Antonin Artaud’s simulacrum of The Monk is the only work of sustained fiction by the infamous literary terrorist. Taking Matthew Gregory Lewis's gothic novel of 1794 as the starting point for an astonishing exploration of the far edges of death, sexuality and terror, Artaud conducted an evisceration of the original novel, discarding entire chapters, recreating others and stamping his own distinctive identity on the work in his avowed aim to accentuate the story’s violence and atrocity to the maximal degree.

In Artaud's The Monk, sexual obsession is irrepressibly crushed together with murder, cruelty and blasphemy. The result is a searing document of lust and fear which will push the reader's sensorial pleasure beyond the point of no return.

Best known for his Theatre of Cruelty manifestoes, Surrealist film projects and corporeal poetry, Artaud created The Monk in France in 1931, to the acclaim of such figures as Jean Cocteau, at a time when Artaud's explicit purpose in his work was to cancel out all existing social and moral systems. This is the first time ever that the book has appeared in English.

With an introduction by Stephen Barber (author, Artaud: The Screaming Body and Artaud: Blows & Bombs).

“A great masterpiece of fantastic literature... marvels burst out at the reader, burning with a thousand fires... the spirit of the marvellous inflames this book to the very core” –André Breton

“This work of Artaud is that of an alchemist, an evil
angel. The Monk – an epic of blood, plague and death,
sorcery and poison – blazes and ravages us”
–Jean Cocteau