Matthew Gregory Lewis (1775–1818)

There do not seem to be any redeemable characters in this story as they all are deeply flawed, which seems to be an underlying message given the very anti-Catholicism nature of the story. Characters use the cover of religion to unsavory ends and even go so far as re-writing the Bible to remove passages that are determined to be inappropriate. All of this seems a condemnation of the distortion of manmade religion as a replacement for "pure religion." All of that paints this book in a very heavy light.

The truth is this is an interesting gothic story with ghosts and magic and mistaken identity. It does contain disturbing images of rape and death but some would say this is to be expected in a gothic story from this period of time. I could imagine a group of people sitting around a parlor with one person reading this aloud for the entertainment of a group of people.… (altro)

The biggest flaw of this Gothic horror story for me was the somewhat dated style of writing (similar to that of Defoe). I think the creepiest part may have been the very end, in which the Spanish Inquisition is investigating Ambrosio (the monk) - partly because I suspect some of the tortures described may have been really used during this period of history!

I could quickly see why this book fell into disrepute during the early Victorian times, as it includes somewhat graphic (if flowery) descriptions of carnal sins and horrifying tortures. I did have to chuckle a few times at the very English repugnance of Catholics that showed in some of the descriptions! And I could see why authors such as Jane Austen parodied this type of melodrama. However, I was surprised by the fact that Ambrosio wasn't painted as entirely evil & his struggles with his conscience were sometimes quite moving.… (altro)