The Monk

"Outrageous", "provocative", "sensational" – such epithets have accompanied critics' reviews of the novel by English writer Matthew Gregory Lewis, "The Monk", for two centuries. Upon its release in spring 1796, it instantly became a bestseller and the cause of a loud public scandal.

The story of the Spanish Capuchin monk Ambrosio – a new Faust, a victim of devilish schemes and a destroyer of others' lives – earned the twenty-year-old author a controversial reputation as an immoralist, an atheist, and at the same time as a creator of the gothic tragic novel, which anticipated the plot conflicts of romantic literature. Having a direct influence on many authors of the nineteenth century, "The Monk" was subsequently highly regarded by the masters of the twentieth century: André Breton dedicated enthusiastic lines to this book in the "Manifesto of Surrealism", Antonin Artaud made a free adaptation of it into French, and the famous Spanish director Luis Buñuel wrote the script for its first cinematic version (1972).

This edition includes, in addition to the text of the novel, an expanded historical-literary commentary.