Written when he was just 19 (and, the author claimed, in only 10 weeks), Matthew Lewis’s The Monk: A Romance proved spectacularly popular with readers upon its first publication in 1796. At the same time, this Gothic tale of religious hypocrisy, sexual depravity, and supernatural visitations was roundly condemned as immoral; critics and readers alike were shocked by the novel’s explicit depictions of violence and sexuality. Lewis published four further editions of the novel in his lifetime, removing more content from each edition in response to public criticism. Nevertheless, The Monk remained popular throughout the 19th century, and Lewis’s work significantly influenced later writers of gothic and horror fiction.

A poet, playwright, novelist, and eventually a Parliament member, Lewis was born into a wealthy English family in 1775. As a young man, Lewis traveled widely throughout Europe, taking up various positions in the diplomatic service, witnessing the aftermath of the French Revolution in Paris, and growing interested in German Romanticism, a literary movement that emphasized traditional folklore. Like other early practitioners of the Gothic novel, Lewis incorporated these elements into his writing, but he departed from the work of popular novelists like Ann Radcliffe in his focus on terrifying supernatural occurrences, explicit depictions of torture and violence, and frank exploration of sexual immorality. Although shocking to its contemporary readers, the sensationalistic narrative of The Monk reflects the cultural anxieties of the 1790s, a period in which Europe was still reeling from the events of the French Revolution and traditional ideologies of religion, gender, and social class were hotly contested.

This guide refers to the 2016 Oxford World’s Classics edition of The Monk: A Romance, which presents Lewis’s first, uncensored edition of the novel published in 1796.

Content Warning: The source material contains depictions of rape and incest. It also uses outdated terminology to refer to Roma people, which readers may find offensive.

Plot Summary

The Monk follows its characters’ adventures in Madrid, Spain, as well as through various European castles and villages. No specific dates for the action of the story are given, but the novel is presumably set in 18th-century Catholic Spain—a region and society that would have seemed “exotic” to Lewis’s English, Protestant readers. Narrated primarily from an omniscient, third-person perspective, The Monk (like many 18th-century novels) also includes multiple “inset tales,” or sections in which characters take over the narration to present first-person accounts of their experiences. Lewis also includes poems, ballads, and songs throughout the text; these pieces reflect the 18th-century Romantic movement’s interest in European folklore and legends, which provided the basis for the Gothic novel. The Monk recounts the moral downfall of a celebrated Capuchin monk, Ambrosio, whose villainous schemes intersect with the romantic adventures of two noblemen, Don Lorenzo and Don Raymond. The Monk unspools an intricate, fantastical, and sometimes dreamlike plot in a world of disguises, mistaken identities, sudden reversals, and supernatural horrors.

The narrative begins with the arrival of a young girl, Antonia, at the Church of the Capuchins in Madrid, Spain. Antonia and her mother, Elvira, have traveled to Madrid to appeal to the aristocratic relatives of Antonia’s deceased father. Elvira, a commoner, was treated cruelly by her husband’s noble relatives, who took her son from her many years ago; Elvira believes that the boy died. Don Lorenzo, a nobleman, meets Antonia at the church and instantly falls in love. Don Lorenzo has come to Madrid to visit his sister, Agnes, who is a nun in the Convent of St. Clare. Ambrosio, the head of Madrid’s monastic order of the Capuchins, arrives at the cathedral to deliver a sermon. Don Lorenzo reveals to Antonia that the people of Madrid consider Ambrosio a paragon of virtue.

After the sermon, Don Lorenzo detects a romantic intrigue between his sister Agnes and his friend, Don Raymond, a nobleman. Don Raymond tells Don Lorenzo the troubled history of his romance with Agnes. Don Raymond attempted to elope with Agnes, but he mistakenly eloped with the ghost of the Bleeding Nun, who haunted the German castle where Agnes lived. Hypnotized by the ghost, Don Raymond was only freed from its thrall by the intervention of a sorcerer. Believing herself abandoned by Don Raymond, Agnes agreed to enter the convent in Madrid. Once freed from the power of the Bleeding Nun, Don Raymond followed Agnes to Madrid and entered the convent by posing as a gardener. Agnes is now pregnant, and the two are planning an elopement to free Agnes from the convent.

