This tragedy about incest, by Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford, cousin of Lord Nelson and English man of letters, is an important work of literature that not only contributed to the development of Gothic literature but also challenged the moral and social norm of its time. In his preface Walpole offers an apology for its appearance in public, claiming "it is solely to avoid its being rendered still worse by a surreptitious edition… He is sensible that the subject is disgusting, and by no means compensated by the execution". An intelligent audience evidently agreed, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge calling it "the most disgusting, detestable, vile composition that ever came from the hand of man",

This tragedy about incest, by Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford, cousin of Lord Nelson and English man of letters, is an important work of literature that not only contributed to the development of Gothic literature but also challenged the moral and social norm of its time. In his preface Walpole offers an apology for its appearance in public, claiming "it is solely to avoid its being rendered still worse by a surreptitious edition… He is sensible that the subject is disgusting, and by no means compensated by the execution". An intelligent audience evidently agreed, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge calling it "the most disgusting, detestable, vile composition that ever came from the hand of man",

Supposedly the first play in the gothic tradition, it was first published by Dodsley in 1768 in an edition of just fifty copies for private distribution; and it was published again in small numbers in 1789. this London edition seems to have been designed to beat the pirate publishers at their game as there were two "unauthorised" Dublin editions in 1790 and 1791.