'The Castle Of Otranto'

Considered the start of the gothic novel thing that would actually get popular about 60 years after Horace Walpole published The Castle of Otranto. Bunch of johnny-come-latelys.

Anyway, reading this story and all I could think about was Shakespeare. This story is several hundred years after the Bard, but there is a clear set of plot devices and characters that resemble Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear and basically any tragedy Shakespeare got down on paper. Which makes you wonder whether Shakespeare was truly the progenitor of the gothic novel.

Walpole, himself, was the fourth Earl of Orford. He went to college and dabbled a little in politics. Frankly, he had no real career. He was known just for writing this book and building Strawberry Hill near London. It was built in a gothic style, again, years before others made it cool.

Walpole never married. There were rumors that he was dallying around with a bunch of unmarriable women. Some say he was gay. At the very least he was asexual. Sometimes to know the story, you have to know the author.