Customer Reviews

The Demon of Sicily: A Romance (200th Anniversary Edition) (Gothic Classics)

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Montegue Summers writes of the extremes of this novel, and it is violent! Inspired by M. G. Lewis' THE MONK this novel is far more extreme and grotesque; and the plot is even more intricate. The idea of the perverse monk fascinated the Anglican public in the 18th and 19th Century; and let's not forget that in the 1550 edition of the Common Prayer Book, part of the Litany for the Ordination of Decons reads: "From all sedicion and pryvie conspiracie, from the tyrannye of the Bysshop of Rome, and al hys detestable enormities... 'Good Lord, Deliver Us.'" Crimes of monks and nuns and their melancholy disposition are prevalent throughout Gothic novels, appearing in Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho (Oxford World's Classics) and The Italian; or, The Confessional of the Black Penitents (Valancourt Classics) (Valancourt Classics)

This is a lovely edition featuring cartoonish, but bloody, illustrations from the 1839 edition printed by one of London's most notorious pornographers. The relationship between the monk and the nun is similar to William Henry Ireland's Gondez The Monk, another knock off of Lewis' book. And for those who are interested in a despotic female, there is The Abbess: A Romance. Valancourt has released another notorious "tale of monkish cruelty" Manfroné; or, The One-Handed Monk which is written under the interesting pseudonym "Mary-Anne Radcliffe." For another tale about Monkish intrigue, see the wonderful new edition of The Midnight Bell: A German Story, Founded on Incidents in Real Life (Gothic Classics) which features a marvelous introduction by David Punter, whose observations are similar to those made in Jeffrey Cass' introduction for Valancourt's release of The Necromancer; or, The Tale of the Black Forest, both of which were among the list of "horrid" "Northanger Novels."

The only flaw in this edition of THE DEMON OF SICILY was the choice by the publisher to include a self promoting forward by historical novelist, Jo Beverly, which I suppose her fans will like... but I didn't.

This book is dark, sinister, and delightful! A fabulous romance story enfolds through the evil workings of the Devil and his minions. A must-read for fans of gothic horror or the macabre.