Gothic fiction was a very popular genre in the late 18th century. It is generally considered to have opened with the publication of Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto in 1764, the genre peaked in popularity in the 1790s and early 19th century. Two of the most famous gothic novels, that of Ann Radcliffe The mysteries of Udolphfirst published in 1794, and the 1796 novel by Matthew Lewis The monk Both were best sellers in their day. Lewis’s novel also generated controversy due to its lurid content. These novels helped establish a variety of narrative conventions that occur with almost predictable regularity in other Gothic literature.

Literary theorist Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick identified many of these eighteenth-century Gothic conventions. She noted that the novels were generally set in the past, often in a Catholic European country, such as Italy or Spain, with most of her narratives taking place in a large, dilapidated religious building or institution. These buildings would frequently be situated in wild and rugged landscapes. The mysteries of Udolph is set in 16th century Italy while The monk It is set in medieval Spain. Much of the narrative of Radcliffe’s novel takes place at Castle Udolpho, a sprawling medieval fortress, while Lewis’s story takes place at the Capuchin monastery.

The main characters in gothic novels were usually a young female lead, her lover, and an evil older man. This triad of characters is evident in The mysteries of Udolph with the heroine of Emily St Aubert; her lover, the handsome young Valancourt; and Count Montoni, a sinister nobleman hell-bent on acquiring the estate of Emily’s late father, St. Aubert, and willing to go to any lengths to achieve this goal. On The monk however, the arrangement of the characters’ roles is decidedly different from Sedgwick’s observations. The protagonist is a male character, Ambrose, a monk who functions as a kind of anti-hero when he is tempted to abandon his monastic vows. Ambrose’s temptation is affected by Matilda, a woman disguised as a monk who later turns out to be a tool of Satan. Matilda helps Ambrosio seduce the innocent Antonia, a young woman whom he later rapes and kills.

The issue of incarceration figures prominently in The mysteries of Udolph and The monk, and is another Gothic convention noted by Sedgwick. Orphaned Emily and her aunt, Madame Cheron, are essentially trapped in remote Castle Udolpho, which sits high in the Apennines, by the rapacious Montoni. In Lewis’s novel, the nun Agnes is imprisoned in a dungeon below her convent.

In terms of narrative form, Sedgwick describes the typical Gothic novel as discontinuous and convoluted, frequently deviating from the central story. This is particularly evident in The monk, where a series of vignettes are interspersed throughout the main narrative. These include the stories of the ‘Bleeding Nun’ and the ‘Wandering Jew’.

The revelation of obscure family ties in the denouements of many Gothic novels is another of Sedgwick’s observations on eighteenth-century Gothic fiction. Both The mysteries of Udolph and The monk present significant revelations about their main characters. In the Radcliffe story, Emily learns that the Marchioness of Villeroi was not St. Aubert’s mistress, as she had long supposed, but her sister. On The monk meanwhile, it is revealed to Ambrosio that he has unknowingly committed incest, as it turns out that the murdered Antonia was also his sister.