Matthew 'Monk' Lewis
(1775-1818), Writer, plantation owner and owner of enslaved peopleMatthew Gregory ('Monk') Lewis
Regency Portraits Catalogue Entry
Sitter in 3 portraits
Matthew Gregory Lewis was popularly nicknamed 'Monk Lewis' after his work, The Monk (1796), one of the most celebrated British gothic novels. Denounced as blasphemous pornography, it was an immediate bestseller. Capitalising on his success and notoriety, he wrote popular gothic melodramas such as Castle Spectre (1797) and Timour the Tartar (1811), which greatly influenced Sir Walter Scott. In 1812, Lewis inherited a Jamaican sugar plantation. His posthumously published Journal of a West India Proprietor (1834), recounted his attempts to improve the working and living conditions of his slaves. Lewis died of fever on the return voyage from Jamaica.
by George Lethbridge Saunders, after Unknown artist
watercolour on ivory, based on a work from the early 19th century
NPG 2171
by J. Hollis, published by John Samuel Murray, sold by Charles Tilt, after George Henry Harlow
stipple engraving, published 1834
NPG D8350
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