The Castle of Otranto Author:Horace Walpole All the familiar components of the Gothic novel -- the ominous darkness and the howling wind, the dire portents and the ineluctable prophecy -- originate in this tale of unnatural passions and unacknowledgeable guilt. Manfred, Prince of Otranto is eager to marry off his son Conrad but finds himself thwarted when a gigantic, supernatural helmet ... more »crushes the youth to death and sets off a fearful sequence of events.« less