The Monk

A gothic masterpiece of madness, lust and terror. Matthew Lewis introduces us to the sinful world of Ambrosio, a monk in an ominous Madrid monastery. As horror escalates, it seems the devil has a hand at every turn, steering Ambrosio down a pit of desolation where hopes of redemption diminish with every breath.

Master of the gothic tale, Matthew Gregory Lewis was born in 1775. At the age of 19 he published his novel The Monk which held such luridly gothic imagery, that it became a real classic of the genre. Not long after he became a member of the House of Commons for the Whig Party, his sensational writing not affecting his public standing. Taking the influence of writers such as Ann Radcliffe to heart, he continued to write in the horror-gothic genre, but will always be remembered for testing the limits of the gothic novel in The Monk, a tale which was to inspire those who wrote after him.