Matthew Gregory Lewis

Matthew Gregory Lewis (July 9th 1775 - May 14th 1818) is a novelist and Dramaturge English, often appointed under the name of the “monk” Lewis, because of the success of sound Roman Gothic, the Monk ( The Monk ) in 1796.

Biography

Born in London, Lewis studies, for a diplomatic career, with Westminster School and Christ Church, with Oxford, passing the majority of her holidays abroad in the study of the modern languages; in 1794, it goes to $the Hague as attache to the British embassy. Although there remain only a few months there, it is there that he writes, in ten weeks, its novel Ambroise, or the Monk ( Ambrosio, gold the Monk ), which is published during the summer, the following year. It obtains a great success immediately, but certain passages are of such a nature that one year afterwards, the book is the subject of an injunction of restriction on the sale. Lewis publishes an 2nd edition from which it cut off all the passages considered to be reprehensible, which does not remove anything with the terrifying character work. Lord Byron, in English Bards and critics Scot , written “marvellous work of Lewis, monk or bards, who would make of the Parnassus a cemetery; even the character of Satan could fear to remain in his company, and, in his cranium, one distinguishes a major hell. ” The Marquis de Sade makes also the praise of Lewis in her test Idée on the novels (1800).

Whatever its defects, moral or esthetic, the Monk does not prevent Lewis from being introduced into the best company; he is favorably noticed at the court, and, as soon as he at the necessary age to aspire to a mandate, he is made elect appointed of Hindon, in the Wiltshire, with the House of Commons. After a few years, during which it never intervenes with the Room, it withdraws finally parliamentary career. Its tastes push it towards the literature, and the Spectrum of the castle ( The Castle Specter ), in 1796, a musical drama without much literary merit, but which enjoys a long popularity on scene, the Minister ( The Minister ), a translation of Kabale und Liebe of Friedrich Schiller, Rolla (1797), a translation of Kotzebue, and many other booklets of opera and tragedies, are published in a fast rate/rhythm. the Cheer of Venice ( The Cheer off Venice ), a novel translated from German, is published in 1804; after the Monk , it is his most known book. The death of his/her father leaves it with a great fortune, and, in 1815, it leaves towards the the Western Indies to visit its fields. During this voyage, which lasts four months, he writes the Newspaper of an owner of the Western Indies ( the Journal off has West Indian Proprietor ), which will be published on a purely posthumous basis in 1833. He undertakes a second voyage towards the Jamaica in 1817, in the hope to familiarize themselves with the condition of the slaves and to find the means of improving it. Exhausted, in full tropical climate, it contracts a fever which leads to its death, during the voyage of the return.

Life and Correspondence of M.G. The Lewis were published, in two volumes, 1839. Lewis, with Ann Radcliffe and Horace Walpole, is one of the initiators of the Roman Gothic.

Works

the Monk (The Monk) , novel (1796), retranslated and adapted in 1931 in France by Antonin Artaud
the Spectrum of the castle ( The Castle Spectrum ), musical drama (1796)
Rolla (1797)
the Newspaper of an owner of the Western Indies ( the Journal off has West Indian Proprietor ), posthumous (1833)
Life and Correspondence of M.G. Lewis , posthumous (1839)

Translations

the Minister ( The Minister ), a translation of Kabale und Liebe of Friedrich Schiller
the Cheer of Venice ( The Cheer off Venice ), novel (1804)

External bond

Bio-bibliography
M.G. Lewis in numerical reading

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