He was a child, and a spoiled child, but a child of high imagination; and so he wasted himself on ghost-stories and German romances. - Matthew Gregory Lewis

Many of the narratives can only tend to excite ideas the worst calculated for a female breast: Every thing is called plainly and roundly by its name; and the annals of a Brothel would scarcely furnish a greater choice of indecent expressions. Yet this is the Book, which young Women are recommended to study.

An Author, whether good or bad, or between both, is an Animal whom every body is privileged to attack; For though All are not able to write Books, all conceive themselves able to judge them.

Matthew Lewis [was] the genre's first punk, the Johnny Rotten of the Gothic novel.