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Horace Walpole - Community Reviews back

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The better to see you, my dear
The better to see you, my dear rated it 6 years ago
I don't know whether I read a satire written as a self-challenge to pack as much over-the-top drama in as few pages as possible, or an over-the-top dramatic tragedy on rocket fuel. I feel a bit like when I watched Venezuelan TV novelas, only those tend to stretch, and barely come to the ankles of ...
Themis-Athena's Garden of Books
Themis-Athena's Garden of Books rated it 8 years ago
So, after having spent the past weekend and the better part of last night and today tying up half a dozen half-finished bingo reads that, naturally, hadn't shown any progress whatsoever while I was exiled on planet work overload, for the time being I'm back on track. And thus I am happy to finally ...
Emad Attely [The Book Nerd]
Emad Attely [The Book Nerd] rated it 9 years ago

The Castle of Oh-my-God-what-a-boring-book!!Well, is this really supposed to scare me?! This is supposedly the first Gothic novel. Maybe it scared the shit out of the 18th century readers, but now I guess modern readers will probably think it's a comedy!! Because, you know, I laughed! A lot!! But, ...
Julian Meynell's Books
Julian Meynell's Books rated it 9 years ago
This is the book that began Gothic literature. Its interesting to see where it all began, but I can't say that it is exactly a good read. There is little by the way of characterization. There is both too much that is spooky in it and not enough. It feels a bit haphazard. Its very rooted in folk...
Abandoned by user
Abandoned by user rated it 9 years ago
The introduction to my kindle version of The Castle of Otranto contains the following quote: This novel has been called one of the half-dozen historically most important novels in English. The founder of a school of fiction, the so-called Gothic novel, it served as the direct model for an enormous ...
Witty Little Knitter
Witty Little Knitter rated it 10 years ago
I while ago I read Northanger Abbey and while I enjoyed it I also felt like missing out on half of the jokes because while was vaguely aware that Gothic novels meant scary old castles, fair maidens and old curses I had never read one of them. So I eventually decided to read one (after buying it, put...
The English Student
The English Student rated it 11 years ago
Well, now I know why the Victorians looked down on Gothic fiction so. The Castle of Otranto is a frankly bizarre tale from 1764 about Manfred, prince of Otranto, whose son Conrad is crushed on his wedding-night by - get this - a massive, mysterious helmet. This sparks a crisis in the castle as Man...
lonesomepoint
lonesomepoint rated it 12 years ago
I checked out this collection at my library for an abridged version of The Mysteries of Udolpho (which I had been warned is unnecessarily long), but the text given here is excessively abridged, to the point that the reader can't know everything important that happens in The Mysteries of Udolpho and ...
globulon
globulon rated it 12 years ago
Not sure what to say about it. It is an interesting book in that it is very different from most of what I read and it was reasonably entertaining. I know it has some literary historical significance which was one of the reasons I read it. So on the whole it was worth my while I felt. On the othe...
Chris' Fish Place
Chris' Fish Place rated it 12 years ago
Walpole brings up some rather interesting points. I want to re-read some pro -Richard modern works to see if any of Walpole's points have been addressed by modern writers. I also found the bit about [b:The Winter's Tale|44133|The Winter's Tale|William Shakespeare|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/13278...
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