The Gothic aesthetic gained literary prominence in the 18th century with the emergence of Gothic fiction. Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764) is credited as the genre’s foundation ...

The term Gothic first became linked to literature with Horace Walpole's 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, later subtitled A Gothic Story. This term was probably given because of the book's ...

Strawberry Hill House is also the birthplace of the Gothic novel. Inspired by a nightmare he had while living here, Horace Walpole wrote The Castle of Otranto, widely considered the first Gothic novel ...