<ul> <li>This edition includes the following editor&#39;s introduction: <i>Clara Reeve and the beginnings of the gothic novel</i></li></ul>&quot;The Old English Baron&quot; is a Gothic novel by English writer Clara Reeve, published anonymously in 1777 under the title &quot;The Champion of Virtue; a Gothic Story.&quot;<br />&quot;The Old English Baron&quot; is one of the most influential Gothic novels of its time. Bibliographically it ranks as a rival to Horace Walpole&#39;s &quot;The Castle of Otranto.&quot; In fact, for much of the 19th century the two novels were published together.<br /><br />The novel follows the adventures of Sir Philip Harclay, who returns to medieval England and discovers that the castle of his comrade, Lord Lovel, has been usurped. This operation uncovers a complex web of betrayal and nefarious alliances, leading to hand-to-hand combat worthy of any Walter Scott novel.<br /><br />&quot;The Old English Baron&quot; was brought to the stage in 1799.