The Monk: A Romance, by M. G. Lewis
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The Monk: A Romance, by M. G. Lewis
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Scarcely had the Abbey Bell tolled for five minutes, and already was the Church of the Capuchins thronged with Auditors. Do not encourage the idea that the Crowd was assembled either from motives of piety or thirst of information. But very few were influenced by those reasons; and in a city where superstition reigns with such despotic sway as in Madrid, to seek for true devotion would be a fruitless attempt. The Audience now assembled in the Capuchin Church was collected by various causes, but all of them were foreign to the ostensible motive. The Women came to show themselves, the Men to see the Women:
The Monk: A Romance, by M. G. Lewis - Amazon Sales Rank: #1591848 in Books
- Published on: 2015-05-08
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 11.00" h x .29" w x 8.50" l, .68 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 126 pages
The Monk: A Romance, by M. G. Lewis Review "One of the most shocking Gothic novels."-- "Independent"
About the Author Matthew Lewis is the author of two histories and two historical fiction novels about Richard III and the Wars of the Roses. The medieval period is a particular passion of Matthew's, a passion he hopes to share through his blog. He is dedicated to teaching and discussing this period, operating two history podcasts and providing bitesized facts to his Twitter and Facebook following.
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85 of 86 people found the following review helpful. The most influential of the Gothic horror novels By Daniel Jolley The Monk is perhaps the most significant and certainly the most controversial of the Gothic novels of the late 18th century. Amazingly, its author, nineteen-year-old Matthew Lewis, wrote the novel in a period of only six weeks. Although inspired by the work of Ann Radcliffe (among other Gothic writers), Lewis goes far beyond the sensibilities of his predecessors and does not choose to explain away the supernatural events fuelling this inflammatory novel. The Monk is a tale of human evil in its most vile form; the unspeakable acts described in these pages are committed by the supposedly most devout individuals in society. The Catholic Church was incensed with the novel's publication, and it is actually quite remarkable that The Monk was published at all and that its author faced nothing more dire than censorship and indignant protest as a consequence of it.Ambrosio is the most celebrated, revered monk in Madrid (in the era of the infamous Spanish Inquisition) - his sermons attract crowds far too large to gain admittance to the sanctuary, and everyone holds him up as a veritable saint walking the earth. His fall from grace is precipitous indeed. Secretly, Ambrosio is vain and proud, blissfully assured of his own near-perfection. At the first temptation of lust, however, this holy man reveals himself to be the ultimate hypocrite, giving in rather easily to the type of desire he rails against each Sunday. After learning that his friend Rosario is in fact a lovely woman in disguise named Matilda, he revels in the love she declares for him and quickly becomes her secret lover. Quickly and ever more thoroughly consumed by his new-found passion and carnal lasciviousness, he grows tired of the ever-willing Matilda and turns his perverted eye toward the sweet and wholly innocent young Antonia. Through the witchcraft of Matilda, he comes to consort with demons in the sacred crypts underneath the abbey itself, giving up his morality and piety in the blind pursuit of actions worse than mere rape.Ambrosio is not the only hypocritical, secretly sinful church official in Madrid, however. The prioress of the convent bordering the abbey is a sickeningly cruel and spiteful agent of perfidy herself. When she discovers that Agnes, one of her novitiates, is pregnant, she is so mortified at the impending shame this fact will bring down upon her and the convent that she resorts to the most barbaric of punishments for the poor and pitiable young lady. While her crimes do not quite exceed those of Ambrosio, the devastating consequences of her sinful acts result in long-lasting, deeply grievous repercussions.The novel takes a while to really come together. After seeing Ambrosio in his publicly sanctimonious guise and watching his pitiful descent into the passions and lusts inspired by Matilda, we spend a great deal of time becoming acquainted with Antonia, Agnes, and the gentlemen who love them and will eventually fight bravely to try and save them both physically and morally from their sad fates. The story of the Bleeding Nun apparition is an important part of this section of the book and gives the reader his first real introduction to the supernatural aspects of the story. It is almost possible to forget about Ambrosio completely for a time; when he returns to the story, however, he commits unspeakable acts and profanes the very name of the God he supposedly serves in such excess that he earns a permanent spot in the annals of literature's most despicable villains.It is in the crypts, among the moldering corpses of the dead, that the most blasphemous acts take place. Antonia's fate is quite horrible, but it is actually Agnes' tale of woe that takes the reader to the most horrific of extremes. Just when the worst seems to be over, we learn in graphic detail the almost unimaginable extent of the ordeal suffered by Agnes and her innocent child - the tale is quite gruesome even by today's standards, almost unimaginably so by those of Lewis' own time. The suffering of the innocent Agnes and Antonia is, in my opinion, unparalleled in the realm of Gothic horror.Even some critics who are less than found of the Gothic horror genre have embraced this novel, partly because it does distinguish itself from the more Romantic writings of an author such as Ann Radcliffe. As such, it seems less pretentious and much more visceral than the typical Gothic tome. Lewis holds nothing back in presenting his portrayal of evil in the hearts of men and women. There is a love story aspect to the events surrounding Agnes and Antonia, but the author does not indulge in flowery descriptions of love, nor does he concern himself with rapturous expositions on the beauty of nature. There is very little of beauty to be found in these pages at all, and what innocence exists is ultimately lost at the hands of corrupted servants of God. With such complexity underlying the plot, The Monk is open to a number of interpretations, and its microscopic portrayal of evil's power to overcome the best of men and women continues to fascinate and leave a lasting impression on one generation of readers after another. Even in our own time, The Monk is more than capable of shocking the reader with its unbridled revelations.
