In the following excerpt, Summers details the composition, contemporary critical reception, plot, style, sources, translations, adaptations, and literary influence of The Monk. Only those footnotes pertaining to the excerpt below have been reprinted.

In the following essay, Kauhl examines the motif of transgression, as both a psychological and a political fact in The Monk.

In the following essay, Gose undertakes a psychoanalytic survey of The Monk, noting its "unresolved tensions" of "sexual conflict, violated taboos, and self-destructive impulses."

In the following essay, Grudin assesses the "formal coherence " of The Monk, claiming that evidence for its structural unity exists in an interpretation of Matilda as a demonic being.

In the following essay, Lydenberg investigates "Lewis's ambivalence toward his authorial responsibility" as moral judge in The Monk.

In the following essay, the anonymous critic maintains that The Monk expounds lessons of virtue, rather than of vice, as many reviewers have contended.

In the following review, the critic describes the literary sources of The Monk, adding that obscenity "pervades and deforms the whole organization of this novel. "