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'Few could sustain the glance of his eye, at once fiery and penetrating'

Savaged by critics for its supposed profanity and obscenity, and bought in large numbers by readers eager to see whether it lived up to its lurid reputation, The Monk became a succ s de scandale... Read Full Overview

'Few could sustain the glance of his eye, at once fiery and penetrating' Savaged by critics for its supposed profanity and obscenity, and bought in large numbers by readers eager to see whether it lived up to its lurid reputation, The Monk became a succ s de scandale when it... Read Full Overview

'He was deaf to the murmurs of conscience, and resolved to satisfy his desires at any price.'

The Monk: A Romance is a Gothic novel by Matthew Gregory Lewis, published in 1796. A quickly written book from early in Lewis's career (in one letter he claimed to have written it in ten weeks, but other correspondence suggests that he had at least started it, or something similar,... Read Full Overview

First published in 1796, "The Monk" is the popular and controversial Gothic novel by Matthew G. Lewis, the English novelist and dramatist. Written when Lewis was only nineteen, it is the tale of a monk who is tempted by carnal desire and led down a ruinous path of ungodliness... Read Full Overview

Matthew G. Lewis. (1775 - 1818). Escritor, dramaturgo y pol tico brit nico conocido por Monk Lewis a ra z de su primera obra, El Monje (1796), donde denunciaba la Inquisici n espa ola y que le hizo popular. El Monje, de buena acogida entre la mayor a de la poblaci n, fue muy... Read Full Overview

Sex, sorcery, and Satanism: The Monk is a tale of the temptations of the holiest man in Madrid. Utterly unlike anything England had seen before its publication in 1796, The Monk is a lurid, suspenseful, and occasionally hilarious novel that radically transformed gothic literature... Read Full Overview

The Monk: A Romance is a Gothic novel by Matthew Gregory Lewis, published in 1796. It was written before the author turned 20, in the space of 10 weeks. It details the exploits of an evil monk, in lurid and entertaining fashion.

Left at a monastery as a baby, Ambrosio grew up to be a cruel and stern monk, renowned for his sermons and piety. When a nun named Agnes goes to Ambrosio for the sacrament of confession, she admits that she is pregnant after having a long love affair with a man named Raymond... Read Full Overview

"When Matthew Lewiss The Monk was published in 1796, readers were shocked by this gripping and horrific novel. Lewiss story, which drove the House of Commons--of which he was a member--to deem him licentious and perverse, follows the abbot Ambrosio as he is tempted into a world... Read Full Overview

One of the most extravagantly dark works of Gothic fiction ever written in English, admired by the likes of Lord Byron and the Marquis de Sade, The Monk drew a firestorm of criticism when it was published in 1796. Contemporaries condemned it as "lewd," "libidinous and impious."... Read Full Overview