The Monk
Published: 1796
Author: Mathew Lewis
Genres: Adult, Classic, Drama, Fantasy, Fiction, Gothic, Horror, Literature, Magic, Romance, Suspense
Check the summary of this book here:
The Review:
The Monk by Mathew Lewis has excellent language and emotive descriptions. His phrasing is accurate, vivid, measured, and moving. Above all, it is unhurried because eloquence takes time and a calm demeanor. Lewis's writing style makes excellent use of time to convey his story in a medium-sized book that might be huge for some and medium or tiny for book enthusiasts.
The Monk, a masterpiece of Gothic literature penned in 1796, is not for the faint of heart - and certainly not for late-night reading. Most of us have read novels that make our toes curl and our spines chill, but Lewis's exquisitely detailed writing catches you off guard, and once hooked, the book stays open until the very last page. The novel was extremely successful at the time, and it was replicated by numerous writers, as seen by works of literature and film today.
The Castle of Otranto, The Mysteries of Udolpho, and other Gothic classics pale in comparison. The action is slowed by a few poems in between, although not quite as much as in Udolpho. Some scenes are extremely tense, while others are frightening and eerie.
Clearly one of the best books of its period, and I was perplexed the entire time I was reading it as to how the governments and church of the time allowed this book to be published. I have never discovered a book like this in all my searches for books like this.
Yes, it is superior to other Gothic Literature works I've read, yet it can be terribly unsettling. It appeared too titillating, too purposefully upsetting, to be pleasurable, despite the fact that the writing was excellent, but the subject matter may be off-putting to certain readers.
It's not the simplest book to read owing to the old English language style, but if you can read Shakespeare, you shouldn't have any trouble with this. Yes, the chapters are a touch long, and if you don't read it often enough (as if you are going to stop reading once you start), you could forget some of the plot's twists and turns.
Characters have a propensity of appearing out of nowhere as if you are supposed to know exactly who they are and how they are connected. You may need to re-read sections if you don't comprehend anything because sentences might be long. Overall, it's a lot of fun, and you can get so caught up in it that an hour might fly by without you even realizing it.
In this work, the characters are well-developed. Ambrosio, a monastery Abbot, is totally clean until the age of 30 when the devil sends a seductress into his life. The Abbot, like a flipped coin, begins to reveal the dark half of his psyche, which he has hidden since boyhood. I thought the diversions might have been shorter at times, but the author pulled it all together in the end. For his day, it was an excellent piece of writing, and it is still worthy of the reader's attention today.
Some readers may dislike the novel because of the inflated language, the anti-Catholicism/anti-clericalism reflective of the time, the general absurdity of the many coincidences that are important to the plot, and the extremes in the characterizations and descriptions, but I promise those who dislike it for religious reasons to continue and you will be rewarded in full at the end. At times, this work is dark and disturbing. It demonstrates the repercussions of our decisions as well as the devil's depravity and deception.
This was a nice change of pace from the science fiction I usually read. A gothic horror story filled with outrageous crimes and treachery and deception. Even the ending was good, but for some reason, I wanted more out of it. It seemed like everyone got their due, except the innocent victims, which irritated me. Well-written. Enjoyable.
Now some open stuff about the novel and the author. The Monk is a tangled, intricately constructed novel. It is also the forerunner of all Gothic tales, with staples like draughty castles, ghosts, dark sorcery, and doomed romances. Despite being terribly sexist, there are some surprisingly amusing lines of dialogue, as well as topics that are still disturbing over two centuries later. Matthew Gregory Lewis was nineteen years old when he wrote The Monk, which helps to understand his rebellious attitude and obsession with sex. The Monk isn't the slickly polished work we've come to anticipate since The Lost Generation established the incremental revision standard.
To the modern reader, the story appears wooden and apparent. The partnerships, too, appear to be out of date and, to be honest, infantilize women. Next, I'd want to provide a warning, as rape is a poisonous and pervasive motif throughout The Monk. A raped woman is judged responsible for the crime against her and is deemed too "impure" to marry or serve God, as was the ethos of the 1790s when The Monk was published.
While I loved the ghost stories and found one, in particular, to be really frightening, I found the final quarter of the book may be difficult to read for many due to the outmoded attitudes toward women. Mr. Mathew Lewis, in a nutshell, performed the most essential thing a writer can do: he made me think. Ugly subjects are brightened by smart dialogue, but all of it is very much a product of its period.
Final Thoughts:
First and foremost, I must state that this is not the first gothic novel, even though some book merchants attempt to market it as such. However, "The Castle of Otranto," written by Horace Walpole in 1764, is often regarded as the "first" Gothic book. "The Monk" is a classic of the genre, yet "The Castle of Otranto" was released 32 years before. Ann Radcliffe had already published several of her works before "The Monk," thus calling it the "first" Gothic book is a stretch.
I got this book by accident without checking the back cover, thinking it was about "The Monk" Detective TV series since my brother likes the show and the character of Monk, so I bought it for him, but he isn't into reading, so it sat with me for at least four years before I started reading it. And reading it was a fantastic experience for me, and I was not disappointed.
I strongly advise individuals who have never read this masterpiece and are capable of reading scary and disturbing stories to read it. In a nutshell, it's a delicious concoction of murder, romance, and imagination.
Synopsis:
“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: Some were attracted by curiosity to hear an Orator so celebrated; Some came because they had no better means of employing their time till the play began; Some, from being assured that it would be impossible to find places in the Church; and one half of Madrid was brought thither by expecting to meet the other half. The only persons truly anxious to hear the Preacher were a few antiquated devotees, and half a dozen rival Orators, determined to find fault with and ridicule the discourse. As to the remainder of the Audience, the Sermon might have been omitted altogether, certainly without their being disappointed, and very probably without their perceiving the omission.”
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Rating: 95/100
Recommended: 100/100 Yes.
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The Monk (2013) (R):
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