The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, Fiction, Classics

"Fond of medieval romance and mystery as a dilettante's diversion and with a quaintly imitated Gothic castle as his abode at Strawberry Hill, Walpole in 1764 published The Castle of Otranto; a tale of the supernatural which was destined to exert an almost unparalleled influence on the literature of the weird." -- H. P. Lovecraft,"Supernatural Horror in Literature" (jacketless library hadcover)