The Old English BaronMy rating: 2 of 5 stars

The challenges to noble society that Horace Walpole explored in The Castle of Otranto are crushed somewhat by Clara Reeve’s The Old English Baron. By articulating a desire to hold to traditional norms, Reeve wraps up things too nicely and everyone is happy and lives onward. Perhaps she was prescient of a Hollywood adaptation of her novel? But, I enjoyed reading the story to its proper conclusion. Further, Reeve continues to develop the gothic form that would reach its height with Ann Radcliffe.