The Monk (The ^AWorld's Classics) - Softcover

Matthew Lewis

3.83

28,916 ratings by Goodreads

9780192815248: The Monk (The ^AWorld's Classics)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192815245 ISBN 13: 9780192815248

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1983

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Set in the sinister monastery of the Capuchins in Madrid, The Monk is a violent tale of ambition, murder, and incest. The great struggle between maintaining monastic vows and fulfilling personal ambitions leads its main character, the monk Ambrosio, to temptation and the breaking of his vows, then to sexual obsession and rape, and finally to murder in order to conceal his guilt. The only edition of this key gothic novel available, The Monk now offers a new introduction and notes that make it especially accessible to the modern reader.

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From the Inside Flap:

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.
This Modern Library Paperback Classic, set from the unexpurgated first edition of 1796, brings to a new generation of readers a timeless classic of gothic fiction that has influenced writers from Byron and Emily Bronte to Poe and Hawthorne.

From the Back Cover:

The Monk shocked and titillated readers with its graphic portrayal of lust, sin, and violence when it was first published, in 1796.

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