ABSTRACT
Horace Walpole has attained in composition, what, as an architect, he must have felt beyond the power of his art. There is a remarkable particular in which Mr. Walpole's steps have been departed from by the most distinguished of his followers. The public applause, however, was sufficiently qualified by the voice of censure to alarm the feelings of Mr. Walpole. The continued demand for various editions of The Castle of Otranto, showed how high the work really stood in popular estimation, and probably eventually reconciled Mr. Walpole to the taste of his own age. The Castle of Otranto is remarkable, not only for the wild interest of the story, but as the first modern attempt to found a tale of amusing fiction upon the basis of the ancient romances of chivalry. It cannot, however, be denied, that the character of the supernatural machinery in The Castle of Otranto is liable to objections.
