By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
The Castle of Otranto, often called the first Gothic novel, was published in 1764. Its author, Horace Walpole, was a fascinating man (of whom more below), but so is his most enduring work of fiction. Below, we offer a summary and analysis of The Castle of Otranto, and debunk some myths about this classic work of Gothic literature.
Fun facts about Count Dracula and Bram Stoker, the man who created him
1. In early drafts of Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula was originally named ‘Count Wampyr’. Bram Stoker’s original title for his 1897 novel Dracula was ‘The Dead Un-Dead’. However, he came across the story of Vlad the Impaler and was inspired to invent the character Dracula, whose name literally means ‘son of the dragon’. And that is how one of the most famous literary creations of the entire nineteenth century came into being – if it hadn’t occurred in quite this way, we might now be talking about Francis Ford Coppola’s film of Bram Stoker’s Wampyr.
The early Gothic novelists are an interesting lot. Matthew Lewis, known for his 1796 novel The Monk, wrote his will on a servant’s hat while dying on board a ship from Jamaica to the UK. William Beckford wrote the bestselling Gothic novel Vathek in French in 1782, with the English version being translated by a vicar four years later. … Read more