The publication of The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole is conidered the start of Gothic Romantic literature. The novel combined horror with medieval romances and was the first to do so, thus becoming the first Gothic novel as a whole. It cultivated literature traits for the gothic genre such as terror, castles, and ancestral curses. The Castle of Otranto pioneered Gothic literature by doing so, and has been remarked as the beginning of the Gothic era of art as a whole due to its themes of horror, terror, use of magic and ancient prophesies, as well as gory scenes. The book is believed to be an English retelling based on an Italian tale from the Dark Ages.

The plot follows Manfred, the ruler of Otranto, whose son Conrad is about to marry Isabella of Vincenza. However, on the day of the wedding, his son is mysteriously crushed to death by a giant helmet that fell from the sky, and so Manfred decides to devise a plan to divorce/kill his wife Hippolita and marry Isabella himself. However, when Isabella escapes his grasps, she traverses the castle of Otranto, where she is met with ancient prophesies, ghosts, and more works of terror.

The novel also gave birth to the combinations of some traits in gothic literature, such as a virginial maiden being saved by a hero (Matilda and Theodore, respectively), a tyrannical villain (Manfred), and dark aesthetic settings (the castle itself).