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aesthetics—here, elegy, Horatian ode, lyric, and the sublime--depend upon rejecting
other, ‘lower’ aesthetic forms” (15). The popularity of the Gothic was set back by the
constant rejection of its literary merit based on criteria that not only valorized depictions
of moral and virtuous social conduct in literature but included issues of cultural and
economical hegemony, literacy and readership. Having reviewed the conditions
surrounding the reception of the Gothic novel, this next section will focus more
specifically on The Monk and its transgressions, as it created controversy and subverted
not only the conventions of the romantic ideology but also the sub-genre to which it was
affiliated by incorporating at the heart of the narrative unsettling accounts of the
supernatural on one hand, and shocking depictions of sexuality and violence on the other.
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As described above, the Gothic novel was not held in high regard by the critics of
its age because they believed that its lack of “seriousness” pandered to a female audience,
and that supposedly, male readers were not compelled by the overwhelming presence of
fantasy. With the first anonymous publication of The Monk, however, these accepted
perspectives were about to change. Arguing against the notion of “female readership,”
Watt points out that the novel was not entirely without praise, and mentions that some
critics admired Lewis' attempt to define himself as an innovator set "against a feminized
notion of romance" which was mostly embodied by Ann Radcliffe (91). Watt refers to
Lewis’ bold approach and argues that his work defied the assumptions of authorship and
readership: “The Monk exceeded other contemporary fictions—and simultaneously
appealed to educated, leisured readers” (89). Nevertheless, according to both Watt and
Gamer, a shift in reviews occurred when the work started to gain tremendous popularity