What is the surname of the author of 'The Castle of Otranto'? The author’s surname is Walpole: Horace Walpole wrote the novel. First published in 1764, it is widely regarded as the first Gothic novel and helped establish the genre’s characteristic blend of medieval settings, supernatural events, family secrets, and terror.
Walpole initially presented the book as a translation by a fictional writer named William Marshal from an alleged Italian manuscript by “Onuphrio Muralto.” This invented publishing history was part of the novel’s elaborate medieval atmosphere. In the second edition, Walpole acknowledged that he was the author and added the subtitle A Gothic Story.
The plot unfolds in and around a haunted castle and includes oversized supernatural imagery, secret passages, mysterious sounds, and threatened inheritances. Walpole drew inspiration from medieval history and from Strawberry Hill House, his Gothic Revival home in Twickenham. Although early critics were divided about the book’s improbable events, its influence on later writers was enormous. Ann Radcliffe, Matthew Lewis, and Mary Shelley all belong to the Gothic tradition that Walpole helped launch.