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9 July 1775 - 10 May 1818
Like Mary Shelley, Lewis made a huge impact with his teenage (and only) novel The Monk, which more or less defined the far edge of sensational Gothicism when it was published in 1796. Indeed, the notoriety of the novel was such that Lewis was forever after known as "Monk" Lewis, and the fact he served as a Member of Parliament only heightened the shock value. Lewis went on to write a number of plays, poems, and translations, many of which featured Gothic themes and motifs. As a playwright Lewis was rather successful, his melodramatic flair finding an appreciate audience in the days of Romantic drama, although Lewis abandoned the theater when he inherited his family's West Indian sugar plantations. |
This unattributed etching of Lewis (you can see what may well be the source by clicking on the "Portraits" link at left) served as the frontispiece to The Life and Correspondence of M. G. Lewis, London: Henry Colburn, 1839.
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The Monk [1796]
One of the most notorious of Gothic novels, The Monk is an essential text for any fan of the Gothic. It is libidinally charged and features many of the quintesstial Gothic plot engines: lust, a Faustian pact with the devil, magic, hidden identity, incest, cruelty, murder, drugs, religious hypocrisy.... it's pretty much the complete Gothic package.
- at Project Gutenberg (817K or zipped version 339K)
- at BlackMask (PDF) Additional Monk resources:
-- brief remarks by George Saintsbury, from The Cambridge History of English and American Literature (1907-1921) [Bartleby.com]
-- brief discussion and extracts [W. W. Norton] -- brief overview [Sweet Despise, Ian Davey] -- brief commentary [Christopher MacLachlan, U St. Andrews] |
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