SOURCE: Historical and Literary Memoirs and Anecdotes Selected from the Correspondence of Baron De Grimm … Between the Years 1753 and 1969, and reprinted in Horace Walpole: the Critical Heritage, edited by Peter Sabor, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1987.

In the following excerpt from his Memoirs, Grimm expresses a favorable opinion of The Castle of Otranto.

I alluded, on a former occasion, to a romance, in the old Gothic style, written by Mr. Horace Walpole, son to the celebrated English minister, and author of the letter from the King of Prussia to Rousseau, which was made by the latter the foundation of his quarrel with Mr. Hume. Mr. Walpole is the author of many other things besides the romance in question; his works must not be judged as those of a man of letters by profession, but as amusements of the leisure hours of a man of quality. A translation of his...