About

Matthew Gregory Lewis was born in England in 1750, the first-born of his parents. He was well-educated, attending religious schools throughout his childhood, and eventually receiving both a bachelor's and master's degree. Matthew's parents were married with three children but became estranged when Mrs. Lewis had an affair. His parents sought a divorce, but it was not granted, prompting Mrs. Lewis to flee leaving her family behind. Lewis stayed in contact with his mother in spite of this, and wrote to her often. These events regarding his mother inspired the tragedy of Agnes. Lewis held a position working in the British Embassy at The Hague but was rather disenchanted with the work, and instead focused much his time working there on writing The Monk. Lewis's sisters often made editorial suggestions for his work, hoping for him to make it more socially "acceptable", but these suggestions were always ignored, much to his family's chagrin. Lewis's mother was his greatest supporter.

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Though Lewis played upon tropes from many works of Gothic literature it is apparent that his greatest source of inspiration was Anne Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho. Just a few months before Lewis supposedly began the 10-week whirlwind writing process that ended with The Monk, he wrote to his mother that he saw a striking resemblance between Montoni and himself. Lewis took elements of the supernatural similar to those used by Radcliffe and infused them with religious themes reflective of his education and upbringing in the church as well as the anti-Catholic tone prominent throughout England at this time. Rather than leaving things to the imagination for the majority of the text as Radcliffe would have, Lewis took a very different approach. Instead of instilling terror through building tension, Lewis projected terror into the minds of the reader by explicitly describing every gory detail for the reader's consumption. While this technique of combining classic Gothic tropes was revered by some as innovative, many agreed with Coleridge and his review of The Monk that this was a loss of authorship, bordering on plagiarism.