The Monk: A Romance by Matthew Gregory Lewis (Book Analysis)

This practical and insightful reading guide offers a complete summary and analysis of The Monk: A Romance by Matthew Gregory Lewis. It provides a thorough exploration of the novel’s plot, characters and main themes, including temptation, death and duplicity. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time.

This clear and detailed 26-page reading guide is structured as follows:

• Biography of Matthew Gregory Lewis
• Presentation of The Monk: A Romance
• Summary of The Monk: A Romance
• Character study
  • Ambrosio
  • Antonia
  • Don Lorenzo De Medina
  • Raymond De Las Cisternas
  • Matilda De Villanegas
• Analysis of The Monk: A Romance
  • Gothic novels
  • The characters and their duplicity
  • The structure of the work
  • Anticlericalism

About The Monk: A Romance

The Monk: A Romance tells the story of a monk named Ambrosio, who gives in to his desires and consorts with the Devil, committing murder and rape to satisfy his impulses. Although the novel was condemned for its anticlericalism and many violent and sexual scenes when it was first published in 1796, it was admired by important literary figures such as Lord Byron and the Marquis de Sade, and is now regarded as a masterpiece of Gothic literature.

About Matthew Gregory Lewis

Matthew Gregory Lewis was an English novelist and playwright who lived and worked in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries. He wrote his best-known work, The Monk: A Romance in ten weeks at the age of 19. He went on to pursue a political career, and served for several years in the House of Commons before returning to literature and producing a series of poems and plays. When his father died in 1815, he left England to visit his family’s estate in West India, where he discovered the slaves’ shocking living conditions. He denounced the practice in his Journal of a West India Proprietor, published posthumously in 1833.