Just like most of my other books, I read The Monk for my Gothic novel class. I believe that this is my favorite book that we have read this semester. I just loved how there were so many stories going on in it, and how mysterious it was. Through the whole book I was in suspense to see what would happen. I was also worried that the ending would be horrible, like The Italian, but it was a good ending. This book is extremely messed up in so many ways. Just to sum it up in a few words, the monk becomes addicted to sex, wants to rape a girl, and there is incest. In a lot of the Gothic novels, a common theme is having family relations, however, in this book it moves up to incest.

Matthew Lewis wrote this book when he was only 19 years old. It is crazy to think that someone so young could write such an amazing novel. This book not only has what I mentioned before, but it also includes the devil, and of course, more ragging on the church.

When I first started to read the book I was not sure how much I would enjoy it. There are a lot of similar scenes in it that I saw in The Italian, and I thought that The Monk would be exactly the same. However, once I got into a few pages of it, I realized how wrong my thinking was. This book is so much better than The Italian. When I read it, it reminded me of a soap opeara. Every action that happened in the story was just so extreme.

I would love to explain the book to you guys, however there are so many stories within the novel that it is hard to sum it all up for you guys. One of the stories throughout the novel is about a monk who is loved by everyone. He is 30 years old and he has never left the monestary. He begins to think about sinning, and eventually gives in to the temptations. If you are interested in reading a story about a monk who begins to sleep around and rape girls, than this is the book for you!

Another story in the novel is of a girl who is in the convent and becomes pregnant. The monk finds out and tells the head of the convent. Of course she gets into trouble. This all begins at the beginning of the story. The rest of the story is of her brother trying to find her.

However, don't think that that is what the book is all about. There is so much stuff going on in the book that at times it is hard to keep up with everything. I really enjoyed this book because there were so many stories going on. There were also a lot of stories being told within the novel. The stories help the reader because they are all backstories, explaining what happened to the characters, and why they ended up where they are.

As you can tell by my short descriptions that the church plays a big part in the novel. However, the church is not seen as something good. Instead everyone in the church is messed up. One part that can really show the reader that Lewis was against the church was when one of the characters was lying on her death bed. She has a daughter who has no where to go. The mother, on her death bed, said that she would rather have her daughter go anywhere except entering into a convent.

I hope I have not scared anyone off from reading this book. I know it sounds messed up, and it is, however the really insane parts are not written until the end of the novel. Everything written up till the end explains what is going to happen and why. If you guys do decide to read it, I would love to hear your comments. Especially if you have read The Italian.