The Monk

A pious monk is driven by sexual desire into the depths of sin and depravity in this eighteenth-century classic of Gothic fiction.

Ambrosio is the abbot of the Capuchin monastery in Madrid. He is beloved by his flock, and his renowned piety has earned him the nickname The Man of Holiness. Yet beneath the veneer of this religious man lies a heart of hypocrisy; arrogant, licentious, and vengeful, he follows his sexual desires down the torturous path to ruin. Along the way, he encounters a naïve virgin who falls prey to his scheming, a baleful beauty fluent in witchcraft, the ghostly Bleeding Nun, an evil prioress, the Wandering Jew, and Lucifer himself.

Matthew Lewis’s The Monk shocked and titillated readers with its graphic portrayal of lust, sin, and violence when it was first published in 1796. It was so controversial that the House of Commons—of which Lewis was a member—pronounced him licentious and perverse. A true classic of the Gothic novel, it left an indelible mark on English literature and has influenced such eminent writers as Byron, Scott, Poe, Flaubert, Hawthorne, Emily Brontë, and many others.

This edition of The Monk, set from the unexpurgated first edition, includes an introduction by John Berryman.