An adaptation of an 18th-century Gothic novel, “The Monk” by Antonin Artaud is a universal work, designed for both the pickiness of the intellectual and the consumerism of mass culture. The founder of the Theater of Cruelty turned to the work of Gregory Lewis at a time when his main goal was the annihilation of all moral standards. The famous “literary terrorist” dissected “The Monk”, exposed the framework of the text, tore off the veils hiding the entrance to the labyrinths of death, vice and horror. “The Monk” can be perceived both as an example of “black prose”, combining sexual obsession with cruelty and blasphemy, and as a surreal fantasy - the escalation of events that contradict the laws of logic. A translation of the novel is being published for the first time.