes in the Pyrenees
and Apennines, and of Venice, none of which she visited[3] and for details of which she
relied on contemporary travel books, leading to the introduction of
several anachronisms. Set in 1584 in southern France and northern Italy, the novel
focuses on the plight of Emily St. Aubert, a young French woman who is orphaned
after the death of her father. Emily suffers imprisonment in the castle Udolpho at the
hands of Signor Montoni, an Italian brigand who has married her aunt and guardian
Madame Cheron. Emily's romance with the dashing Valancourt is frustrated by Montoni
and others. Emily also investigates the mysterious relationship between her father and
the Marchioness de Villeroi, and its connection to the castle at Udolpho.

Plot summary
Emily St. Aubert is the only child of a landed rural family whose fortunes are now in
decline. Emily and her father share an especially close bond, due to their shared
appreciation for nature. After her mother's death from a serious illness, Emily and her
father grow even closer.
She accompanies him on a journey from their native Gascony, through
the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean coast of Roussillon, over many mountainous
landscapes.
During the journey, they encounter Valancourt, a handsome man who also feels an
almost mystical kinship with the natural world. Emily and Valancourt quickly fall in love.
Emily's father succumbs to a long illness. Emily, now orphaned, is forced by his wishes
to live with her aunt, Madame Cheron, who shares none of Emily's interests and
shows little affection to her. Her aunt marries Montoni, a dubious nobleman from
Italy.
He wants his friend Count Morano to become Emily's husband and tries to force her
to marry him. After discovering that Morano is nearly ruined, Montoni brings Emily and
her aunt to his remote castle of Udolpho.
Emily fears to have lost Valancourt forever. Morano searches for Emily and tries to
carry her off secretly from Udolpho. Emily refuses to join him because her heart still
belongs to Valancourt. Morano's attempt to escape is discovered by Montoni, who
wounds the Count and chases him away.
In the following months, Montoni threatens his wife with violence to force her to sign
over her properties in Toulouse, which, upon her death, would otherwise go to Emily.
Without resigning her estate, Madame Cheron dies of a severe illness caused by her
husband's harshness.
Many frightening but coincidental events happen within the castle, but Emily is able to
flee from it with the help of her secret admirer Du Pont, who was a prisoner at
Udolpho, and the servants Annette and Ludovico.
Returning to the estate of her aunt, Emily learns that Valancourt went to Paris and lost
his wealth. In the end, she takes control of the property and is reunited with Valancourt.