Whereas the New Gothic of the Brontës and the Sensation Novel of M. E. Braddon and Wilkie Collins focussed on realistic upper-middle class family problems, the Romantic-era Gothic Novel of Lewis and Anne Radcliffe works on the reader's imagination through the arousal of suspense and terror. The standard ploy of the Gothic novelist is to place a child or young woman in a dangerous situation against a menacing backdrop conducive to paranoia. The Gothic novelist like other Romantic writers works on the reader's emotions, intensifying the reader's identification with the protagonist, who may fall prey to a diabolical antagonist, an exploitative aristocrat, or mercenary figures colluding to bring about the protagonist's destruction. These features characterize Lewis's Gothic fiction.
Works
- The Effusions of Sensibility (unfinished novel)
- The East Indian: A Comedy in Five Acts (1792)
- The Twins (1794)
- Ambrosio: or, The Monk (1796)
- Village Virtues: A Dramatic Satire (1796)
- The Castle Spectre (1796)
- The Minister: A Tragedy, in Five Acts (1797)
- Raymond and Agnes; The Travelers Benighted; or, The Bleeding Nun of Lindenberg. An interesting drama, in two acts. (staged in 1797; published in 1841)
- The Love of Gain: a poem. Imitated from the thirteenth satire of Juvenal(1799)
- The History of Raymond & Agnes; or, The Castle of Lindenberg,a romance (1799)
- Rosario; or, The Female Monk. A Romance(1800)
- The Castle Spectre, A Drama in Five Acts (1797)
- Tales of Wonder (1801)
- Alfonso, King of Castile: A Tragedy, in Five Acts (1801)
- Adelmorn the Outlaw (1801)
- The Bravo of Venice (1805)
- Adelgitha; or, The Fruit of a Single Error. A Tragedy in Five Acts (1806)
- Feudal tyrants: or, The Counts of Carlsheim and Sargans. A romance.(1807)
- Romantic Tales (1808)
- One O'Clock (1811)
- Timor the Tartar (1811)
- Le Moine (1811)
- Poems (1812)
- Ambition (1825)
- The Isle of Devils: A Historical Tale, founded on an anecdote in the annals of Portugal (1827)
- Journal of a West India Proprietor: Kept during a Residence in the Island of Jamaica (1834)
- The Life and Correspondence of M. G. Lewis: Wth many pieces in prose and verse never before published (1839)
- "The Anaconda, an East Indian tale. My Uncle's Garret Window" (1845)
- Journal of a Residence Among the Negroes in the West Indies (1845)
Last modified 23 September 2017