The Monk.

Scandalous in its day and still startling now, The Monk plunges its readers into a Gothic nightmare of forbidden desire and moral ruin.

What it's about

Matthew Lewis's novel centres on Ambrosio, a celebrated and outwardly saintly monk in Madrid, admired for his piety and eloquence. When temptation enters his cloistered world, his rigid virtue proves brittle, and he is drawn step by step into transgression, deceit and worse, while a second, entwined story of thwarted lovers and menacing forces unfolds around him. Lewis piles on incident and horror with reckless energy, driving toward a dark and famous conclusion.

Themes

The book is a fierce study of hypocrisy and repression, of the way suppressed desire can erupt into destruction, and of the corruptibility that can lurk behind a holy reputation. It mingles the supernatural with the psychological, using demons, spectres and dungeons alongside all-too-human weakness, and casts a sceptical, sometimes shocking eye on religious authority.

Why it still matters

Wildly controversial on publication, The Monk pushed the Gothic to a new extreme and influenced writers from the Romantics onward. Bolder and more sensational than the atmospheric terrors of its contemporaries, it remains a landmark of horror fiction and a fascinating example of a young author scandalising, and captivating, his age.

Who it's for

Readers of Gothic and horror fiction, students of Romantic-era literature, and anyone drawn to a dark, headlong tale of temptation and downfall.