When to Crack the Door: Horace Walpole and the Gothic Architecture of Information.

This article examines how Horace Walpole’s gothic tropes in *The Castle of Otranto* dramatize the consequences of sharing or withholding information amid expanding information availability in the eighteenth century. The novel’s tragic outcome—the death of the heroine Matilda—stems from characters’ failure to share and interpret key prophecies, illustrating the dangers of miscommunication within patriarchal and hierarchical social structures. Walpole’s political career in Parliament and his design of Strawberry Hill with a “Strawberry Committee” of queer male friends reveal his efforts to mediate information through selective, cooperative sharing that contrasts with both the novel’s gothic secrecy and the often secretive parliamentary committees. Ultimately, the article argues that Walpole’s work critiques both overly restricted and overly public information flows, proposing instead a mediated, collective approach to information as a means to balance power and foster social connection.