Monk

Written in the "gothic" style of the novel "The Monk" - the most famous work of the famous English novelist, playwright, poet and translator Matthew Gregory Lewis (1775-1818). The reader's attention is drawn to the descriptions of the temptations of hell, the trial of the Inquisition, and the bargain with the devil himself. Actions in the novel dynamically develop against the background of ancient Spanish monasteries, temples, castles, crypts and inquisition dungeons. The text is translated by Irina Gavrilovna Gurova. The book is decorated with drawings taken from the first illustrated edition of the novel, published in London in 1859 by George Purkess.
Tales of the macabre and mystical invariably attract the attention of listeners. The founder of the so-called "Gothic" literature, full of supernatural horrors, mysterious adventures and inexplicable phenomena, became in the second half of the XVIII century English writer and bibliophile Horace Walpole. In his novel "The Castle of Otranto", published in 1764, the narrative was saturated with gloomy and sinister pictures. Walpole's literary legacy spawned an intellectual movement in England known as the Gothic Revival. In this vein lay such later works as Anne Radcliffe's The Udolphic Mysteries, Jan Potocki's The Manuscript Found in Zaragoza, and Matthew Gregory Lewis's The Monk. Gregory Lewis was destined from birth to become a major statesman. The future writer was born in London in 1775 in the family of an influential politician. Matthew received an excellent education at Christ Church College, Oxford University, and then made a long journey through Germany, getting acquainted with the most famous representatives of German culture. Lewis began his career in The Hague, where he took up the post of British attaché. In time, he became a member of the House of Commons in the English Parliament, and later did business in Jamaica. However, Matthew Gregory's second life as a literary man flowed in parallel. In his youth, Lewis read both "The Castle of Otranto" Walpole, and "Udolph Mysteries" Radcliffe - it seemed to him that he could write something similar. As a result, from under the pen of nineteen-year-old Matthew came out of the novel "Monk", which is still considered one of the landmark works written in the Gothic style. Trying not to mix his two lives, Lewis published his "Monk" in 1796 anonymously, but it was not possible to hide the authorship for long, and soon friends and acquaintances began to call him Monk Lewis. The success of the novel with its aestheticization of the repulsive and descriptions of black magic, infernal temptations, cruel deeds and dark omens was extraordinary. "The Monk" was praised by the Marquis de Sade, calling it the most characteristic of novels in the latest taste. Flushed with success, Lewis continued to write. He authored the tragedy "The Ghost of the Castle", which was staged in 1798. A year later, Matthew published a collection of "Horrible Tales", and a couple more years later a collection of "Magical Tales". Still, his "The Monk" continued to take the lead in this series. Based on this landmark work in 2011, a French mystical thriller with Vincent Cassel in the title role was filmed.