{
  "title": "THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO",
  "category": "[NOVEL]",
  "article": "The 17?? novel by Horace Walpole which kicked off the Gothic movement in British literature was\nadapted for radio in 1996 by award-winning dramatist Michelene Wandor.\n“Walpole wrote The Castle of Otranto between June and August of 1764. He tried to pass it off as\nan actual translation, from the original Italian, of a medieval text written by ‘Onuphrio Muralto’.\nThe first edition of five hundred copies soon sold out, and Walpole admitted, in the second\nedition, published the following year, that the work was his own. The book has rarely, if ever, been\nout of print since. The Castle of Otranto is often called the first Gothic novel. It contains almost all\nthe classic elements: a foreign setting, walking skeleton, haunted castle, long-lost child identified\nby his birthmark, ominous threats and events leading to a dénouement that seems unavoidable\nbecause it is the logical conclusion of all the converging, providential actions in the plot. The\nCastle of Otranto wonderfully combines the inner turmoil of a most demonic villain — one can\nalmost see the toasting-fork tail under his fine clothes — a valiant hero, whose strength lies in his\ninnocent willingness to go along with his fate; ineffectual, well-meaning friars, a psychic hermit\nand virtuous maidens. All the internal struggles are played out against the most dramatic\nlandscape of snaking dungeon passages, lightning-struck battlements, thick woods and huge\nsupernatural coats of armor waving giant black plumes at castle windows. The inner and outer\naspects of the story are so perfectly matched that it is hard to know which is having most effect\nand driving the plot. There is, for the listener, a satisfying inevitability that gathers force as the\nstory unrolls, that comes from being caught up in something much larger than the mere mortal.\nThis illuminates the action as dramatically as lightning hits the castle, and makes it as fresh and\nthrilling today as when it was first devised. The Gothic novel has been extensively parodied. Here\nis the real thing — larger-than-life emotions that have a power and intensity overwhelmingly their\nown. Notes by Lesley Young”",
  "origination": "",
  "duration": "",
  "personnel": "",
  "extant_recordings": "",
  "chronology": "(RADIO 4, LONDON—BBC)\n[\nCirca 1997\n“The Castle of Otranto”\nSCRIPT: Michelene Wandor (adapted from the novel by Horace Walpole).\nPERSONNEL: Andy Roberts (music), Chris Wallis (director).\nCAST: David Burke (Father Jerome), Susanah Corbet (Matilda), Alfonsia\nEmanuelle (Hippolyte), David Fleisham (Federico), Sylvestra Le Touzel\n(Isobella), Gerrard Murphy (Prince Manfred), Catherine Pampridge (Bianca),\nPatrick Robinson (Theodore), Robert Wheelan (Iago).\n(RADIO 4, LONDON—BBC)\n[Tuesday—11:30-\nMarch 16, 2010\n“A Guided Tour of the Castle of Otranto”\n[BBC RADIO: “…With echoing dungeons, sighing ghosts, terrified virgins\nand a giant helmet falling from the sky, Rory McGrath guides us round\nfirst gothic castle in English fiction…”]\n[J. F. WAKEFIELD AT AUSTENONLY.COM: “…This is a fun semi-serious\nlook at Horace Walpole’s Gothick novel The Castle of Otranto, written\nanonymously in 1764 and the first of the Gothick novels, setting the tone\nfor the whole genre… I really enjoyed the approach of Rory McGrath\nand found it a fascinating journey around the ‘Castle’ itself, which was\npartly based on Walpole’s home at Strawberry Hill and many other\nplaces including colleges in Cambridge…”]\nPERSONNEL: Rory McGrath (host).",
  "sources": "",
  "gallery": "",
  "images": []
}