Nick Groom's wide-ranging introduction explores the novel's Gothic context in the cultural movement that affected political and religious thinking before Walpole developed it as a literary style, helping to explain the novel's impact on contemporaries, its importance, and Walpole's pioneering innovations.
A new edition of one of the earliest and most influential Gothic novels, the best introduction to the work that inaugurated a literary genre.Oxford Research Encyclopedias: Global Public HealthĮdited by Nick Groom Oxford World's Classics.The European Society of Cardiology Series.Oxford Commentaries on International Law.Every murmur struck her with new terror yet more she dreaded to hear the wrathful voice of Manfred urging his domestics to pursue her. An awful silence reigned throughout those subterraneous regions, except now and then some blasts of wind that shook the doors she had passed, and which, grating on the rusty hinges, were re-echoed through that long labyrinth of darkness. The lower part of the castle was hollowed into several intricate cloisters and it was not easy for one under so much anxiety to find the door that opened into the cavern. In this resolution, she seized a lamp that burned at the foot of the staircase, and hurried towards the secret passage. Could she reach the altar before she was overtaken, she knew even Manfred’s violence would not dare to profane the sacredness of the place and she determined, if no other means of deliverance offered, to shut herself up for ever among the holy virgins whose convent was contiguous to the cathedral.
Yet where conceal herself? How avoid the pursuit he would infallibly make throughout the castle?Īs these thoughts passed rapidly through her mind, she recollected a subterraneous passage which led from the vaults of the castle to the church of St. Delay might give him time to reflect on the horrid measures he had conceived, or produce some circumstance in her favour, if she could-for that night, at least-avoid his odious purpose. Should she, as her heart prompted her, go and prepare Hippolita for the cruel destiny that awaited her, she did not doubt but Manfred would seek her there, and that his violence would incite him to double the injury he meditated, without leaving room for them to avoid the impetuosity of his passions. The gates of the castle, she knew, were locked, and guards placed in the court. There she stopped, not knowing whither to direct her steps, nor how to escape from the impetuosity of the Prince. "The lady, whose resolution had given way to terror the moment she had quitted Manfred, continued her flight to the bottom of the principal staircase.
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