#The Castle of Otranto

[moonandserpent]

Strawberry Hill House, Twickenham, 2024. © Moon and Serpent

[belle-keys]

no, it’s gothic girl summer. while you down patrón shots, i’ll be repeatedly catching fevers while staring virginally out into the bogs as i pine for a man without any self-respect and unironically read “the monk” by matthew lewis.

[bonesashesglass]

Palestine mentioned in The Castle of Otranto, by Horace Walpole, 1764.

Israel can pretend all they want, Palestine has always existed. It’s in the fabric of our literature, our history.

[grantaire-lover-69]

Why is it that a lot of gothic writing is either closeted gay dudes making shitty decisions or just straight up horrendous acts of violence?

[selenessology]

[nuka-rockit]

no but the premise of The Castle of Otranto is so funny. a guy gets squished by a giant helmet. this causes an attempted divorce, an attempted murder, the discovery of a long lost prince, a successful but also erroneous murder and a wedding. The helmet also ominously floats outside of the window sometimes. in case you talk shit.

[thefaeriefeatherdark]

A Bad Summary of some of the Gothic Literature I've read

The Castle of Otranto: A definitely real medieval manuscript about a very complicated inheritance crisis over a small region in Italy where in several people die, a priest shockingly has a son even though he's not supposed to, and a Santa Claus is watching from the background.

The Spider: A quirky girl causes a bunch of men commit suicide.

The Great God Pan: A quirky girl causes a bunch of men commit suicide.

Carmilla: A girl tries to create a lesbian polyamory via the only means that is obvious enough for the women she flirts with to pick up (because apparently kissing them and saying she loves them isn't), which is of course by slowly draining them of their blood so they may join her in undeath as vampires.

Olalla: A very horny, very racist Scottish guy really wants to have sex with every member of this noble family but specifically only wants to marry the one within whom the effects of inbreeding are least obvious.

The Jewel of the Seven Stars: A group of people have to deal the understandably angry ghost of an Egyptian Pharoah who is quite upset her body was stolen from it's tomb, all her stuff got taken away, and she got dragged to the hellhole that is London. Eventually her kidnapper feels a bit bad about this and decides to help her out.

Dracula: I mean everyone on the site has read this one.

Lair of the White Worm: The worst of Bram Stoker's longer form gothic works, but also the last. An Australian guy who is very excited to be there realizes that maybe England is a little haunted. Meanwhile he gets himself a wife with psychic powers, and plots against the Giant Snake who is planning to marry into wealth to escape her debts.

Phantom of the Opera: An incel decides to cause problems on purpose and also attempts desperately to woo a girl by threats of violence and his excellent singing skills. After finally managing to get her to promise to marry him by leveraging her boyfriend he realizes he's not ready for the commitment and dies. Also there's a guy called the Persian who is rad.

Frankenstein: A college student realizes he is not ready for a kid, even one he made with evil science, and spends the next decade running from his problems.

[leer-reading-lire]

JOMP Book Photo Challenge || June || 10 || Books And Sunshine

[thegracefulwillow]

It is super annoying and distracting when people write into library books but this actually made me laugh out loud

Your son Conrad was only just crushed by a giant helmet a couple hours ago, Manfred!

[octaviasdread]

(don’t repost photos)

Strawberry Hill House, London - Created by Horace Walpole as a Home & Folly

[billlaotian]

[moonandserpent]

Strawberry Hill House, Twickenham, 2024. © Moon and Serpent

[solovelyanddry]

Link to the results of part one

[murdermost-foul]

horace walpole let me introduce you to my good friend the paragraph break

[appleinducedsleep]

The next transition of his soul was to exquisite villainy.

Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto