Gothic revival architecture is something I’ve always found
appealing, it’s all that exuberant decoration bordering on excess and then
taking it a step further, it makes it look like someone was having fun (though
clearly no one was thinking about what a nightmare it would be to dust) and
that can’t be a bad thing (unless you have to dust it). Horace Walpole was an
early champion of the Gothic revival, his Strawberry Hill a stage set for his
imagination to play on.
Having discovered the architecture the literature soon
followed but I’ve been better at collecting gothic novels than reading them. I
bought ‘The Castle of Otranto’ 18 months ago on the back of the excellent
Strawberry Hill exhibition at the V&A and still hadn’t read it when I saw
it come up on the classics circuit. It’s a short book and this seemed like a
good opportunity to buckle down – after all if you’re going to read gothic at
all you really should get the book that started it all ticked off the list.
Having read Otranto my overall feeling is just that – one of
box ticking, I’ve done it and I don’t need to do it again. Horace Walpole is
not a brilliant novelist - though he does have some dazzling ideas. It’s hard
to gauge how I’d have felt about ‘The Castle of Otranto’ if I hadn’t already
read ‘Northanger Abbey’, or ‘Frankenstein’ or a good chunk of ETA Hoffman and
plenty of others besides. I can just about imagine that it must have caused something
of a stir when first published; with its collection of walking portraits,
creaking doors, visions, death via giant mystical helmets, mysterious knights
and damsels in distress there’s plenty to enjoy. It’s a testament to Walpole
that plenty of people did enjoy Otranto and more than that took up his ideas
and made some great books out of them.
Reading some of the
other responses to ‘The Castle of Otranto’ from the classics circuit I find
myself wanting to defend it – there are plenty of redeeming features; Manfred
is a decently complex villain with a lot on his shoulders, Theodore the pattern
book hero with a positively suicidal desire to show his heart and soul are pure
just manages to stay on the right side of parody, and Bianca the maid - well
she belongs to eighteenth century London rather than 11th century
Italy and is a great comic touch.
I’m pleased to have finally read this book, just for the
curiosity value alone it was time well spent. I think it will add to my
appreciation of Scott when I come to read him again, and hope that it will help
me with Thomas Love Peacock and Ann Radcliffe when they come off the shelf.
Mostly though it’s inspired me to want to reach for Georgette Heyer’s ‘Sylvester’
where she does her own parody of the Gothic novel, it’s a while since I’ve read
it and I’m wondering how it will hold up.
It's been years since I read this, but I remember it being much more readable than Radcliffe's books. I think Sylvester holds up pretty well!
ReplyDeleteI used to teach this book as part of a module on gothic and romantic literature. I have to say that almost without exception the students thought it was a very silly book and I had a hard time convincing them otherwise as I really thought so too. The best I could do was say it was historically interesting. You should try The Monk by Matthew Lewis -- a much better novel though needing quite a strong stomach.
ReplyDeleteLisa May - Sylvester is holding up very well.
ReplyDeleteHarriet, I've half tried the monk but didn't get very far. This was a silly book but it's fizzing with ideas and I love that about it - and all those much better books which might never have been written without Walpole making someone think 'I can improve that'...
I had to study this for A level, our English mistress said we'd never read 18th C literature through choice so she'd make us. All I can say about Otranto was that it was better than Vathek by Beckford. I enjoyed The Mysteries of Udolpho though, but I agree with Lisa May, Sylvester holds up very well indeed.
ReplyDeleteI think yours is the first review I've seen of Otranto which doesn't completely dismiss it as silly or ridiculous. I think it's sometimes difficult to look at the really old books and see them as their original readers might have--we forget that Walpole was inventing something new, and it must have seemed thrilling to his readers at the time.
ReplyDeleteVictoria Corby, Sylvester was excellent. I think your English teacher might have had a point - how do you look back on her now?
ReplyDeleteSimpler Pastimes - it won't ever be a favourite, but a book that was so influential will always be intriguing and as it's so short I feel reading it was an afternoon well spent.
I think the trick to reading some of these older works is to push all thoughts out of your mind and just read. I just finished Udolpho, and thought I might have a tough time, but knew if I went into it with that in my head, I would fail. Or Radcliffe's writing is just excellent?
ReplyDeleteEither way I like giving older books a try and will certainly pick up Otranto the next time I am the library. Great review and appreciate your thoughts.
Oh and Sylvester is only list as well. Thanks for recommendation. Slowly working my way through Heyer.
Hi Jenny, I take the same approach with older books. Head down and get on with it because despite it sometimes being hard work there are also plenty of rewards. Hope you enjoy Sylvester.
ReplyDeleteI should probably hold my hand up and say that I was one of the dismissive bloggers but I do agree that Bianca was a decent comic character and Walpole was certainly full of ideas. Maybe we do need to think how his contemporary readers would have read this but we are reading today and i just don;t think it holds up well, especially when we have all read better gothic novels.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, interesting post that made me go back and have another think!
Falaise - it's not the best book but at least it was short and I'm glad I've ticked it off the list of Things I'm Quite Curious About. I think it was worth reading - but only once.
ReplyDeletesharing knowledge with others
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylRA41TZ9zU