29 of 29 people found the following review helpful. The Ultimate Gothic Classic By A Customer 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.
77 of 87 people found the following review helpful. Sensational By Nina Shishkoff Almost as entertaining as reading gothic fiction is readingthe introductions. Someone is *paying* theseacademics, but they act as if they've been forced tobecome circus geeks, biting the heads off chickensfor booze. You wonder if they signed their real nameto the article. The editor of "The Oxford Book ofGothic Fiction" explains that, yes, gothic has aparticular meaning with regard to art andarchitecture, but Horace Walpole didn't know that, andused it to mean creepy and medieval, and she'shorribly embarrassed to have to call it "Gothic"fiction for the next ten pages. She also tells youthat if you have a historical interest in thisfiction, you should start from page one, but if youwant to read GOOD literature, start on page 245 (i.e., with Edgar Allen Poe). You wonder what the publisher thought of that advice.Even worse is the author of the preface of the Dover editionof "The Monk" by Matthew Gregory Lewis, who says right out inthe first paragraph that this is a terrible book ("It maybe admitted at once that this erst belauded romance haslittle claim to perpetuation on its own merits."), and thenspends the entire preface suggesting other gothicnovels you'd be better off reading, although he really thinksthey're all a waste of your time. He works himself upinto such a high dudgeon, you can practically feel thespittle hitting your face.I don't know what he's talking about. "The Monk" isone of the most splendid books I've read in a long time. Ithas everything you'd want: A crumbling Abbey with amonastery and a convent connected by a series ofvaults and caverns that contain mouldering skeletons,the ghost of "the bleeding nun" who appears every 5years at the stroke of midnight, a screech owl in thecemetary, a pregnant nun, the Spanish Inquisition, anaked woman cavorting with a bird, highwaymen, asadistic Prioress, a lustful Abbot, dead babies,hollow statues, a mob riot and lynching, sleepingpotions and spells, and cameo appearances by theWandering Jew and Lucifer. The plot concerns aninnocent young virgin whose mother.... oh, never mind:you'll never keep the plot straight anyway, not tomention which one is Don Lorenzo and which is DonRaymond. It's the nonstop action that will hook you.It's amazing that the plot *can* zip along, giventhat, at any given moment, at least one character isnear death because of convulsions brought on by terroror love. It makes you wonder about the economy ofmidieval Spain, if 1 in 10 people was bedridden at anygiven time.Did I mention the sex scenes? They're doozies! Whenthe lustful Abbott is holding a vigil at the bedsideof a woman pretending to be a monk who is dying of acentipede bite, except the centipede didn't bite her,it bit the abbott (never mind), the woman shakes offdelirium long enough to seduce the Abbott! At least,I think she did. The writing gets vague at points,since Lewis can't bring himself to mention femalebody parts, instead using the word "charms" as ablanket noun in sentences like "Through adisarrangement of the bed covers, he could witness hercharms" or "thus he could disport himself upon hismistress's charms". I'm not sure I'll ever be able touse the word "charm" again, much less eat "LuckyCharms".Perhaps this is only worth reading for its historicalimportance, or perhaps it's a lot of fun: I advise skippingthe insulting prologue by a professor who clearlywishes he was a fraction as famous as M.G. Lewisbecame by writing this book at the age of 19 in tenweeks in 1795.
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