It is only rarely reprinted and indeed it is accorded no great stature among the classics of English literature. But The Monk caused a sensation when it was first published in 1796 and its 20-year-old author British novelist MATTHEW GREGORY LEWIS (1775-1818) earned the nickname Monk Lewis thanks to the outrageous success of this then-scandalous and shocking Gothic novel. Most readers today will find that the genres of horror and dark romance have since past The Monk by but this tale of the terro