Horace Walpole is best known for his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, which established the tropes of the Gothic genre: haunted castles, supernatural events, and brooding atmosphere. The son of Britain's first Prime Minister, he was a key figure in the 18th-century social and political elite. His home, Strawberry Hill, was a landmark of Gothic Revival architecture and reflected his fascination with the medieval past. Walpole was also a prolific letter-writer, providing modern historians with a vivid account of the social and cultural life of the Georgian era.