The Monk  

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

Plot summary

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, who tempts him to transgress, and, once satisfied by her, is overcome with desire for the innocent Antonia. Using magic spells Matilda aids him in seducing Antonia, whom he later rapes and kills. Matilda is eventually revealed as an instrument of Satan in female form, who has orchestrated Ambrosio's downfall from the start. In the middle of telling this story 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.

Critique

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.

The Gothic novel, le roman noir and the Schauerroman

At about the same time as the English Gothic, parallel Romantic literary movements developed in continental Europe: the roman noir ("black novel") in France (including such writers as François Guillaume Ducray-Duminil, Baculard d'Arnaud, and Madame de Genlis) and the Schauerroman ("shudder novel") in Germany (e.g. Christian Heinrich Spieß's Das Petermännchen, 1791/92) - which were often more horrific and violent than the English gothic novel.

The fruit of this harvest of continental horrors was Matthew Gregory Lewis's lurid tale of monastic debauchery, black magic and diabolism The Monk (1796). Though Lewis's novel could be read as a sly, tongue-in-cheek spoof of the emerging genre, self-parody was a constituent part of the Gothic from the time of the genre's inception with Walpole's Otranto. Lewis's tale appalled some contemporary readers; however his portrayal of depraved monks, sadistic inquisitors and spectral nuns, and his scurrilous view of the Catholic church was an important development in the gothic novel genre.

Adaptation

Luis Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carrière attempted to film a version of The Monk in the 1960s, but the project was halted due to lack of funds. Buñuel's friend, the Greek director Ado Kyrou, used this script as the basis for his 1972 film version. Le Moine (English The Monk) boasted an international cast with Franco Nero in the title role. The film also starred Nathalie Delon, Eliana de Santis, Nadja Tiller and Nicol Williamson.

Related

1700s literature - 1790s - gothic novel

Appraisal by Stephen King

"The Monk was a black engine of sex and the supernatural that changed the genre--and the novel itself--forever. There has never been anything quite like it. At this writing, the book is over two hundred years old and still explosive" (Stephen King, 2002)

Praise by Sade

From Reflections on the Novel.

Peut-être devrions-nous analyser ici ces romans nouveaux, dont le sortilège et la fantasmagorie composent à peu près tout le mérite, en plaçant à leur tête le Moine, supérieur, sous tous les rapports, aux bizarres élans de la brillante imagination de Radgliffe; mais cette dissertation serait trop longue; convenons seulement que ce genre, quoiqu'on en puisse dire, n'est assurément pas sans mérite; il devenait le fruit indispensable des secousses révolutionnaires dont l'Europe entière se ressentait. Pour qui connaissait tous les malheurs dont les méchants peuvent accabler les hommes, le roman devenait aussi difficile à faire que monotone à lire; il n'y avait point d'individu qui n'eût plus éprouvé d'infortunes en quatre ou cinq ans, que n'en pouvait peindre en un siècle le plus fameux romancier de la littérature; il fallait donc appeler l'enfer à son secours, pour se composer des titres à l'intérêt, et trouver dans le pays des chimères, ce qu'on savait couramment en ne fouillant que l'histoire de l'homme dans cet âge de fer. Mais que d'inconvénients présentait cette manière d'écrire! l'auteur du Moine ne les a pas plus évités que Radgliffe; ici nécessairement de deux choses l'une, ou il faut développer le sortilège, et dès lors vous n'intéressez plus, ou il ne faut jamais lever le rideau, et vous voilà dans la plus affreuse invraisemblance. Qu'il paraisse dans ce genre un ouvrage assez bon pour atteindre le but sans ce briser contre l'un ou l'autre de ces écueils, loin de lui reprocher ses moyens, nous l'offrirons alors comme un modèle.

Excerpt

"Antonia shrieked. The Monster clasped her in his arms, and springing with her upon the Altar, tortured her with his odious caresses. She endeavoured in vain to escape from his embrace. Lorenzo flew to her succour, but ere He had time to reach her, a loud burst of thunder was heard. Instantly the Cathedral seemed crumbling into pieces; The Monks betook themselves to flight, shrieking fearfully; The Lamps were extinguished, the Altar sank down, and in its place appeared an abyss vomiting forth clouds of flame. Uttering a loud and terrible cry the Monster plunged into the Gulph, and in his fall attempted to drag Antonia with him. He strove in vain. Animated by supernatural powers She disengaged herself from his embrace; But her white Robe was left in his possession. Instantly a wing of brilliant splendour spread itself from either of Antonia's arms. She darted upwards, and while ascending cried to Lorenzo, `Friend! we shall meet above!' "

Tivia

• Charles Baudelaire had read the book while young.