The narrative returns to Ambrosio, a proud, vain, and arrogant man who is far more concerned with his reputation than his virtue. Accidentally uncovering Agnes’s plans to elope, Ambrosio callously turns Agnes over to the cruel Prioress of St. Clare, who promises to punish Agnes harshly. Ambrosio then discovers that his most devoted disciple within the monastery, Rosario, is actually a beautiful young noblewoman, Matilda, who disguised herself as a man and entered the convent out of love for Ambrosio. Ambrosio at first rejects Matilda’s advances. However, when Matilda saves Ambrosio’s life by sucking out the venom from a snake bite and begs Ambrosio to make love to her before she dies from the poison, Ambrosio succumbs to temptation. Delighted by Ambrosio’s surrender, Matilda enters the subterranean crypts of the Convent of St. Clare and performs magic to save her life.

Ambrosio soon grows disgusted with Matilda. Meeting Antonia in the Church of the Capuchins, Ambrosio becomes obsessed with Antonia’s beauty and purity and resolves to seduce her. Using sorcery, Matilda bargains with Satan to provide Ambrosio with a magic myrtle branch that can open any door. Ambrosio uses this branch to enter Antonia’s bedchamber, but Elvira discovers him. Panicked, Ambrosio strangles Elvira and flees. Matilda provides Ambrosio with another plan to possess Antonia; she offers a poison that will make Antonia appear dead for three days before waking. Ambrosio returns to the house and poisons the grief-stricken Antonia, who is interred in the crypt of St. Clare. Ambrosio plans to seduce Antonia when she wakes on the night of the Festival of St. Clare.

Meanwhile, Don Raymond and Don Lorenzo demand that the Prioress of St. Clare release Agnes from the convent. The prioress claims that Agnes is dead, but Don Lorenzo suspects foul play. Mother St. Ursula, another nun, sends a message to Don Lorenzo instructing him to summon the Inquisition to arrest the prioress; Mother St. Ursula promises to reveal the prioress’s crimes at the Festival of St. Clare.

On the night of the festival, Ambrosio waits in the crypts beneath the convent for Antonia to wake; Don Lorenzo and Don Raymond wait outside the convent to arrest the prioress. Mother St. Ursula addresses the crowd and reveals that she witnessed the prioress poison Agnes. The crowd, enraged by this news, riots; the prioress is torn to pieces by the mob. The mob then sets fire to the convent. Don Lorenzo and Don Raymond flee into the convent’s underground crypts. Don Lorenzo discovers a hidden dungeon in which Agnes lies imprisoned. Like Antonia, Agnes was given poison that made her appear dead, but she woke three days later in the crypt. Tortured and starved by the prioress, Agnes gave birth prematurely, and her baby died.

As Don Lorenzo frees Agnes, Antonia wakes in the tomb. Despite her pleas, Ambrosio rapes Antonia. Afterward, Antonia manages to escape; she is pursued by Ambrosio, who stabs her to death. Just as Ambrosio stabs Antonia, they are discovered in the passageway by Don Lorenzo and Don Raymond. Antonia dies in Don Lorenzo’s arms. The men turn Ambrosio and Matilda over to the officers of the Inquisition for punishment.

Agnes and Don Raymond finally marry. Don Lorenzo, after grieving for Antonia, marries a beautiful noblewoman. The four live happily together at Don Raymond’s country estate.

The Inquisition condemns Matilda and Ambrosio for sorcery; their punishment is to burn at the stake. The night before this execution, Matilda magically appears in Ambrosio’s prison cell. She explains that she has achieved freedom by selling her soul to Satan and encourages Ambrosio to do the same. Terrified of death, Ambrosio summons Satan and agrees to sell his soul in exchange for freedom. Satan frees Ambrosio but takes him to a wasteland. Satan reveals to Ambrosio that Elvira, whom he murdered, was Ambrosio’s long-lost mother and that Antonia, whom he raped, was his sister. Further, Matilda was a demon Satan sent to tempt Ambrosio. Satan flies Ambrosio into the air and releases him over a mountain. Ambrosio dies in agony, knowing that his soul is damned.