The Monk Av Matthew Lewis

<p>Matthew Lewis''s Gothic masterpiece, depicting a holy man slowly becoming entangled in a web of sin, <i>The Monk </i>is edited with an introduction by Christopher MacLachlan in Penguin Classics.<br><br>Savaged by critics for its blasphemy and obscenity, particularly since the author was a Member of Parliament, <i>The Monk</i> soon attracted thousands of readers keen to see if this Gothic novel lived up to its lurid reputation. With acute psychological insight, Lewis shows the diabolical decline of Ambrosio, a worthy superior of the Capuchins of Madrid who is tempted by Matilda, a young girl who has entered his monastery disguised as a boy. Descending into a hell of his own creation, Ambrosio is driven to magic and murder in an attempt to conceal his crimes from the Inquisition. <i>The Monk </i>was greatly admired by the Marquis de Sade, who saw it as a response to the upheavals of the French Revolution, yet it also reveals something more universal: the way violent and erotic impulse