“Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto is generally regarded as the first Gothic novel” (Clery 21). Therefore, a definition of the latter term will be given as well. In addition, it will be shown that the semantic charging of the settings in The Castle of Otranto is also influenced by its being a Gothic novel. In this essay it will be examined in how far space is semantically charged in Walpole’s work, and how this influences the plot, the atmosphere within the story, and the reader’s perception of it. Thus, several places and the landscape depicted in the setting may function as semantic carriers (cf. Nünning and Nünning mention: „Räume nicht nur als Schauplätze, sondern eine ‚Erzählfunktion’, ‚räumliche Oppositionen zum Modell für semantische Oppositionen’“ (cf. Also in other passages it becomes obvious that the description of space and landscape conveys a specific meaning within the story, and even prefigures the development throughout the plot. This passage of Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto is only one example that shows how the construction of the setting in this novel strongly contributes to the atmosphere of the tale. Every murmur struck her with new terror (Walpole 61). An awful silence reigned throughout those subterraneous regions, except now and then some blasts of wind that shook the doors had passed, and which grating on the rusty hinges were re-echoed through that long labyrinth of darkness. The Castle of Otranto was a game-changer, and Walpole the writer who paved the way for modern horror exponents.The Semantic Charging of Space in The Castle of Otranto In this new edition Nick Groom examines the reasons for its extraordinary impact and the Gothic culture from which it sprang. Chilling coincidences, ghostly visitations, arcane revelations, and violent combat combine in a heady mix that terrified the novel's first readers.

The virgin Isabella flees through a castle riddled with secret passages. After the grotesque death of his only son, Conrad, on his wedding day, Manfred determines to marry the bride–to–be. Professing to be a translation of a mysterious Italian tale from the darkest Middle Ages, the novel tells of Manfred, prince of Otranto, whose fear of an ancient prophecy sets him on a course of destruction. It inaugurated a literary genre that will be forever associated with the effects that Walpole pioneered.

‘Look, my lord! See heaven itself declares against your impious intentions’ The Castle of Otranto (1764) is the first supernatural English novel and one of the most influential works of Gothic fiction.

The castle of otranto author