The Monk by Matthew Lewis

The Monk by Matthew Lewis

'The Monk was so highly popular that it seemed to create an epoch in our literature', wrote Sir Walter Scott. Set in the sinister monastery of the Capuchins in Madrid, The Monk is a violent tale of ambition, murder, and incest. The great struggle between maintaining monastic vows and fulfilling personal ambitions leads its main character, the monk Ambrosio, to temptation and the breaking of his vows, then to sexual obsession and rape, and finally to murder in order to conceal his guilt. Inspired by German horror romanticism and the work of Ann Radcliffe, Lewis produced his masterpiece at the age of nineteen. It contains many typical Gothic elements - seduction in a monastery, lustful monks, evil Abbesses, bandits and beautiful heroines. But, as the Introduction to this new edition shows, Lewis also played with convention, ranging from gruesome realism to social comedy, and even parodied the genre in which he was writing.

'The Monk was so highly popular that it seemed to create an epoch in our literature' Sir Walter Scott.

Matthew Gregory Lewis (1775-1818) was an English novelist and dramatist who became known as Monk Lewis after the success of his Gothic novel The Monk, published in 1796. Lewis, along with Charles Robert Maturin and Mary Shelley, is usually categorized as a Gothic horror author. The Secrets of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe and Caleb Williams by William Godwin were undoubtedly influential on Lewis. In fact, Lewis wrote a letter to his mother a few months before starting to write The Monk in which he remarked that the villain Montoni from The Mysteries of Udolpho and himself had a striking likeness. Lewis' literary approach contrasted from Radcliffe's fascination with the supernatural and Godwin's narrative drive and emphasis in crime and punishment.

Unlike Radcliffe, who used the terror-Gothic genre to hint to imagined horrors, Lewis distinguished himself by revealing the details of the terrible events, garnering him the moniker of Gothic horror novelist. Lewis creates a more novelistic experience for the reader by providing actual details rather than the scared sensations prevalent in Radcliffe.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780192833945
ISBN 10	0192833944
Title	The Monk
Author	Matthew Lewis
Series	Oxford World's Classics Ser
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Oxford University Press
Year published	1998-05-01
Number of pages	496
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.