The Monk

The Monk is a cautionary tale of madness, horror, lust and despair. Father Ambrosia, the most pious and venerated monk in all of Madrid is held as a paragon of virtue. But after thirty years of study and prayer, evil thoughts begin to permeate through his mind, and he soon gives in to every deviant temptation; torture, murder, incest, rape, poison and magic, Ambrosia falls from the highest of grace to the darkest of depths. The book was banned upon its initial release in 1796, but later caught the attention of Lord Byron and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, with Coleridge naming it 'the offspring of no common genius'.