Walpole’s Diminutions (Public lecture, 12th December)

Despite being an important figure in his own time, Horace Walpole suffered put-downs from later writers and thinkers. Why? Find out at this free public lecture with Fiona Robertson, part of our Walpole and His Legacies series. This talk starts at 18.15 on 12th December, in Elvet Riverside 141. Reviewing Walpole’s letters to George Montagu for...

Monstrum: The Castle of Otranto, Gothic Fiction and the Origins of Genre (Public lecture, 5th December)

When he subtitled his novel The Castle of Otranto as a 'Gothic story', Horace Walpole could have little realised that he would give life to the genre that remains popular to this day. This free Walpole and His Legacies lecture with Fred Botting (Kingston University) will look at where the Gothic came from, and where it went to...

Walpole, Vampires, and the Undead (Public lecture, 28th November)

Venture into the world vampire novels with Nick Groom (University of Exeter) and explore The Castle of Otranto, a pioneering gothic novel written 150 years before Dracula. This next talk in our Walpole and His Legacies series starts at 18.15 on 28th November, in Elvet Riverside 141. Vampires, as we understand them today, were first discovered in the...

Walpole, Burney, and the Tragedy of Incest (Public lecture, 21st November)

Even in today's world of internet clickbait, stories about incestuous relationships seem extreme. Yet incest was a recurrent theme of eighteenth-century drama. Gillian Skinner will examine the way two writers approached the theme in the next Walpole and His Legacies public lecture. The talk starts at 18.15 on 21st November, in Elvet Riverside 141. When Frances Burney...

Greenth (Public lecture, 14st November)

What does the word 'greenth' mean? The next lecture in our Walpole and His Legacies series will show how a word coined by Walpole unlocks wider ideas about attitudes towards nature both in the eighteenth century and our own time. Join Stephen Bending (University of Southampton) at 18.15 on 14th November, in Elvet Riverside 141. In...