Matthew Gregory Lewis Books In Order

Novels

  1. The Monk (1795)
  2. The Bravo of Venice (1804)

Collections

  1. Tales of Wonder (1801)
  2. Romantic Tales (1808)

Plays

  1. The Castle Spectre (1797)

Non fiction

  1. Journal of a West India Proprietor, Kept during a Residence in the Island of Jamaica (1834)

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Matthew Gregory Lewis Books Overview

The Monk

One of the most extravagantly dark works of Gothic fiction ever written in English, admired by the likes of Lord Byron and the Marquis de Sade, The Monk drew a firestorm of criticism when it was published in 1796. Contemporaries condemned it as ‘lewd,’ ‘libidinous and impious.’ ‘Lust, murder, incest, and every atrocity that can disgrace human nature,’ one critic cried, ‘brought together, without the apology of probability, or even possibility.’ Of course, it was an immediate best seller. Written by Matthew Lewis at the tender age of nineteen, The Monk tells of the violent downfall of The Monk Ambrosio. Idolized by all Madrid for his spotless character, the proud Ambrosio is privately tormented with lust for Matilda and, once sated, with overpowering desire for the pure and innocent Antonia, whom he rapes and murders in the crypt of Saint Clare. Sentenced to death by the Inquisition, he sells his soul to the devil, with unusually bad results. But the plot is only part of the book’s appeal. The Monk is a bubbling cauldron of Horror characters and motifs. Ghosts, murderous banditti, the Wandering Jew, a gypsy fortune teller, the Bleeding Nun, the Grand Inquisitor, and Satan himself all have roles in the drama. Characters are buried alive, tortured, tempted by demons, and torn apart by riotous mobs, in settings that include castles, monasteries, and dungeons. Stephen King, in his introduction to this edition, calls The Monk ‘a black engine of sex and the supernatural that changed the genre and the novel itself forever.’ Everyone who loves the novels of King will find this book irresistible.

The Bravo of Venice

Matthew Gregory Lewis 1775 1818 was a British author. From Westminster School, he passed to Christ Church, Oxford. Already he was busy over tales and plays, and wrote at college a farce, never acted, a comedy, The East Indian, and also a novel, never published, called The Effusions of Sensibility, which was a burlesque upon the sentimental school. He wrote also what he called ‘a romance in the style of The Castle of Otranto, ‘ which appeared afterwards as the play of The Castle Spectre 1796. His father’s desire was to train him for the diplomatic service, and in the summer of 1794 he went to the Hague as attache to the British Embassy. He had begun to write his novel The Monk: A Romance 1796, but was spurred on at the Hague by a reading of Mrs. Radcliffe’s Mysteries of Udolpho, a book after his own heart. His other works include: The Bravo of Venice: A Romance 1804.

Tales of Wonder

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www. million books. com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: No. III. SIR HENGIST. GERMAN. M.G. LEWIS. Herman, or Arminius, is the favourite hero of Germany, whose liberty he defended against the oppression of Rome: Flams, his brother, sided with the Romans, and in consequence his memory is as much detested by his countrymen, as that ofArminius is beloved. I forget where I met with the original of this Ballad. Where rolls the Weser’s golden sand, Did erst Sir Hengist’s castle stand, A warrior brave and good; His lands extended far and wide, Where stream’d full many a plenteous tide, Where frown’d full many a wood, c It chanced, that homewards from the chace Sir Hengist urged his courser’s pace, The shadowy dales among, While all was still, and late the hour, And far off, in the castle tower, The bell of midnight rung. Sudden, ;i piercing shriek resounds Throughout the forest’s ample bounds; A wildly dreadful yell; The dogs, by trembling, own their fear, As if they scent some bad thing near, Some soul enlarged from hell! ‘ See, father!’ cried young Egbert; ‘ see ‘ Beneath the shade of yonder tree ‘ What fearful form is spread ! ‘ How fire around his temples glows ! ‘ How from his lance and fingers flows ‘ The stream of bloody red !’ ‘ Stay here!’ said Hengist, then with speed Towards the stranger spurr’d his steed; ‘ What brings thee here, Sir Knight, ‘ Who dar’st in my domains to bear ‘ A lance, and by thy haughty air ‘ Seem’st to demand the fight?’ ‘ Long has my arm forgot to wield ‘ The sword, and raise the massy shield,’ Replied the stranger drear : ‘ Peace to this brown oak’s hallow’d shade ! ‘ Peace to the bones which here are laid, ‘ And which we both revere ! ‘ Know’st thou not Siegmar, Herman’s sire, ‘ That arm of steel, that soul of fire? ‘ Here is…

The Castle Spectre

Matthew Gregory Lewis 1775 1818 was a British author. From Westminster School, he passed to Christ Church, Oxford. Already he was busy over tales and plays, and wrote at college a farce, never acted, a comedy, The East Indian, and also a novel, never published, called The Effusions of Sensibility, which was a burlesque upon the sentimental school. He wrote also what he called ‘a romance in the style of The Castle of Otranto, ‘ which appeared afterwards as the play of The Castle Spectre 1796. His father’s desire was to train him for the diplomatic service, and in the summer of 1794 he went to the Hague as attache to the British Embassy. He had begun to write his novel The Monk: A Romance 1796, but was spurred on at the Hague by a reading of Mrs. Radcliffe’s Mysteries of Udolpho, a book after his own heart. His other works include: The Bravo of Venice: A Romance 1804.

Journal of a West India Proprietor, Kept during a Residence in the Island of Jamaica

Matthew ‘Monk’ Lewis 1775 1818 is best known as a writer of plays and ‘Gothic’ novels such as The Monk from which he acquired his nickname. On the death of his father in 1812, he inherited a large fortune, including estates in Jamaica. He spent four months there in 1815, during which time much of this Journal of a West India Proprietor was written. He became interested in the condition of the slaves on his estates, and on returning to England made contact with William Wilberforce and other abolitionists. The improvements he made on his own estates were unpopular with other landholders, but foreshadowed the reforms of the 1830s, when the Journal was published. He revisited the island in 1817, but died of yellow fever on the way home. S. T. Coleridge regarded the Journal as Lewis’ best work, and the one most likely to be of lasting value.

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