Ten of the best castles in literature

For the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best castles in literature.

One castle on the list:

Otranto

The first gothic novel, Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto, naturally took its title from an exemplary Italian castle, complete with a turret-room prison, cloisters and underground passages, whence the beautiful Isabella flees from the tyrant Manfred, lord of the castle and her would-be despoiler.

Read about another castle on the list.

The Castle of Otranto also appears on Patrick McGrath's list of the best gothic novels.

--Marshal Zeringue