ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -The Castle of Otranto, novel by Horace Walpole, published under a pseudonym in 1764 (though first editions bear the next year’s date). It is considered the first Gothic novel in the English language, and it is often said to have founded the horror story as a legitimate literary form.

Detailed explanation-2: -Generally regarded as the first Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto was first published in 1764. Its author is Horace Walpole (1717–1797), but it purports to be a translation of a work printed in Naples in 1529 and newly discovered in the library of ‘an ancient Catholic family in the north of England’.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Gothic tradition is a body of literature fundamentally concerned with the boundaries between past and present, reality and the supernatural, morality and immorality, guilt and victimization, and reason and faith or superstition.

Detailed explanation-4: -The novel shows several Gothic elements such as mysterious settings, mysterious and suspenseful atmospheres, ancient prophecy, visions, high emotion, supernatural events, and women in distress. The novel shows basically all the elements of Gothic Literature.

Detailed explanation-5: -Horace Walpole is often considered the father of the Gothic Romance with his 1764 publication of The Castle of Otranto.