9781837721290
Distributed for University of Wales Press
Matthew Gregory Lewis
The Gothic and Romantic Literary Culture
A comprehensive account of the works of eighteenth-century English writer Matthew Gregory Lewis, identifying him as an important contributor to Gothic and Romantic literature.
Matthew Gregory Lewis was one of the most prolific, versatile, and influential British writers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Matthew Gregory Lewis: The Gothic and Romantic Literary Culture is a literary history of Lewis’s oeuvre and is the first to closely situate him in relation to Gothic and Romantic literary culture more broadly. Across an extended introduction and six chapters, the argument offers fresh considerations of Lewis’s well-known Gothic works, drawing upon the biographical studies of earlier critics when necessary. Based on rigorous archival research undertaken in the UK, North America, and the Caribbean, this book offers fresh interpretations of such well-known works as The Monk (1796) and The Castle Spectre (1797). It also draws into focus Lewis’s other works ranging from his youth through to his romances and shorter tales, dramas, translations, adaptations, ballads, poetry, and editorial endeavors, as well as his posthumously published writings on slavery.
Matthew Gregory Lewis was one of the most prolific, versatile, and influential British writers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Matthew Gregory Lewis: The Gothic and Romantic Literary Culture is a literary history of Lewis’s oeuvre and is the first to closely situate him in relation to Gothic and Romantic literary culture more broadly. Across an extended introduction and six chapters, the argument offers fresh considerations of Lewis’s well-known Gothic works, drawing upon the biographical studies of earlier critics when necessary. Based on rigorous archival research undertaken in the UK, North America, and the Caribbean, this book offers fresh interpretations of such well-known works as The Monk (1796) and The Castle Spectre (1797). It also draws into focus Lewis’s other works ranging from his youth through to his romances and shorter tales, dramas, translations, adaptations, ballads, poetry, and editorial endeavors, as well as his posthumously published writings on slavery.
528 pages | 18 halftones | 5.43 x 8.5 | © 2024
Literature and Literary Criticism: General Criticism and Critical Theory
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
Chronology of Matthew Gregory Lewis’s Works
Introduction: Forgetting and Remembering Matthew Gregory Lewis
Chapter 1: The Author of The Monk
Chapter 2: The Accidental Provocateur
Chapter 3: The Original Dramatist
Chapter 4: The Adaptor and Translator
Chapter 5: The Poet, Balladeer and Writer of Shorter Tales
Chapter 6: The Slave-Owner
Select Bibliography
Index
List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
Chronology of Matthew Gregory Lewis’s Works
Introduction: Forgetting and Remembering Matthew Gregory Lewis
Chapter 1: The Author of The Monk
Chapter 2: The Accidental Provocateur
Chapter 3: The Original Dramatist
Chapter 4: The Adaptor and Translator
Chapter 5: The Poet, Balladeer and Writer of Shorter Tales
Chapter 6: The Slave-Owner
Select Bibliography
Index