Dangerous natural settings such as forests and mountains were also effective. Protagonists are frequently orphans, or they are foundlings or adopted, their family origins mysterious. Action in the Gothic novel tends to take place at night, or at least in a claustrophobic, sunless environment. It is generally agreed that the first, or the first major Gothic novel was Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto published in 1764. This novel set the standard for all other gothic novels to follow.
Gothic fiction continues that tradition in a literary form.