Customer Reviews
A good read - By: N. T. Diep, 27 Oct 2007 
This book was briefly mentionedin Jane Austin's Northanger Abbey adaptation so I thought I'll check it out and, surprisingly found it a good read. Although written a long while back, the language used is extremely easy for today's reader. I considered it is a real page turner with full of events that you just want to find out what happened next. The scenes described are not too graphic, but rather, the writer gives the reader enough details for them to visualise the full extent. Whilst today's reader cannot see the fuss with this book, I can understand why it caused such a stir back then, with such topics as murder, rape etc.
Although this book is titled the Monk, he is not entirely the main character. The book spends some time on the story of the Marquis de la Cisternas & Agnus, although all are linkedin some ways.
My only criticism was the speedin which Ambrosia descended from this righteous path. His obsession for Antonia was quite abrupt so you could not understand what he sawin her, & therefore what made him go to such length to possess her.
Overall a good read. I find it amazing that a man of only nineteen could write with such emotion, especially the scene with Agnus holding her dead baby. He was either a genius or a rather disturbed young man.
Enjoyable Georgian trash - By: RageofKlugman, 23 May 2007 Simply because a book is old doesn't make it great literature. By the same token, just because something isn't great literature doesn't mean it can't be an enjoyable read. I think anyone who has read The Monk would have to concede that it is primarilyin the classics range because of its age rather than any peculiar literary merit - the plot is silly & bit predictable, the dialogue is stilted to the point of actually being quite funny & the characters are as one-dimensional as it is possible to get.
Minor quibbles aside however, The Monk is great fun to read & is surprisingly accessible considering its age. You'll get the whole kitchen sink of gothic horror cliches (and then some) chucked at youin succession: A story about someone eloping with a long dead evil ghost nun that has no relation whatsoever to the main plot; a monk tempted by Satan & aided by his magical silver stick (don't ask)in his schemes to rape & debauch an impossibly virtuous young lady; the Spanish Inquisition; the evil goings onin a convent & that's really only the beginnng!
As an aside, I would also recommend the Dover Thrift edition of the book. Not only is it the cheapest available, it has a genuinely entertaining foreword from 1906 which more than compensates for the occasional typosin the main text.
just awesome - By: John Egbe, 24 Jun 2006 
Written by Matthew Lewis during a short period of ten short weeks when he was just nineteen, "The Monk" proved to be a controversial novel at the time that it was written. Faith, deception, loyalty, sorcery, murder, Satanism, incest, rape, ghosts, & the inquisition gave the novel the popularity it has retained until today. Even though its plot made the novel controversial when it was publishedin 1796 to the point where it as held to be blasphemous & resulted to censorship, Lewis nevertheless gainedin popularity.
The story is basically about Ambrosio, who as an enfant was found at the doors of the abbey, stirring talks that he was a divine-sent child. He grew up to become an ostensibly pious & deeply revered Abbot of the Capuchin monasteryin Madrid, a fitin holiness that aroused the resentment of the devil who decides to plot his fall. The devil plotted the fall through the working of a young female who disguised & became a novice under the tutelage of Ambrioso, the immaculate monk. Ambrioso's fall is plotted through out the later stages of the novel as his fight with the deep passions of his body, the machinations of the devil & his attempts at redemption. Anti-Catholicin nature, this Gothic classic is perhaps the bestin its genre. I am certain the author enjoyed every moment while he was writing it because the story flowed all the way through to the end. A recommended classic.
Also recommended: THE USURPER AND OTHER STORIES, THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO, DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE, THE UNION MOUJIK
The Monk - By: Rich, 04 May 2006 Despite its age, this a shocking & grim gothic novel. Some of the plot is predictable but the books is infused with an atmosphere of repressed sexuality & innocence corrupted. Well worth reading.
Lewis was way ahead of his time. - By: D. Hervey, 13 Apr 2006 If you like Gothic & Romantic fiction (asin Romanticism, not romance)then this is a must. Written at the same time William Blake was composing his etchings, at the end of the eighteenth century. It was originally banded for being to contraversial as it supported revolutionin the uk. Back then it was massively popular & the first editions completely sold out before the government could do anything about it. Written by a very young Lewis (in his late teens), it tells of an adventure that befalls a number of characters belonging to the spanish bourgeoisie. The main focus is on a holier-than-thou monk who is seduced by demons to become the devil's instrument. The story has everything; murder, rape, incest, adultery, banditary, rioting, the supernatural, torture, etc.
If you enjoy classic fiction then you will definitely enjoy this. It is writtenin a surprisingly modern fashion. Personally I think if it was re-introduced as a modern day work of fiction then very few would realise that it is over 200 yrs old. If you're not into classical fiction, but are more of a modern reader, then I think you'll still enjoy it.
It is the only book that MGL wrote, but it is one of Britain's greatest ever literary works that has been all but forgotten. It's time it was remembered!
