Visions have always been my pasture. I almost think there is no wisdom comparable to that of exchanging the realities of life for dreams. Old castles, old pictures, old histories take one back into centuries that cannot disappoint. I waked one morning from a dream of which all I could recover was that I had thought myself in an ancient castle and that on the uppermost banister of a great staircase I saw a gigantic hand in armour. In the evening I sat down to write, without knowing in the least what I intended to say or relate. The work grew on my hands and I grew fond of it - in short I was so engrossed with my tale, which I completed in less than two months, that one evening I wrote till I could not hold the pen to finish the sentence!' - Horace Walpole

The action in 'The Castle of Otranto' never ceases. It is set against the murky background of gothic battlements where enchanted helmets and swords fall as the villain rants and raves. The heroine escapes his clutches through a musty trapdoor into a chill underground cavern helped by a mysterious hero of strange origin and a friar who is not all he seems. Will truth and justice triumph? Enjoy the original gothic thriller leavened with wit and timeless humour and find out.

Collection	Narrator	Length
Romantic to Regency	Peter Joyce	4 hrs 20 mins

Media	Compact Disc	Audio Tape
Media Qty	4	3
Audio Format	CD-DA	Analogue
Book Code	RR-400CD	RR-400TA
ISBN	978 1 86015 056 2	978 1 86015 433 1
Price	£13.49	£11.99

Horace Walpole, (1717 –1797), was a politician, writer, architectural innovator and namesake of his cousin Horatio Nelson. He was born in London, the youngest son of British Prime Minister Robert Walpole. Given the contrast between his effete vivacity and his father's robust forcefulness, there has always been a rumour that he was in fact the product of an adulterous liaison of his mother's, but he also bore a strong resemblance to one of his father's illegitimate children. Walpole settled at Strawberry Hill, an estate of some forty acres at Twickenham, near where Pope had lived, and set about remodelling it with Gothic details drawn from a wide variety of architectural sources. This began a new architectural trend.. In 1764, he published his Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto, setting a literary trend to go with the architecture. Walpole never married and clearly preferred the company of women who were unmarriageable, most because of their slightly scandalous past. Many contemporaries regarded him as “effeminate”.

Click here to find out more about Horace Walpole.

Tell a friend about this title:
Friend's e-mail
Your name
Your e-mail
Add a note (optional)