The Castle of Otranto · Chapter
Preface to the First Edition explained
The translator introduces the work as a found manuscript from an ancient Catholic family, printed in Naples in 1529.
What happens
The translator introduces the work as a found manuscript from an ancient Catholic family, printed in Naples in 1529. He speculates on its historical setting between the Crusades and the establishment of Arragonian rule in Naples, and suggests the author may have been a priest using fiction to reinforce superstition against Reformation ideas. He defends the use of miracles and preternatural events as faithful to the manners of the dark ages, praises the narrative's terror and pity, and notes the moral that 'the sins of fathers are visited on their children' is weakened by the insinuation that devotion to St. Nicholas can divert such anathema.
Themes in this chapter
Religion and Superstition
The preface discusses the use of miracles, visions, and necromancy as faithful to the manners of the dark ages, and suggests the author may have been a priest reinforcing superstition against Reformation ideas.
Family and Lineage
The moral 'the sins of fathers are visited on their children to the third and fourth generation' is central to the preface's critique of the work's plan.
Characters to notice
- Bianca
Mentioned as a domestic whose womanish terror and foibles in the last chapter advance the catastrophe.
- Conrad
Referenced in the description of the castle layout, specifically 'the distance from the chapel to Conrad’s apartment.'
- St. Nicholas
Mentioned in the context of devotion to St. Nicholas potentially diverting the moral anathema.
Key passages
“the sins of fathers are visited on their children to the third and fourth generation.”
The wrongdoings of parents are punished in their descendants for many generations.
Walpole critiques this as the story's moral, doubting its effectiveness in curbing ambition.
“Terror, the author's principal engine, prevents the story from ever languishing; and it is so often contrasted by pity, that the mind is kept up in a constant vicissitude of interesting passions.”
Fear is the main tool the author uses to keep the story engaging, and it is frequently balanced by compassion, creating a continuous shift of compelling emotions.
Walpole praises the author's use of terror and pity to maintain reader interest.