A good read
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This book was briefly mentioned in Jane Austin's Northanger Abbey adaptation so I thought I'll check it out and, surprisingly found it a good read. Although written a long while back, the language used is extremely easy for today's reader. I considered it is a real page turner with full of events that you just want to find out what happened next. The scenes described are not too graphic, but rather, the writer gives the reader enough details for them to visualise the full extent. Whilst today's reader cannot see the fuss with this book, I can understand why it caused such a stir back then, with such topics as murder, rape etc.
Although this book is titled the Monk, he is not entirely the main character. The book spends some time on the story of the Marquis de la Cisternas and Agnus, although all are linked in some ways.
My only criticism was the speed in which Ambrosia descended from this righteous path. His obsession for Antonia was quite abrupt so you could not understand what he saw in her, and therefore what made him go to such length to possess her.
Overall a good read. I find it amazing that a man of only nineteen could write with such emotion, especially the scene with Agnus holding her dead baby. He was either a genius or a rather disturbed young man.
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Enjoyable Georgian trash
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Simply because a book is old doesn't make it great literature. By the same token, just because something isn't great literature doesn't mean it can't be an enjoyable read. I think anyone who has read The Monk would have to concede that it is primarily in the classics range because of its age rather than any peculiar literary merit - the plot is silly and bit predictable, the dialogue is stilted to the point of actually being quite funny and the characters are as one-dimensional as it is possible to get.
Minor quibbles aside however, The Monk is great fun to read and is surprisingly accessible considering its age. You'll get the whole kitchen sink of gothic horror cliches (and then some) chucked at you in succession: A story about someone eloping with a long dead evil ghost nun that has no relation whatsoever to the main plot; a monk tempted by Satan and aided by his magical silver stick (don't ask) in his schemes to rape and debauch an impossibly virtuous young lady; the Spanish Inquisition; the evil goings on in a convent and that's really only the beginnng!
As an aside, I would also recommend the Dover Thrift edition of the book. Not only is it the cheapest available, it has a genuinely entertaining foreword from 1906 which more than compensates for the occasional typos in the main text.
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just awesome
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Written by Matthew Lewis during a short period of ten short weeks when he was just nineteen, "The Monk" proved to be a controversial novel at the time that it was written. Faith, deception, loyalty, sorcery, murder, Satanism, incest, rape, ghosts, and the inquisition gave the novel the popularity it has retained until today. Even though its plot made the novel controversial when it was published in 1796 to the point where it as held to be blasphemous and resulted to censorship, Lewis nevertheless gained in popularity.
The story is basically about Ambrosio, who as an enfant was found at the doors of the abbey, stirring talks that he was a divine-sent child. He grew up to become an ostensibly pious and deeply revered Abbot of the Capuchin monastery in Madrid, a fit in holiness that aroused the resentment of the devil who decides to plot his fall. The devil plotted the fall through the working of a young female who disguised and became a novice under the tutelage of Ambrioso, the immaculate monk. Ambrioso's fall is plotted through out the later stages of the novel as his fight with the deep passions of his body, the machinations of the devil and his attempts at redemption. Anti-Catholic in nature, this Gothic classic is perhaps the best in its genre. I am certain the author enjoyed every moment while he was writing it because the story flowed all the way through to the end. A recommended classic.
Also recommended: THE USURPER AND OTHER STORIES, THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO, DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE, THE UNION MOUJIK
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The Monk
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Despite its age, this a shocking and grim gothic novel. Some of the plot is predictable but the books is infused with an atmosphere of repressed sexuality and innocence corrupted. Well worth reading.
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Lewis was way ahead of his time.
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If you like Gothic and Romantic fiction (as in Romanticism, not romance)then this is a must. Written at the same time William Blake was composing his etchings, at the end of the eighteenth century. It was originally banded for being to contraversial as it supported revolution in the uk. Back then it was massively popular and the first editions completely sold out before the government could do anything about it. Written by a very young Lewis (in his late teens), it tells of an adventure that befalls a number of characters belonging to the spanish bourgeoisie. The main focus is on a holier-than-thou monk who is seduced by demons to become the devil's instrument. The story has everything; murder, rape, incest, adultery, banditary, rioting, the supernatural, torture, etc.
If you enjoy classic fiction then you will definitely enjoy this. It is written in a surprisingly modern fashion. Personally I think if it was re-introduced as a modern day work of fiction then very few would realise that it is over 200 yrs old. If you're not into classical fiction, but are more of a modern reader, then I think you'll still enjoy it.
It is the only book that MGL wrote, but it is one of Britain's greatest ever literary works that has been all but forgotten. It's time it was remembered!
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