The Monk
Trade Paperback
Demon worship, imprisonment, illicit desire, rape. With such subject matter, it s little surprise that Matthew Gregory Lewis The Monk became a sensation as soon as it appeared in 1796. England s reading public found the book so compelling that it went through numerous editions within the first couple years of its publication. Today, Matthew Lewis is widely recognized as a central figure in the history of Gothic fiction. In The Monk, he uses the novel s twisting plots and supernatural machinery to expose the dangers of repressed desire, attack religious hypocrisy, and challenge late eighteenth-century definitions of virtue and propriety.
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- ISBN: 9781435108417
- Author: Matthew Lewis
- Pub date: 18.06.09
- RRP: $24.99
- Format: Paperback / softback
Author
Matthew Lewis
Matthew Lewis was born in London on July 9, 1775. The family s wealth and social connections resulted in Lewis being educated at Oxford for a diplomatic career. Lewis found the work he did in the British embassy in Holland tedious, so with a head full of ghost stories from his early reading and travel, he turned his efforts to writing The Monk. He completed the novel in a few months at the age of nineteen. When his father died in 1812, Lewis inherited a sizable plantation in Jamaica and began working to improve the conditions of the slaves there. On a return trip in 1818, Lewis died of illness and was buried at sea.