Horace Walpole was the youngest son of a Prime Minister, 4th Earl of Orford, and owner of Strawberry Hill, a famous house influenced by mediaeval Gothic architecture. The Castle of Otranto is subtitled "a gothic story" and is regarded as the founding text of gothic romances, combining supernatural horror with romance.
In the Castle of Otranto, Prince Manfred is the villain who has supplanted the rightful heir. He marries his son Conrad to Princess Isabella. When Conrad is crushed before the wedding by a mysterious giant plumed helmet, Manfred divorces his wife and is going to force Isabella to marry him, but Isabella is rescued by a young peasant called Theodore. Theodore fights a knight who turns out to be Isabella's father Frederic. Frederic wants to marry Manfred's daughter Matilda. Manfred mistakenly stabs Matilda thinking she is Isabella. Frederic turns out to be the rightful heir. Matilda dies, Manfred repents, Theodore becomes king and marries Isabella.
It felt like an ancient soap opera, with exaggerated emotions building on top of each other and more and more unlikely events and coincidences following each other. Fun, but exhausting.
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