Halloween and Gothic Literature

Autumn has finally settled in and with Halloween just around the corner I felt a suitably spooky piece of literature was in order. Synonymous with femme fatales, haunted castles and the supernatural, Gothic literature has become a genre renowned for its ability to invoke terror. Interestingly the Gothic genre is considered to have originated from a novel written in 1764; The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. Paving the way forward, The Castle of Otranto establishes many of the tropes (evil tyrant, virtuous maiden, etc.) associated with later works. Claiming to be a translation of a 16th-century Italian manuscript, the novel unfolds the misfortune of Manfred, prince of Otranto. The family is haunted by an ancient prophesy that reveals the castle “should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it”. Manfred’s only son, Conrad, is crushed the morning of his wedding day by a mysterious plumed helmet large enough to fit a giant. Consumed by his desire to produce an heir, Manfred is set on a path of destruction. Fast-paced, melodramatic and sensational, The Castle of Otranto is at once both thrilling and absurd.