Remember when I blogged about Penny Dreadful a while ago? In that blog post, I mentioned The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole as the novel that sparked the entire genre of Gothic fiction.

Well, yesterday I actually got around to reading The Castle of Otranto for a project I’m working on – and wow, this is really one of the most terrible books I’ve ever read. It’s like a soap opera meets a B-movie, and the writing style is just indescribably awful. I’ve read better fanfiction.

Apparently Horace Walpole must have been at least a little bit ashamed of his novel as well, since in the preface of the first edition, he claimed it to be ‘found footage’ – he claimed he found an Italian manuscript, which he merely translated. Only in the second edition did he admit his full authorship.

However, it remains puzzling how a novel as terrible as this has become so important in literary studies. It didn’t actually feel particularly Gothic for me, but perhaps I was just too distracted by the terrible plot, the stereotypical characters and the meaningless conversations. The supernatural elements seem rather ridiculous, too – the novel begins with a giant helmet which crushes the heir of the castle. Um right.

I’m glad it’s only a very short novel – between about 120 and 200 pages depending on edition. I really hope I won’t be having to read more terrible ‘classics’ like this one anytime soon, because this is definitely one of the worst books I’ve read in a long time. If you want to find out for yourself, you can read The Castle of Otranto for free on Project Gutenberg.