Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 337, The First Gothic Novel
I’d like to begin this podcast episode with an excerpt from the opening chapter of The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole - an excerpt which captures the dramatic and supernatural tone of the novel. This passage describes the event that sets the story in motion: the mysterious death of Conrad, Manfred’s son, on his wedding day.
"Manfred, Prince of Otranto, had one son and one daughter: the latter, a most beautiful virgin, aged eighteen, was called Matilda. Conrad, the son, was three years younger, a homely youth, sickly, and of no promising disposition; yet he was the darling of his father, who never showed any symptoms of affection to Matilda. Manfred had contracted a marriage for his son with the Marquis of Vicenza's daughter, Isabella; and she had already been delivered by her guardians into the hands of Manfred, that he might celebrate the wedding as soon as Conrad's infirm state of health would permit.
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