Written in 1764, set in Italy, this is reputedly the first novel written in the gothic genre, inspiring a whole new series of horror and fantasy literature and movies. Set in a castle in Otranto, it tells of a fated wedding, and a prince that's not really entitled to carry the regal title, nor inhabit the castle itself....... hence a series of disasters and ghostly events...!

This is now a bookring listed in the forum here
http://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/20/515163

Mailed to Sullivan McPig in Netherlands as a bookring. Hope you enjoy it!!

Found it in the mail today!
Will be reading it as soon as possible.

edited to add:
I have to confess this was a DNF for me.
Maybe if I didn't have a gazillion other books on my shelves, I would have had more patience, but at 25% I was still struggling with the old fashioned writing and the characters.

Put in the mail and it's now on its way to the next book ring reader

It's arrived! I'll get to it next.

The story itself - a tale of lordly tyranny, supernatural horror, family feuding and death set in a castle and told over five chapters, barely one hundred pages in total, and so you’d think it could be read in a few hours but there are no speech marks making it a slow read for me. Sometimes re-reading sentences as I tried to work out who was talking. I have never studied Shakespeare and according to the notes, Walpole seems to take a lot from him but I’m not sure knowing this made any difference to me.

The story descends into one long, complex and wonderfully farcical chase packed with Knights, maidens, the clergy, caves, castles and churches with the dreadful Manfred on hand to order life or death as he fancied. Manfred becomes so blinded by the need for revenge he doesn't see events crowding in to overwhelm him until it's too late.

You have to take this story as a bit of whimsy. I’m sure modern readers could get angry about the way the women were treated as property for the men to do with as they pleased with no thought to their feelings. And maybe even more angry when then women appeared happy to be treated like this “because it is their wish”.

passed to me by Carole at our meetup today. I finished my last book yesterday, so will be able to start this straight away :-)

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole - strange

Written in 1764, this is claimed to be the first of the Gothic genre. It's Shakespearean in style and frequently refers to phrases from Shakespeare as part of the plot.

Manfred is Prince of Otranto. On the morning he is to wed his son to Isabella, there is a terrible accident and the boy dies. There then ensues a tangled web of intrigue and disguise as Manfred determines to put aside his wife and marry Isabella himself. She flees with the aid of a
stranger and the plot gets more labyrinthine and very reminiscent of Shakespeare as people reveal different identities and star-crossed lovers are separated etc.

It's quite a quick yet difficult read. Just over a 100 pages, but the olde worlde language used and the lack of separating speech by paragraph made it difficult to follow until you got into the style. Also didn't like the number of footnotes. I felt I was constantly flicking to the back to read a note and then to realise that it was unneccessary in at least 50% of occasions.

Read it purely because it is Listed in the 1001 books you must read before you die http://www.listology.com/list/1001-books-you-must-read-you-die

and in The Guardian's 1000 best novels http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jan/23/bestbooks-fiction

and was offered up as a bookray.

Happy I read it, but also happy it wasn't longer!

posted on to the next on the list

The book is safe in my hands!

Time to read!

Thank you everyone.

EDIT: I wanted to write my comment after shipping the book, but I was distracted, I will edit my je, then.

The castle of otranto was a very weird book to read, imperfect and weird at the same time, because many of the topos in the story were completely new and ready to be explored!

I found really amazing that a 250 years old english was much easier to read that the 60 yo italian translation I read before! It was a nice surprise.

Now I have to plan a trip to Otranto, to see if every place I imagined is really there!

Thank you for the ring.

The book has safely arrived here in Germany yesterday and I´m looking forward to reading this classic horror/fantasy novel!

I´ve been told by other BCers in our little reading group at the meetup in Stuttgart that have read the German edition before that they thought the book was terrible. So my expectations weren´t that high. Maybe the German translation lacked something or I have got a different sense of humour but I rather enjoyed the story! Fun to read and a bit spooky.

The book is now on the way to Fifna by mail - enjoy!

Artived safely today, thanks Dani75. It will be my next read.

Strange, but fun to read. Some parts did indeed have a Shakespearian feel to them - misunderstandings, schemes, tragedy, comedy. Thanks for sharing Andrea99 - time to travel on!

On its way to Tsjara!

Arrived safe and sound. Thanks for sending Fifna!
I have been curious about this one for a while, looking forward to read it. :)
Thanks Andrea99 for sharing the book!

This took me a while to read, but after getting used to the style I found it quite entertaining and was curious to see how it all would end. All these misunderstandings and secret identities were fun, though the bits with the giant were more silly than scary (at least to a modern reader).
The footnotes were rather distracting and didn't find them very useful.
I read the introduction after finishing the story (because they often contain spoilers) and it was interesting to learn a bit about the history of Gothicism (and that Strawberry Hill was created by the author).

I have PMed HappyHarryBabe and the book will travel onwards as soon as I have an address.

Edit: HappyHarryBabe asked to be skipped so I have PMed Sharlan.

Now on its way to Sharlan. Hope you will enjoy it! :)

The book arrived in Sweden today, looking forward to reading it!

I shouldn't that this is a particularly good book, but I'd still say it's interesting and well worth reading. It needs to be put into its 1760s context to be appreciated, and the introduction serves that purpose. It was also easier to read than I had expected, and at times even quite funny. Thank you Andrea99 for sharing it with us!

The book is now on its way to Madrid!

And here it is now, safe and sound!
Thanks so much for sharing, Andrea99; and thanks for sending it my way, Sharlan.
There are many colourful bookmarks inside; I will probably pick or add some before sending it on.
And I love its creepy cover! Scary!
It might take a while before I can read it, as I am about to leave on my holidays... but I am certainly looking forward to it. :)

Sent back today to Andrea99; this closes the ring.
Sorry I didn't have time to read it, as I have been very busy with work; I am sure I would have enjoyed it.

Arrived safely back with me on 30th June 2016. Thank you to everyone for taking part.