ABSTRACT
Walpole's initial justification for his work places the fantastic in the Gothic past as superstition and delusion. His second preface repositions his work by claiming it as a modern production that combines ancient and modern romance. Walpole undermines Hurd's criticism through an indirection that presents his work as simply 'found in the library of an ancient catholic family in the north of England'. Horace Walpole's 1764 and 1765 prefaces to the first Gothic horror novel, The Castle of Otranto, also present sharply different explanations for the purpose of the fantastic elements in his work. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a late Gothic production, written in the tradition of Walpole's blend of ancient and modern romance. 'The Fairy Way of Writing' thus anticipates Horace Walpole's combination of ancient and modern romance as well. Percy Shelley's 1818 'Preface' to Frankenstein seemingly responds to Clara Reeve's criticism of the fantastic elements in The Castle of Otranto.
