The Old English Baron by Clara Reeve Fiction Horror

<p><strong>Clara Reeve (1729-1807) novelist was the author of several novels of which only one is remembered -- <em>The Old English Baron</em> (1777) written in imitation of or rivalry with the <em>Castle of Otranto</em> by Horace Walpole 4th Earl of Orford with which it has often been printed.</strong> Her novel has noticeably influenced Mary Shelley's <em>Frankenstein</em>. Her innovative history of prose fiction <em>The Progress of Romance</em> (1785) can be regarded generally as a precursor to modern histories of the novel and specifically as upholding the tradition of female literary history.</p><p>From the Preface:</p><p><em>This Story is the literary offspring of </em>The Castle of Otranto<em> written upon the same plan with a design to unite the most attractive and interesting circumstances of the ancient Romance and modern Novel at the same time it assumes a character and manner of its own that differs from both; it is distinguished by the appellation of a Gothic Story being a picture of Gothic times and manners. . . . A man shall admire and almost adore the Epic poems of the Ancients and yet despise and execrate the ancient Romances which are only Epics in prose.</em></p><p><em>When your expectation is wound up to the highest pitch these circumstances take it down with a witness destroy the work of imagination and instead of attention excite laughter. I was both surprised and vexed to find the enchantment dissolved which I wished might continue to the end of the book; and several of its readers have confessed the same disappointment to me: The beauties are so numerous that we cannot bear the defects but want it to be perfect in all respects.</em></p>