Castle Of Otranto

I finished the Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole a couple days ago. I don't have that much to say about it. It was nice enough I suppose, though it kept putting me to sleep whenever I tried to read it. After reading the modern introduction about Walpole and then his secound preface (I thought the first was just fine, and wish I could have just read that and then gone and started the book.) I decided I didn't like him very much, particularly his comments in regards to the servants in his story. And that might have colored my perception a little too much. It felt more like a play than a novel, with most of the action being off stage, and then people talking to each other a lot about what was happening. The supernatural elements seemed a bit too short. Though I'm glad they were there. The copy I read had an introduction in it by Walter Scott. He compared it to later Gothic novels when there were rational explanations for the supernatural events and how when they were actually supernatural they were so much better. Which made me laugh as that evening Bill and I had watched the village and come to exactly the same conclusion. Of course we'd also just watched Northanger Abbey and we both love that one.