Horace Walpole (1717-1797) was the author of the first Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto (1764) and is revered for his influence on the Gothic novel genre. Set in Renaissance Italy the novel focuses on, “Walpole’s story of the tyrant prince Manfred, usurper of Otranto, who tries in vain to forestall a mysterious prophecy about the reversion of the kingdom to its real owner by securing heirs to his throne” (Napier) While Susannah Minifie Gunning’s novel Barford Abbey (1768) was published a few years later, it’s more serious tone does not reflect the implausibility within the genre that Walpole establishes with The Castle of Otranto. Described as “Rife with supernatural events, incestuous undertones, and medieval imagery” (Schoenberg and Davidson), Walpole’s novel is different in tone and structure than Susannah Minifie Gunning’s Barford Abbey (1768) which was a Gothic epistolary novel without the paranormal mystery or mystical themes. Gunning’s style exemplifies the variety in tone that the Gothic genre encompasses within the format of a novel.

Napier, Elizabeth R. "Horace Walpole." British Novelists, 1660-1800, edited by Martin C. Battestin, Gale, 1985. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 39. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1200003803/LitRC?u=sand82993&sid=LitRC&xid=3443763d. Accessed 3 Apr. 2021.

"The Castle of Otranto." Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800, edited by Thomas J. Schoenberg and Ian Davidson, vol. 152, Gale, 2008. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1410002110/LitRC?u=sand82993&sid=LitRC&xid=3a51cc4c. Accessed 3 Apr. 2021.