Customer Reviews

The Monk (The Modern Classics Series)

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In the preface to his rewrite of sorts, Artaud writes of the noticable boundaries that are strewn throughout Lewis' indispensable Gothic novel. The context which Artaud places these boundaries in, is in transgressions of limits, & in "The Monk" it is under the various forms that desire takes. "The external, physical, physiological liberties that the monk takes with his victim are nothing compared to the sadistic urge that drives Lewis's imagination at that point to set all the moral as well as physical barriers against the natural urges of love, in order to confront them and defeat them more effectively, in order to reach a kind of physical phosphorescence."
This is for the most part a condensed retelling of Lewis' story, with a few variations & embellishments. While Artaud's only sustained novel, the original story has so many characters & important layers to it, that there's not many additions to Lewis' version.
The story begings in Madrid, where the most revered monk, Ambrosio, is giving Mass. The vast majority of the people present are there less out of their own religious obligations than to see for themselves what everyone praises him for. Having lived inside the monastery all of his life, Ambrosio is consistently praised by the people as well as the other monks residing with him. After a turn of events, he falls from his perfection, which Artaud displays not quite as ambiguously as Lewis did. Ambrosio's initial moral stain leads him to progressively more & bigger offenses against God & leaves him with a torn conscience. This is only the basic story, there are myriad others, each of which is memorable & stays with the reader far after the book has been finished. Now praised as a pinnacle of the Gothic novel, people would do well to read this book given the recent Catholic sexual abuse scandals.
I recommend both Lewis' original & Artaud's retelling. However, the story is so complex that Artaud's version doesn't offer many differences, the few that are there, esp. the segment concerning The Bleeding Nun, are more than worthwhile.