Review: The Monk by Matthew Lewis

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Review: The Monk by Matthew Lewis

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Tilly's Shelf

Жыл бұрын

For #janeaustenjuly I read The Monk by Matthew Lewis.

Пікірлер: 17

@scallydandlingaboutthebook2711 Жыл бұрын

How did I miss this two days ago? Really interesting review. Twenty year old man feels the need to prove he can push the boundaries? Some things never change. I wonder if no one wanted to publish his poems so he decided to shove them into the novel regardless. This could be one for me to read next July.

@tillysshelf Жыл бұрын

I thought it would be either very long and dull or excessively lewd, but in fact it was a swift read (minus the neverending poems) with a few deliberately disturbing paragraphs.

@nicholasjones3207 7 ай бұрын

I don’t know what to think of the spoiler on the cover. I finished it a week ago and I’m still thinking about it. Wild ride towards the end! (The monk)

@tillysshelf 6 ай бұрын

I agree! Although it is a fantastic image and without having read the book, you wouldn't know it was a spoiler at all.

@iamturok3504 8 ай бұрын

So basically, if I get the Penguin Classics edition you show on the video I'll get the book 100% as the author wrote it, right?(no modifications or censorship of any kind, and no updated English)

@tillysshelf 6 ай бұрын

Yes, as it was first published, or the Oxford edition has it as it was in the manuscript.

@iamturok3504 6 ай бұрын

@@tillysshelf Alright, way to go for me, then. By the way, you are beautiful. Lucky BF!

@JosephFrancisBurton Жыл бұрын

Hey Tilly - thank you for this quick review of a book I have never read - I like your comparison to Frankenstein, but from your review, this book does not sound appealing to me at all. In fact, it sounds like a real bore. It sounds like a book that was written at the time to be intentionally shocking, and I have long long long ago lost any interest in authors trying to 'shock' me. Yeah, I am sure Coleridge would have liked it, but to me The Monk sounds like a snoozefest LOL

@tillysshelf Жыл бұрын

Thanks Joe! Aside from the poems this book was far from boring - overblown and ill-structured, but entertaining.

@zuzanka1981 Жыл бұрын

Coleridge didn't like The Monk and attacked the book and the author in the press. He went as far as to imply that Lewis should lose his seat in the Parliament.

@zuzanka1981 Жыл бұрын

I agree with Tilly. The book, unlike most late 18th-century works, is not dull. It's a bit all over the place, and Lewis, like many young authors threw everything and the kitchen sink into it. It wants a tighter structure. As for the content, nothing shocking for modern readers.

@JosephFrancisBurton Жыл бұрын

@@zuzanka1981 😅👍

@novelideea Жыл бұрын

Ann Radcliffe was an influencer! 😂

@tillysshelf Жыл бұрын

Apparently so!

@novelideea Жыл бұрын

@@tillysshelf 😏

@AaronReadABook Жыл бұрын

What's with all the 20 year olds writing Penguin Classics in the regency period? Whenever I read a book by a 20-odd year old nowadays it is absolute trash which sort of makes more sense. I'm scared of that cover, definitely prefer it the rave way up.

@tillysshelf Жыл бұрын

It's actually quite impressive. Although I do think that if he'd not had it published and revised it 20 years later (like Jane Austen with Northanger Abbey) it would have been a better book!