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Paperback
Publisher: Modern Library
Hugh Thomas
When Matthew Lewis’s The Monk was published in 1796, readers were shocked by this gripping and horrific novel. Lewis’s story, which drove the House of Commons—of which he was a member—to deem him licentious and perverse, follows the abbot Ambrosio as he is tempted into a world of incest, murder, and torture by a young girl who has concealed herself in his monastery disguised as a boy. As Ambrosio spirals into hell, the reader encounters an array of haunting characters: the innocent virgin, the Bleeding Nun, the Wandering Jew, an evil prioress, and Lucifer himself.
This Modern Library Paperback Classic, set from the unexpurgated first edition of 1796, brings to a new generation of readers a timeless classic of gothic fiction that has influenced writers from Byron and Emily Brontë to Poe and Hawthorne.
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| Wonderful for Gothic lovers, Plain for Others |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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The introduction written by Emma McEvoy observes with a clinical eye the failures and triumphs of The Monk within the Gothic genre. Many spoilers are revealed, but her analysis is so concrete that it lacks the shock usually accompanied by most spoilers. Instead you are told about the strengths of the author, the genre, and the reception of this book during the life of the author.
It is interesting to note that many of the same critics today that find certain books to be ungodly such as the critics of Harry Potter and The Golden Compass were just as rampant during Matthew Lewis' life. The reception of the book was well received though overtime people feigned interest in the novel. A censored version was published and having read the original I can say that the censored version would lack the horror produced by the original.
Ambrosio, his accomplice Rosario, and the Prioress nun exemplify the worst in Catholicism. The Prioress commits crimes all in the name of saving the reputation of her convent and entering the good graces of Ambrosio as he is well respected in Madrid. Once Rosario's secret is revealed we learn the depths of Rosario's dissent from God. Rosario does not simply bend rules, there is a marked effort to break them with glee and ease. Each one of these characters care little for their victims.
The victims of these players have misfortune, naivete, and timing stacked against them. One of the central character's Antonia is placed as the tragic damsel in distress. Her victimization appears to be more of a story arc ploy, then serving the character any true growth. Her purpose is simply to be the young virginal victim.
The novel also suffers greatly for its ill pacing. Their are segments of the novel where it seems to drag on possibly causing readers to want to set the book aside. Once the reader passes the stagnant prose, the story picks up and becomes interesting once again.
Speaking of the pacing the ending was also a bit awkward. The conclusion itself is satisfactory and a bit shocking, but the way Lewis placed the two alternate endings seemed a bit odd. One would get the sense that the story could have ended with either ending and this was the product of bad editing.
There are strengths about this book that I do enjoy. I do think that within the Gothic tradition the novel exemplifies the best and worst of Gothicism. I especially enjoyed this novel when reading it for a Gothic literature class. The book parodies the genre at times and at other instances falls prey to the very same criticism it parodies. However, when reading it a second time, without an academic eye the book lacked its original luster.
The story is haunting and riveting, but it's downfall is the pacing. I think this is a wonderful book for anyone interested in Gothic literature. A lot of the imagery of the villains' fall into dissension is overly dramatic, but it can be forgiven on the basis that this is one of the earlier Gothic novels published and Lewis' theme, that true good is not simply ascribed to people of faith. True goodness is based upon one's daily actions and inner intentions.
I don't recommend this as a casual read, because without an interest in Gothicism the novel can be seen as an utter failure. Not knowing its background the reader will lose interest. The concept behind the book though unique, is not sustained and thus the novel fails in that respect.
I give this book 2.5 stars out of 5.
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| a definite page turner |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I didn't get the horror aspect of this novel, because I was not horrified by the tale. But it is really enjoyable to read. I couldn't put it down. The writing is almost like poetry. The tale is engrossing. Everything comes together. Others provide a more descriptive review, so I won't. For someone considering this book to read, do it.
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| Gothic Horror Defined |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I recently came across the phrase "gothic horror" while reading the reviews of the somewhat mediocre novel, The Keep, by Jennifer Egan, and after doing a little digging around, determined that if one were interested in such a thing--or even what such a thing was--The Monk would be the place to go. Well, I recently went there, and was quite delighted.
One would surmise that the word gothic, when applied to literature, would have to do with castles and dungeons and such things, and the Monk certainly has those in droves. But beyond that there is a religious element also. In Christian nations throughout the ages--at least until very recently--boys and girls were regaled with tales of the terrors that await them in hell should they misbehave, that evil lurks in the hearts of all men, and that the devil, literally, walks among us. What makes the Monk so great is that it incorporates these elements into its story in a completely straightforward and unironic manner. This has the effect of elevating the horror that occurs within it to an even higher degree, in that in the recesses of our minds we continue to harbor the uneasy suspicion that these things are true.
