![]() ![]() "Impressive theatrical effects included a gigantic heavenly helmet with magical powers, a bleeding statue, a sword that could only be borne by fifty men, an anchorite whose flesh had melted away to leave only an animated skeleton, and a portrait that strode out of its frame. ![]() The poet Thomas Gray wrote to Walpole that the novel made "some of us cry a little, and all in general afraid to go to bed o'nights" (Gray). The first edition was disguised as the translation, by one "William Marshal, Gent", of an Italian work discovered in the library of an old Roman Catholic family in the north of England, but the reception was so favourable that within six months of publication Walpole issued a second edition in which his authorship was revealed. Printed on Christmas Eve 1764 in a small edition of 500 copies on fine laid paper, the first edition has long been a choice item for collectors. ![]() First edition, the Newton copy, of this mock tale of medieval horror which initiated the vogue for Gothic romances, rare in contemporary binding. ![]()
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