The seventieth book: #59 The Monk - M.G. Lewis
We've really arrived in the era of the gothic novel. The Monk has a fairly convoluted plot with a lot of characters who often have their own side stories and go off for a chapter or two to give some change of direction. The core character, the titular monk, is Ambrosio, a devout monk (raised by the monks after being left at the door as a baby) who through the novel descends into sin and becomes a definite villain, even until he's literally taken away by Lucifer at the end.
I found it hard to focus enough to keep track of the story. There are plenty of diversions that I lost tracks of parts of the story and the prose was overwrought enough that it started to bore me. I can see how it would inspire others, but I am looking forward to this developing a bit further.