Matthew Gregory Lewis

a romance

The monk

Ryan Mateyk

I rarely read classics because I have this image in my head that they're stuffy and you have to focus too much on what you're reading to really enjoy the story. I don't know why, but I've always been that way and so read very few "classics"... but this book is something else. I actually loved it. It is insane and I can only imagine the scandal when it was first published. You want evil nuns, you got it. You want murder, incest/rape (you probably don't want it), but you got it. You want yung luv, you got it. Honestly, just a wild ride.

Alfredo santos

Pocas veces me he topado con un libro tan entretenido, versátil e impactante. The Monk es un libro gótico escrito en 1796 que no tiene época. Escrito con una increíble prosa y unas historias entrecruzadas que te mantienen leyendo durante horas, te genera distintas emociones profundas. Mathew Lewis logra hacerte reír con comentarios demasiado bien pensados y chistosos, te transporta a una Madrid fanática y religiosa, y las historias te dan escalofríos, a pesar que tiene más de 200 años. Increíble imaginación, increíble libro.

this has its flaws (it really doesn’t like women) but the fact that this even exists is kind of crazy. it’s edgy by today’s standards and takes things to such an extreme that i can’t help but respect it. i can’t even imagine how shocking this must’ve been in 1796. 

Mitch McGonegal

When Matthew Lewis’s The Monk was published in 1796, readers were shocked by this gripping and horrific novel. Lewis’s 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 of incest, murder, and torture by a young girl who has concealed herself in his monastery disguised as a boy. As Ambrosio spirals into hell, the reader encounters an array of haunting characters: the innocent virgin, the Bleeding Nun, the Wandering Jew, an evil prioress, and Lucifer himself.

The Monk

Rjyan C Kidwell

You ever watch a movie from 20 years ago and the humor makes you squirm and recoil and turn off the movie, uncomfortable and unable to take any of it seriously? This book has the silly plot and ludicrous twists of a movie like that, except the dialogue is incredibly funny when it's trying to be. It's a romp, and it works. The older women characters in the book are particularly grand. I love laughing at jokes from 1796 that still land, it's a magical and uplifting feeling; really makes me feel connected to something bigger and mysterious, a collective organism or a god, perhaps (sorta the opposite of watching a movie trailer for a new superhero movie?)

A Romance ...

Noel Antonio Lopez

Excellent work of prose which also employs the various attributes of poetry and playwriting. The stories were thrilling and tragic—arousing, while giving rise to such disgust and fear. A true mirror of literature that examines human nature and the virtues that we work so faithfully to possess. A re-read for sure. 

A Romance. In Two Volumes. ...

Nicholas Laurie

Wild content, though fantastically written. 

Elene

Matthew Lewis

'He was deaf to the murmurs of conscience, and resolved to satisfy his desires at any price.' The Monk (1796) is a sensational story of temptation and depravity, a masterpiece of Gothic fiction and the first horror novel in English literature. The respected monk Ambrosio, the Abbot of a Capuchin monastery in Madrid, is overwhelmed with desire for a young girl; once having abandoned his monastic vows he begins a terrible descent into immorality and violence. His appalling fall from grace embraces blasphemy, black magic, torture, rape, and murder, and places his very soul in jeopardy. Lewis's extraordinary tale drew on folklore, legendary ghost stories, and contemporary dread inspired by the terrors of the French Revolution. Its excesses shocked the reading public and it was condemned as obscene. The novel continues to beguile and shock readers today with its gruesome catalogue of iniquities, while at the same time giving a profound insight into the deep anxieties experienced by British citizens during one of the most turbulent periods in the nation's history. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Amira BEN

betty gonzalez

Rowan Moran

Molly M

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rhea 

Billy Flynn

Svetlana Nartey 

marie

Cat Josephson

Milan Davidović

Clare B

Nicole

Rothko

A masterpiece of the Gothic genre, The Monk tells the story of the Capuchin friar Ambrosio and his fall from grace through desire, greed and lust. Published anonymously and favourably reviewed at first, the novel was later so widely and raucously denounced for its perceived licentiousness, blasphemy and corrupting influence that Lewis had to remove controversial passages from future editions. Unsurprisingly, amidst this furore, the book was immensely popular with the reading public. Suffused with eroticism and focusing on the corrupting influence of power, The Monk pioneered a shocking new form of Gothic novel, where elements such as mob violence, incest and brutal murders replaced the gentler horrors of earlier practitioners of the genre such as Horace Walpole and Ann Radcliffe.

The monk a romance

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