Clara Reeve 3 hr 28 min read

In the reign of Henry VI, the true heir of the house of Lovel returns unknowing to his ancestral castle, where a haunted, shut-up wing conceals the secret of a murder crying out for justice.

Clara Reeve's 1778 novel is a foundational classic of Gothic fiction, an heir to 'The Castle of Otranto.' Atmospheric, influential, of its era. Read it for a cornerstone of the Gothic, a rightful heir, a bloody family secret, and a restrained, effective haunting, from a pioneering woman writer of the genre.

In its time

Published in 1778, during the Pre-1800, voyages to the moon, subterranean worlds, and philosophical utopias, the deep roots of the imaginative tradition, from kepler and cyrano to the enlightenment.

Reading it

3 hr 28 min read (a novel-length work, settle in).