> Skip to content
Play sample
  • Published: 1 September 2010
  • ISBN: 9781409086345
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 560

The Monk




'Graphic, almost pornographic tale of darkness and evil' Guardian


'One of the most shocking Gothic novels' Independent
Noble and devout, Ambrosio is the abbot of a Spanish monastery and spends his days in prayer and preaching. However his monastery is harboring a malevolent force in the form of a young monk called Rosario. Rosario attaches himself to the abbot and then one fateful night reveals that he is in fact a beautiful woman in disguise. From this moment on Ambrosio finds himself seduced into a lurid maelstrom of sin and vice that it is impossible for him to resist.

INCLUDES THE BRAVO OF VENICE

  • Published: 1 September 2010
  • ISBN: 9781409086345
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 560

Other books in the series

Maldoror and Poems
On Sparta
Love
Annals
Military Dispatches

About the author

Matthew Lewis

Matthew Lewis was born on 9 July 1775 in London. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. He later worked as an attaché to the British Embassy in Holland and an MP. When he was nineteen years old he wrote The Monk, which was published in 1796 and became a huge popular success, leading to the author being nicknamed 'Monk Lewis'. Lewis also wrote plays, poetry, translations and a memoir. He died on 14 May 1818 on a voyage home from the estate he had inherited in Jamaica.

Praise for The Monk

One of the most shocking Gothic novels

Independent

What distinguishes The Monk from a whole raft of lesser imitations is the quality of the storytelling... judicious use of humour...great visual immediacy. Though predating the invention of cinema by a century, The Monk contains many scenes which are structured like a film script... a remarkable understanding of human psychology. The relationship between sex, violence, power and celebrity is explored in a way that strikes definite chords. Ambrosio is an intellectual with the charisma of a rock idol who has risen to the top by the suppression of his passions and, when they are released, they seethe with an intensity which burns off the page

Sunday Times