The Monk

themonk.jpegThe Monk (1796)

by Matthew Lewis

Another Gothic related entry~ ^_- I have a BLAST reading this, it’s a pity this novel is burdened with the status of “Classic Literature”, when in fact it is a galloping over-the-top, exploitative sensational shock entertainment (you know, trashy like Wuthering Height). It is a DAMN good read! I feel ashamed to say but it is quite up there at my most favorite novels list. XD Though not the first, The Monk is the best-selling and most influential Gothic Literature of its time. Author Matthew Lewis wrote it when he was a 19 year old teenager in ten weeks…and it shows. The story revolves around a well respected and proud monk named Ambrosia. He regarded himself morally superior and cruelly unforgiving to everyone else. His vanity and inhumanity eventually led him spiral to hell in an epic, bloody and spectacular fashion full of horrors, tortures, witchcrafts and demons (the good stuff).

All in all Ambrosia is basically a repressed horny hypocrite who schemed to rape and murder a innocent virgin and her mother. He’s the most repulsive anti-hero I’ve ever read. For once I truly despised and disgusted by an anti-hero whom I couldn’t wait to see him getting his punishment. Parallel to the monk’s central storyline was the story of two lovers Agnes and Raymond who were separated by misunderstandings. Agnes who turn herself in as a nun in grief, was trapped inside a strict church headed by a sadistic and brutally unforgiving evil Prioress, whose sole concern of the reputation of her church. When Agnes was found pregnant, all HELL broke lose. In a way I found the Prioress more repulsive than the monk because at least Ambrosia’s conscience was tormented by his crime and knew he was wrong. The Prioress was way too morally twisted to realize her evils. How this book must have anger the church back then, painting the church figures as villains and their crimes of hypocrisy. The other colorful cast including a creepy spectre called ‘The Bleeding Nun’, the mythical ‘Wandering Jew’, a vengeful baroness and Lucifer. There’s devil summonings, horrible crypts and secret torture chambers underground of the church. As you think it can’t get more over-the-top, the ending has more nasty revelation. (is it blasphemy to say “GO LUCIFER! YOU’RE AWESOME!!!” ^^;;;)

The horrid details are so vividly written, very satisfying.

Minor complaint: the ending resolution for Lorenzo. Out of nowhere suddenly a new pure beautiful but nobody female character appear to be the compensation ‘reward’ for him (whose insersion was so forced and awkward), because Antonia was “dishonored’ and no longer pure already so she must die. -___-|||| Maybe that’s why Ann Radcliffe was disgusted by the novel and wrote her own version The Italian which saids to have the couple re-united at the end.

The story is supposedly set in Madrid so the author seems to overcompensate the “Espanol-ness” for having people with weird Spanish names and throwing in Spanish terms here and there. ^^;;

The author also loves poetry so much that he tried hard to design scenarios where he can insert his poetry writings (all unrelated to plot, and I skipped them all). The most forceful insertion is when Raymond found his page boy writing a poetry and asked him to read it, then gave boy a critique and a social commentary on how a writer is treated by his critics and readers…err…

I read the Modern Library edition and it came with detailed notes at the appendix. It gave useful background info on names of saints that were thrown around in the story and more important figure such as the Wandering Jew.

I just found out the French Dada writer/poet/playwright Antonin Artaud (of “The Theatre of Cruelty”) re-wrote “The Monk“. I can’t wait to read it.