Reviews

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole

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matthewboczon's review

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mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

menintrees's review

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challenging dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

katie_baker's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I read Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto as a requirement for school and found myself pleasantly surprised. Walpole's novel is the founding father of gothic literature, and this novel shows it. The Castle of Otranto is a dark yet whimsical story and is an enjoyable read. The plot and characters, although not very deep, are amusing. It can be hard to read if you aren't use to the writing style of that time; there are not quotation marks or tag lines.

naiapard's review

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5.0

I read this book twice. Not because it had some extraordinal depth in which I had to dive into. The first time I read it my mind went blank and instantly deleted any information that I could have gathered from those pages. After I finished the book, all that I had in mind was that Manfred had a cool name and I did not know if he died at the end or, for that matter, how was the end.
The second time reading this I was making continuous parallel between this book and . All I could see before my eyes was how Manfred was Darth Vader

and Theodore was Luke Skywalker

Theodore was not Manfred`s son. However, that did not mean that there weren`t similarities. On the contrary, Manfred was this dark lord that wanted to rule the principality because he believed it was his birthright.

When here comes this peasant boy, out of nowhere, a boy about which destiny has spoken. He proves himself to be of noble birth and of a courageous disposition, the only one capable to save the princess and confront Manfred.

I swear, I was seeing just Star Wars before my eyes.
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ryneb's review

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challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

clemslibrary's review against another edition

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3.75

this was an interesting read and i can see why it’s credited as playing a role in founding the gothic genre, but i struggled a bit with the speech especially in my edition as there were no speech marks and in long dialogue it was sometimes hard to tell who was talking. it did feel a little bit boring up until the last 10ish pages where it really picks up and is fun!