The Monk: A Romance by Matthew Gregory Lewis

December 5, 2023
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Into Horror History
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Imagine writing a novel so controversial that people still talk about it over two hundred years later. Well, have I got a story for you. We're heading back to the late 18th century when a teenager named Matthew Gregory Lewis wrote a Gothic novel that made him a best-selling blasphemer.

Who Was Matthew Gregory Lewis?

Matthew was born in London in 1775 and showed an interest in writing and art from a young age. His father, a Deputy Secretary at War, and his mother, the daughter of a wealthy landowner, provided access to high society and plenty of time to dive into creative work.

Portrait of Matthew Gregory Lewis, a watercolor on ivory by George Lethbridge Saunders, circa 1800, depicting a young man with fair skin and curly dark hair. He wears a black outfit with a white collar and has a thoughtful expression.
Portrait of Matthew Gregory Lewis by George Lethbridge Saunders, circa 1800.

His education at Westminster School and Christ Church Oxford laid a foundation for his literary pursuits. While at school, obtaining bachelor's and master's degrees, his interest in writing grew. The Gothic genre was gaining popularity, and he attempted to write a novel similar to Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto. He worked on several plays and battled early rejections of his work.

Matthew was influenced by early Gothic writers, particularly Ann Radcliff and her novel The Mysteries of Udolpho, which was pivotal in shaping the Gothic genre. Ann Radcliffe's work emphasized emotion but refrained from the overtly supernatural. Instead, Matthew embraced it and chose to showcase horror, terror, and a dash of romance.

In 1794, he moved to The Hague in the Netherlands to work at the British embassy, where he stayed for just over half a year. While there, he wrote "The Monk: A Romance" in about ten weeks. Quick math there shows he was nineteen then. It took a year or so to get published, and it went out with only Matthew's initials for the sake of his anonymity.

Over the next several years, multiple editions were released. Meanwhile, Matthew's novel was praised and criticized, and he was accused of plagiarism, immorality, and even blasphemy. Despite the critics, the novel was a scandalous and runaway hit. People simply couldn't get enough of ghosts, bleeding nuns, diabolical pacts, and lewd sex acts.

Aside from his literary career, he also served as a member of Parliament and spent quite a bit of time in Jamaica, where he owned two estates inherited from his father. He personally owned over 500 slaves in Jamaica and took a couple of trips there, where his own views on slavery were changed. He became an early reformist and advocated for better conditions and treatment of slaves, though he didn't push for abolition.

In the summer of 1816, he visited Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley (yes, THE Mary Shelley) in Geneva, Switzerland. Percy recorded a little about the visit in a journal that was published posthumously. I've written of this absolutely bizarre meeting in the summer of 1816 before, so here I'll just say that 1816 was full of insanity with a volcanic winter and a meeting in Geneva of what are now historical, literary giants.

While on the way back to England from Jamaica in 1818, Matthew Gregory Lewis died of yellow fever and was buried at sea. Supposedly, the chains weighing down his coffin slipped, and the coffin rose back to the surface and started back toward Jamaica.

A Brief Look at "The Monk: A Romance"

Matthew threw out the sensibilities of 18th-century England and explicitly explored themes of sexual desire, violence, murder, and the supernatural. It was all a bold departure from the developing Gothic genre norms. When it was released, readers were up in arms about the challenge to religious and moral norms. It's not subtle, either, and includes graphic descriptions of things that would get it put on "burn this book" lists today.

Scandalous.

The book has vivid imagery and dramatic plot twists often cited as ahead of their time, and it has inspired other writers in horror since its release. Its depiction of terror with psychological depth paved the way for modern horror literature.

There are two main plotlines in the novel. First, a monk named Ambrosio succumbs to the temptations of Matilda, a demon-in-disguise, and then falls for a maiden named Antonio. Ambrosio finds himself torn between virtue and vice, struggling with what was once his unshakable faith before becoming a monster of sin.

Second, the romance between Raymond, the son of a marquis, and Agnes, a nun. It centers around an abbey in Madrid, which fits wonderfully into a Gothic backdrop and even includes rioting nuns and arson.

Scan a black and white sketch from the 1811 version depicting a snake-haired demoness with wings dangling a monk in the sky.
That abbey in Madrid was all the rage.

As with all books, it's hard to say much without spoilers.

With that said, there are more than a few points of criticism of the work, like the misogynistic portrayal of women, gratuitous violence and sexual content, heavy-handed and one-dimensional negativity toward Christianity, and convoluted melodrama. But, if Matthew Gregory Lewis's goal was to spark controversy, he succeeded because people are still talking about it over two hundred years later. Some read it because they love it, some hate it, but most people who pick it up keep on turning pages and end up with a lot to talk about.

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