Gothic Studies, November 1st, 2004
A number of critics, most notably the Marquis de Sade, have argued that Matthew Lewis's The Monk (1796) was heavily influenced by the turmoil of the French Revolution. As Ronald Paulson points out, Lewis's novel reflects a highly ambivalent attitude toward the political upheaval in France: Lewis exploits the dramatic resonances of the Revolution and its anti-clericalism, but simultaneously portrays the rioting mob as blood-thirsty, completely out of control, animal-like in its ferocity. The convent of St Clare represents corruption, superstition, and repression, but its overthrowers, no more ...
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