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My year of Gothic Horror - part 1

Patricia Leslie
Mar 18
5 min read

Updated: Mar 19

Horatio (Horace) Walpole (1717 to 1792) and Ann Radcliffe (1764 to 1823).

Wanting to start from the start in my year of Gothic Horror adventures, I went back as far as I could to the father and mother of horror fiction (in the English language). Walpole and Radcliffe wrote in the mid to late 1700s. Their most well-known novels contain what was to become the typical setting for Victorian-era horror. Their writing styles are, however, vastly different.

Portrait of a 1700s gentleman wearing a white jacket with embroidered florel lapels — *Horace Walpole*

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole

Mr Walpole was born in London, the youngest son of Prime Minister Robert Walpole and Catherine Shorter. He published The Castle of Otranto in 1764.

I read this for the first time a few weeks ago. It’s an interesting story told mainly through dialogue. I wouldn’t mind reading a version with a little more exposition and description, but it’s not a necessity to absorb the mystery and tension of the story.

The common threads of Gothic horror fiction include sudden, mysterious deaths, the odd ghost or unhappy spirit, and haunted castles.

Here’s a quick summary to whet the appetite. For all that the novel is short, the story is complex; vaguely set during/end of the Crusades in Italy.

Our main ensemble of characters includes

Manfred, Prince of Otranto
Hippolita, Princess of Otranto and Manfred’s wife,
their children Conrad and Matilda,
Isabella, Conrad’s betrothed.
Friar Jerome, and
Theodore, the poor labourer accused of Conrad’s murder.

Supernatural occurrences coincide with the tragic death of Conrad on the eve of his marriage to Isabella. A giant stone helmet falls from a statue and lands on the hapless Conrad’s head. You may recognise this trope from contemporary films such as Hot Fuzz (2007).

Hot Fuzz easily falls into the “Gothic horror” meets black comedy genre.

After Conrad’s death, Manfred goes a little off course. At first, we think this might be because of his grief, but as his reality increasingly goes askew; long-held guilt rises to the surface.

Within hours of his son’s death, Manfred decides he will marry Isabella himself (the match will strengthen his standing in Otranto and he’s a little horny). She’s not overly keen on this and runs away to a nearby monastery. She tells all to Friar Jerome, who is shocked (especially when Manfred later tries to embroil him in a plot to divorce Hippolita).

Back track a few hours, a servant (Theodore) imprisoned, for the “murder” of Conrad, by trapping him within the hollow stone helmet, escapes and bumps into Isabella during her escape. Poor, but gallant, Theodore helps the fair damsel to his own detriment. A few minutes later, Manfred (hot on Isabella’s satin heels) recaptures Theodore.

Complications pile up—still to come is Matilda (who, yes, bumps into Theodore), is best friends with Isabella, beloved of her mother, and though ignored by her father is a dutiful daughter. Hippolita, grief-stricken, faints (I recall Matilda fainting a time or two as well), goes to the monastery for counsel from… Friar Jerome. Theodore escapes again. Manfred blames the Friar….

Intrigue is thick in this story (I’ve barely skimmed the surface here). Not to mention romance, guilt, betrayal, tragedy, drama, high emotions, women fainting and, of course, the all-important haunting.

black and white portrait of a woman from the 1700s wearing a black embroidered dress and a white ruffle cap. She is holding a book. — *Ann Radcliffe*

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe

Mrs Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho (published 1794) includes many of the above themes but written with so much beautiful description the reader might think they’re trapped in the beautiful Pyrenees of France, never to leave again.

The story centres around the close knit and reclusive St. Aurent family who, following a tragic death, decide to attend to their health and tour the countryside (through the Pyrenees). They have a destination; however, it seems to vanish into the misty hills…

I had qualms about embarking on this read.

1. It’s quite long and dense

2. The lovingly detailed descriptions

3. I have a dozen other books waiting to be read and this post to write

I persevered past the first ten pages and fell into the descriptions. Radcliffe was quite poetic. Her prose hints at the supernatural and mysteries to come and gives insight into French society of the late 1700s (at least so far as the St. Aurent’s avoiding it and not much liking visitors from Paris).

There’s just so much of it.

Back to the story and a quick summary with thanks to Eighteenth Century Lit and RegencyHistory.net

Character list:

1. Emily St. Aubert (our fainting heroine)

2. Monsieur and Madame St. Aubert (her reclusive parents)

3. Valancourt (dashing fellow traveller who falls in love with Emily)

4. Plus, a host of family members, servants, recently deceased, incognito nuns (okay, only one of those) and the somewhat villainous husbands.

Setting: 16th century France.

Emily seems to live an ideal life (not counting that her brother tragically died young), reading, writing, drawing, etcetera. Then things change.

First, her father takes quite ill. He recovers, but her mother takes ill. She doesn’t recover. Her father feels a little off again. It could be grief (though he states that grief is useless, it often catches him when he’s unaware). Father and daughter take a trip to improve his health. They meet up with Valancourt. Shoot Valancourt (that was an accident, and he completely understands), nearly come to a grisly end as they bypass several brigand and gypsy camps and almost get lost in the mountains. Hardly surprising this last as they have no map and turn up any trail that takes the fancy of M. St Aubert.

There are a few mysterious happenings along the way which I presumed were foreshadowing, but according to the summaries I’ve read, remain unexplained.

You might consider Udolpho more of a romance than a horror. There’s a lot of love, engagements, broken engagements, potentially forced marriages (and that’s just Emily). But there is a supernatural undercurrent throughout so perhaps Gothic Romantic Horror…

If you want to learn more, scroll down to Sources. The premise of the story is sound, even intriguing. If it wasn’t for the copious descriptions of mountains at the start, I might have stuck with it. This may be one of those novels I pick up, read a bit and then put aside for a while before trying again.

Ann Radcliffe and her family lived in “well-to-do gentility”. Her father, William Ward, was in trade (haberdashery in London and later a porcelain shop in Bath, according to Wikipedia) and had notable family connections. Her mother, Ann Oates, descended from the De Witt family (Holland. They have a Wiki page too). Ann (junior) married journalist, William Radcliffe. She published five novels (Udolpho was her fourth) and a travelogue of her journey to Netherlands and Germany. Her publishers released a sixth novel and an essay posthumously.

The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Castle of Otranto are available in paperback and via digital download. I downloaded a copy from Project Guttenberg (free).