The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was my first assigned reading for my Zombie/Vampire in literature graduate seminar and half the time I was chuckling and the other half I could feel goosebumps rising up my arms.
The prince reminded me of the Queen of Hearts from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, constantly shouting “off with their heads”, while the other characters only took him half seriously and dealt with the conflicts in the story.
The story in itself was rather spooky with perfectly placed eerie details, including the general feel of knights and chivalry and the Gothic atmosphere.
Overall, widely considered the first English Gothic novel, it was a pleasure to read and rekindled my interest in classic English literature and especially the ghost/vampire/zombie stories as they evolved throughout the ages.
