Walpole, Horace (1717 - 1797) | Horace Walpole (Essay Date 1764)
HORACE WALPOLE (ESSAY DATE 1764)
SOURCE: Walpole, Horace. "Translator's Preface." In Castle of Otranto, A Story, pp. iii-ix. Dublin, Ireland: J. Hoey, J. Exshaw, P. Wilson, S. Cotter, W. Sleater, J. Potts, S. Watson, J. Hoey, junior, J. Williams, and J. Sheppard, 1764.
In the following "Translator's Preface" to The Castle of Otranto Walpole offers a fictional account of the "discovery" of the manuscript, presented as a medieval document.
The following work was found in the library of an ancient Catholic family in the north of England. It was printed at Naples, in the black letter, in the year 1529. How much sooner it was written does not appear. The principal incidents are such as were believed in the darkest ages of Christianity; but the language and conduct have nothing that savours of barbarism. The stile is the purest Italian. If the story was written near the time when it...
[The entire page is 1297 words long]
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