The story mostly has to do with a Spanish monk, who is at the beginning of the novel looked upon as a paragon of virtue and godliness and people from miles around flock to hear him speak. But he is proud and arrogant to such an extent that eventually he believes he can do no wrong. His first slip becomes another and then another until he eventually abandons his faith and succumbs to unbridled lust. He loses everything he had worked for--both here and in the afterlife, see above--a fact that is demonstrated in the last couple of pages of this novel in about as powerful a way as any horror fiction you could ever read.
But there are a number of other threads as well, intermingling to some degree with that of the monk's, all of which are equally compelling. There is the journey of Raymond and the story of Antonia, there is the terrible castle ghost that appears but once a year, the cave in which its body was left, the noble who it torments, the innocent nun unjustly imprisoned in the dank catacombs, the bandits in the German forest, rotting corpses, base sexual behavior . . . and pacts with demons signed in blood.
It must be said that it starts off a little slow. The reader is immediately introduced to several characters--one of whom is an old lady--in the setting of a church, no less. But once Don Raymond's narrative begins about fifty pages in this thing moves along like a freight train, and despite the fact that it was written more than two hundred years ago, it is nevertheless quite descriptive, if not quite as explicit as these sorts of things are nowadays. It's quite enjoyable if you enjoy quality fiction and creepy, gruesome horror.
By the way, you may safely skip the Stephen King introduction. It adds absolutely no insight whatsoever, and in fact manages to get the name of one of the major characters wrong! Why must the world continue to suffer the ramblings of this ubiquitous mediocrity?
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| Shocking, horrifying, thrilling |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Lewis' "The Monk" will satisfy any reader who is longing for a story to chill and horrify, the classic way. The tale of a monk whose lust proves destructive and his tragic downfall is filled with visions, superstition, bandits, uncontrollable passions, and gruesome details of death and base mortality.
The monk Ambrosio is esteemed by the whole of his community in Madrid as the most upright, unblemished and holy man as well as a moving and inspirational speaker. His exterior proves to be only a superficial skin for inward vanity, selfishness and sexual obsession. As the novel progresses, we horrifyingly witness Ambrosio's seduction and first sexual experience with Matilda, a sorceress who later becomes the key encouragement and accomplice in his sexual ambition for the young, innocent and beautiful Antonia.
The novel is in parts heartwrenching as we feel deeply for Antonia, whose goodness and naivete is countered by Ambrosio's ever-increasing desires and corruption. To say that it was written in the 1700s, the novel is shockingly risque in its depictions of full-on sexual lust, so not surprisingly it was received at the time with much critical negativity. The subplots, whose characters are woven into the monk's tale seem to mirror his own, involving a young nun, Agnes, who is punished inhumanely by her superiors for the consequences of a moment of passion with her lover, Raymond.
In a tale so filled with corruption, violence and lust, there is still room for Lewis to dabble in more haunting sides of the gothic genre, such as several main apparitions which visit the main characters throughout, and even lighten the mood at times with some satire and humor. Nevertheless, this is a heavy read and, while it hits all the right spots for the lover of gothic and horror, it perhaps leaves little to be desired for the general reader and the faint-hearted should certainly steer clear.
There is a certain fascination in the horrific, and Lewis allows us to indulge in this with a truly thrilling novel - I have even more respect when I find that he accomplished it in ten weeks at the age of 19.
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| Delightfully Lurid |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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It's no coincidence that the opening epigraph of Lewis' one and only novel is from Shakespeare's _Measure for Measure_. Both works have pillars of public moral rectitude collapsing after encountering their first major temptation of carnality. Monk Ambrosio figures in for a penny, in for a pound, and starts the slide from mere sex to murder, incest, despair, and damnation.
Lewis' streamlined prose abandons the detailed descriptions of Gothic architecture and Alpine vistas favored by his model Ann Radcliffe. And, in a plot of not two but four frustrated lovers, he crams many a gruesome incident and image. No Radcliffean rationalism for Lewis. Despite frequent criticms of the superstition of Spain during the Inquistion, this plot revels in the supernatural with curses, ghosts, Bleeding Nuns, Wandering Jews, and the Prince of Demons himself.
Yet, despite the melodrama, there is an air of psychological realism in how Monk Ambrosio rationalizes his escalation of evil. Perhaps more disturbing is the mind of Matilda, his first lover, and her willingness to advise and aid his evil even after he has sexually spurned her.
Stephen King's introduction is, like many such introductions to classic works, an unfortunate spoiler of much of the plot. However, most of his observations are valid and interesting though I'm dubious that all English novels before Horace Walpole's _The Castle of Otranto_ had moral purposes. (Lewis novel seems to have no serious moral statement except, perhaps, that the chaste life of the convent and monastery is unnatural.)
Oxford University Press seems to have taken the typesetting of this edition from an earlier one. A lot of asterisks show up in the text without accompanying footnotes. A minor annoyance to a novel that holds up well after more than 200 years.
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