The Monk

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Monk (disambiguation).

The Monk is a Gothic novel by Matthew Gregory Lewis that first appeared in 1796. It was written before he turned 20, in the space of 10 weeks.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The story concerns Ambrosio - a pious, well-respected monk in Spain - and his violent downfall. He is undone by carnal lust for his pupil Matilda, and once satisfied by her, he is overcome with desire for the innocent Antonia, whom he later rapes and kills. In the middle of telling this story, however, Lewis frequently makes further digressions, which serve to heighten the Gothic atmosphere of the tale while doing little to move along the main plot. A lengthy story about a "Bleeding Nun" is told, and many incidental verses are introduced. A second romance, between Lorenzo and Antonia, also gives way to a tale of Lorenzo's sister being tortured by hypocritical nuns (as a result of a third romantic plot). Eventually, the story catches back up with Ambrosio, and in several pages of impassioned prose, Ambrosio is delivered into the hands of the Inquisition; he escapes by selling his soul to the devil for his deliverance from the death sentence which awaits him. The story ends with the devil preventing Ambrosio's attempted final repentance, and the sinful monk's prolonged torturous death.

[edit] Critique

This article or section reads like a review and may need cleanup.
Please help improve this article to make it neutral in tone and meet Wikipedia's quality standards. (talk, help, how to edit)

The Monk is remembered for being one of the more lurid and "transgressive" of the Gothic novels. Featuring demonic pacts, rape, incest, and such props as the Wandering Jew, ruined castles, and the Spanish Inquisition, The Monk serves more or less as a compendium of Gothic taste. Ambrosio, the hypocrite foiled by his own lust, and his sexual misconduct inside the walls of convents and monasteries, is a vividly portrayed villain, as well as an embodiment of much of the traditional English mistrust of Roman Catholicism, with its intrusive confessional, its political and religious authoritarianism, and its cloistered lifestyles. The American fictitious anti-Catholic libel, The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk, borrowed much from the plot of this novel.

Whatever its flaws and stereotypes, The Monk remains an entertaining page-turner, which might well please those who enjoy such contemporary religiously-based thrillers as The Exorcist and The Da Vinci Code.

The sentence, "What is this love of which you speak?" spoken by Antonia in Part II, Chapter IV, is the earliest known (as of 2006) use of the popular snowclone "What is this X of which you speak?"