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The Castle of Otranto (Horace Walpole) ***

Often labelled as the first gothic novel, this story revolves around a rogue medieval prince who was about to preside over the wedding of his only son and the daughter of a distant relation when a series of supernatural events, starting with the sudden death of the son crushed under a giant-sized helmet apparently taken from a nearby statue, led to a myriad of secrets and plots revealed with dire consequences. Even though gothic by nature, this short novel's twists and turns made me laugh more than once. Again, the olden language and very long paragraphs made reading a little bit tedious.

This is considered the first gothic novel and it included many common features of gothic novels I've read. It was shorter than I expected, but it also packed plenty of odd and ridiculous events into those pages. It caught and kept my attention by starting off with the death of a young man when he is crushed by a giant helmet on the first page of the story. As it goes on, hints as to the meaning behind this giant helmet and other giant pieces of armor are shared, but the meaning of this aspect and some other details never fully came together in a way that was satisfying to me. Overall, I enjoyed it, but I'm not sure it's a great example of this kind of story.

So this is the original Gothic novel, and it is a complete hoot. It has the castle, the unblemished maidens, the peasant who is really a prince, the usurper, the underground passages, the medieval knights and a supernatural helmet whose feathers shiver when the villain is villainous. It is so over the top that it is funny and I loved it.

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