Change, Transformation, Spectacle: The Monk and the Forms of Georgian Scenic Spectacle

Until the publication of David Lorne MacDonald’s comprehensive biography in 2001, ² the critical focus regarding Matthew Gregory Lewis’s oeuvre had privileged The Monk. The controversy surrounding the publication of the book, its connection to the political situation of the 1790s (for instance, in its relation to the formation of the English nation), the interest concerning the author’s sexuality and public persona or, still from a psychological point of view, the discourses of transgression and punishment enacted in/by the novel, are some of the diverse critical paths which had been attempted. ³ However, following MacDonald’s seminal biographical study (indebted as it is, often in contending ways, to the early scholarly re-appraisal of Lewis published by Montague Summers in 1938), ⁴ it has become evident that Lewis was a writer of considerable diversity, working – albeit with intermittent success – in such disparate fields as narrative prose, poetry, dramatic adaptations, translation and editorial work.