The Monk

too dense and didn’t even really make sense. it wasn’t well written

A classic in the gothic genre, in fact even a founding novel of the genre. It is at first sight a strong criticism of religious orders that lead to extreme violence and narrow-mindedness instead of charity, purity, humility, etc. But it is also another denunciation, that of the practice of some noble families of getting rid of some of their daughters by sending them to nunneries. Yet it is a novel that has many other interests. For one it is anti-Faust : the monk is the one who knows, who preaches THE truth, but he is also the one who is easily tempted and dragged into the worst crimes. Then, when the devil comes into the picture, it is not to save that monk from death, but to destroy him utterly : the objective of the devil has been, all along, to tempt him and to lead him to the worst destruction possible when he thinks he is saved from death by this very devil. The devil more or less takes possession of him, puts him under pressure in order to punish him in his mortal body a hundred times more severely than the Inquisition, to punish him not for his crime but for having been a monk who preached purity. Two objectives for the devil : to get rid of this cumbersome monk for the task of the devil in the world, and to prove to the world that monks and other moral fundamentalists are fakes and monsters. In this element this novel is modern because it announces the death of God among the people, the regression of religion. And yet it does not go as far as Goethe will go with Faust. Another interest is in the negation of sexuality by these religious fundamentalits : negatiion for themselves, but also negation for the whole society. Sex is dirty, sex is ungodly, sex is to be absolutely rejected, even if it does not take much for the monk to fall into it, though the nun, next door, seems to be a lot more unpliant on the subject. Women are more fundamentalistic than men on the subject, in the Catholic church. And yet it is through a woman that the devil will tempt the monk, how else could he do it anyway, though he will not even try to tempt the nun. Contradictory messages then. A last remark about how popular opinion is variable and can shift within seconds from adulation to the most extreme and destructive violence and hatred. This aspect goes along with the method the Inquisition uses to lead someone who is redhandedly taken while committing a crime to his or her execution by forcing that person to confess the crimes the court wants him or her to confess : and they will use all methods, even the most cruel ones, to reach their aim. They are not really concerned by the crime itself ot the truth but only by proving to the people with spectacular autodafes how good and useful they are at protecting people against evil. The Inquisition is an ego trip for powerthirsty religious dignitaries. All that and many other aspects make this novel fascinating and in a way modern. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

Often when one thinks of "old" books the ideas of sex, violent murder, evoking the powers of hell, incest, unbridled lust, rape, and transvestites are not what come to mind. However, all of these are in The Monk. This is a book that was viewed as incredibly scandalous, and even today this view still holds up. There are two main plots in this book; first there is the story of the monk who is known for never having given in to temptation or sin. His protégé revels that he is a women and she is in love with him, the monk. The monk withstands her advances, but we see that in his thoughts she is present. Finally he gives in and they...repeatedly. She, Matilda, opens to him a world of passion, and lust, which he enters with great gusto. After a while the monk grows tired of this women and when he sees the young girl, Antonia, a girl of extreme innocence who is said to have been created by god in the image of an angel, he is completely overwhelmed with feelings and decides he must have her. He tries at first by simply seducing her, but her mother enters and teaches her daughter, hitherto ignorant of such acts, that this is wrong. Back to our monk who is now very put out, Matilda says she will help him, as she actually does love him to the point where she will do anything to help him. As it turns out Matilda has power over the evil spirits, and she has pledged her soul to the devil. She gets the devil to help the monk by giving him a spell that will open any door and make everyone sleep. This will allow him to enter Antonia's room, do what he wants, and the next morning she will know she was raped, but not by whom. This plan fails and then the monk must try other, more horrid ways of getting at this young woman. The second story is that of Don Raymond and Agnes. These two are in love, but by a series of mishaps have been separated and Agnes is in a convent of St. Clair. One night these two `give into their passions' and the result is Agnes is pregnant. Our monk finds this out and tells the head of the convent, who severely punishes Agnes by locking her up with the intention of killing her. To make matters more complicated Agnes' brother, who is in love with Antonia, knows that Agnes is in the convent and has an order from the church to release her from her vows. The head of the convent tells him that his sister is dead, which he does not believe. Thus the brother and Don Raymond will have to save Agnes quickly. If ever you wanted to know what happens when you throw a bleeding nun, a wandering Jew, the devil, a monk with a huge sex drive, a cross-dressing protégé, a girl of extreme innocents, an evil prioress, and a gipsy who see the future into one book this is defiantly the book for you.

Matthew Lewis wrote "The Monk" in ten short weeks at the age of nineteen. Immediately the subject of controversy upon its publication in 1796, Lewis was prosecuted and subsequent editions of the book were heavily censored. Coleridge described it as blasphemous, "a romance, which if a parent saw it in the hands of a son or daughter, he might reasonably turn pale." Yet, "The Monk" was so popular that its author became a minor celebrity-coming to be known as "Monk" Lewis--and Sir Walter Scott prounounced that "it seemed to create an epoch in our literature." And whether "The Monk" truly created an epoch in English literature, or merely marked the early apogee of a genre, it stands as a stunning example of the Gothic novel."The Monk" tells the story of Ambrosio, the ostensibly pious and deeply revered Abbot of the Capuchin monastery in Madrid, and his dark fall from grace. It is a novel which unravels, at times, like the "Arabian Nights", stories within stories, a series of digressions, the plot driven by love and lust, temptations and spectres, and, ultimately, rape, murder and incest. It is sharply anti-Catholic, if not anti-clerical, in tone, Ambrosio and most of its other religious characters being profane, murderous, self-centered hypocrites cloaked in displays of public piety. And while it sometimes seems critical of superstition, "The Monk" is replete with Mephistophelian bargains, supernatural events, appartions, and spectres, as well as entombment and dark forebodings of mystery and evil. It is, in short, a stunningly entertaining, albeit typically heavy-handed, Gothic novel, perhaps the ultimate classic of the genre.

Matthew Lewis' "The Monk" is not a book you should read to little kids at bed-time. In the tradition of works like Walpole's "Castle of Otranto" and Radcliffe's "Mysteries of Udolpho," "The Monk" uses the established standards of the gothic romance, and takes them all to outrageous extremes. The novel explores themes of sexuality, violence, and sexual violence at great length. While some may find these play themselves out in a rather tame fashion by to-day's standards, consider that this novel was written and published in 1796 by a member of the British Parliament. The title monastic is Ambrosio, who was abandoned by his parents as an infant. Raised in a monastery, Ambrosio is a religious fast-tracker taught to disdain sin and hold himself up as a model of purity, untempted by secular pleasure. In Madrid, as the novel begins, he is the young abbot, leader of a monastery. A mesmerizing public speaker, Ambrosio becomes proud and vain, as his popular weekly sermons quickly raise him to the status of an idol. Mischief and misfortunes ensue as Ambrosio's real virtues are put to the test.What gradually appears to be nothing more than cheap melodramatic pornography is actually a sophisticated critique of the socio-political atmosphere of the late 18th century. "The Monk" operates as a critique not only of Roman Catholicism, but of religious fervor in general. The novel also has much to say about the nature of fame and hero-worship, making it relevant even to-day. "The Monk" also explores themes of government in general - showing the pros and cons of theocracy, oligarchy, pure democracy, and even questions matters of self-governance. Without getting over-serious, I should also note that Lewis manages to sneak instances of humour into his gothic romance. "The Monk" is at times, a great deal of fun to read. It has all the requisite elements of a rainy-night novel - obscure legends, magic spells, terrible demons, chase scenes, and intersecting love stories. "The Monk" is a fantastic and engaging novel, and one which you will not soon forget after reading.