The Monk by Matthew Lewis

I found this book incredibly shocking and explicit and was very surprised by the fact that it was apparently regarded as pornographic when published. I can think of very few things less sexy. It's absolutely terrifying, and has a really creepy sort of humour running through it that I found deeply unsettling. In terms of its torturous plot, two-dimensional characters and its strange insularity it's very reminiscent of Anne Radcliffe's much-parodied Gothic extravaganzas, but its explicitness, its sly humour, its undertones of harsh criticism against many aspects of religion make it a downright dangerous text. It's the sort of book that really destroys the idea that people at the time (late 18th-early 19th century) were as sexually innocent as Jane Austen adaptations would have us believe. There is one scene in it that is absolutely shocking in its sexual violence (and leaves nothing to the imagination). It also has some interesting digressions that are creepy and well-executed, like the story of the buried nun and the random Jewish wanderer. Really worth reading for people interested in Gothic literature or the period, but definitely not the typical novel of the time.