The Monk - Matthew Lewis
Urgh. Another clunky, lurid Gothic fantasy from notorious one-trick pony Matthew Lewis. The Monk (a title clearly dreamed up in some moment of stunning inspiration) details the corruption of Spanish monk Ambrosio by Lust and Pride.
It's a novel that well and truly dispels any illusions of eighteenth and nineteenth-century prudishness: full of rape, murder and torture, not to mention some serious Catholic-hating, it sold sensationally well until a court order had the fourth edition expurgated. But then, Twilight sold sensationally well. It doesn't mean it's any good.
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