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MYSTERIOUS: Horace walpole - You Need To See This

Bridgerton: three true tales of love at first sight at Regency masquerade balls

Countless love stories throughout the ages hinge on the idea of love at first sight. Immediate, unwavering infatuation the moment eyes meet. Two people finding each other across a crowded, glittering ballroom or perhaps bumping into each other accidentally. But what if your true love is hidden behind a disguise?…

The Conversation

Did Leonardo da Vinci paint a nude Mona Lisa? I may have just solved this centuries-old mystery

It is one of the most tantalising – and entertaining – puzzles in art, stretching from the Louvre to the Loire via, well, Norfolk. And our critic thinks he has just worked it out

The Guardian - UK

People Explain The Etymology Of These 64 Common Words You Probably Never Knew About

We use countless words every day without ever stopping to think about where they came from. But behind many ordinary expressions are unexpected stories, twists of history, and surprising roots that reveal how language has changed over time. From ancient trade routes to medieval jokes, these origins show how words…

Bored Panda

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A brief history of the haunted house in western cinema and literature

A door creaks shut, unexpectedly; a footstep is heard on the stair; a face seen at the window. The haunted house is a staple of gothic writing, television and film, but what is it about this humble setting that holds such a fascination?

The Conversation

Hidden London: Strawberry Hill House

Don’t scare easily? Then visit the inspiration for the first ever Gothic novel, says John Darlington

Evening Standard

How 19th-century melodrama turned the sweet music of gothic into something dark and sinister

In 1764, Horace Walpole published the first gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto, set in a labyrinthine castle surrounded by woods. The novel features the supernatural, with a dark secret from the past at its core. Today, 260 years later, gothic is still with us in the form of “contemporary…

The Conversation

From a scream to a whisper – ‘quiet horror’ novels are making a comeback

Ever since its inception with Horace Walpole’s novel The Castle of Otranto (1764), a delirious mixture of violent death and familial conspiracy, gothic literature has been a restless cultural form, constantly mutating and assuming new guises but always exploring the darker side of life. Sometimes, its fashions are those of…

The Conversation

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Best Gothic novels for classic, dramatic and unsettling stories

Make every season spooky

Evening Standard

‘They had no idea it was Caligula’: bronze bust of Roman emperor found after 200 years

A tiny Roman rarity cast near Vesuvius and once owned by the writer and politician Horace Walpole has been discovered by an eagle-eyed curator

The Guardian - UK

Letters reveal the dispute that pushed poet Thomas Chatterton to the brink

The romantic writer took his own life aged just 17 after a row with Horace Walpole

The Guardian - UK

Why not honour the Queen by opening up the gardens at Buckingham Palace?

A different British architect could design each area, solving potential arguments and creating a living monument

The Guardian - UK

From Where the Crawdads Sing to Uncoupled: a complete guide to this week’s entertainment

Whether you’re partial to a swampy murder-mystery based on a bestseller or a divorce drama with Neil Patrick Harris, our critics have you covered for the next seven days

The Guardian - UK

Strawberry Hill launches crowdfunding campaign to save iconic Walpole portrait

The Trust is hoping to bring the portrait of a young Walpole back to his home of Strawberry Hill

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