Almost a complete Monk

I told you a while back about Northanger Abbey leading me to The Monk, right? Well, I'm not quite done yet. 'Bout 80% and hoo, boy it is off the chain. The chain has been detached from it's moorings and then broken up. All possibility of re-attaching the chain has been thoroughly and resoundingly quashed.

This book is nuts. Not really in a good way. It's murder, rape and torture are at the core of dramatic fiction to this day. Fine. But it has the most appalling morals.

And yet. And yet, I'm excited to finish The Monk. If only so I can tear through The Mysteries of Udolpho and move on to the Brontë sisters.  And from there into the thematically and chronologically similar roman noir (French) or Schauerroman (German) novels.

I've discovered a rabbit hole here. A whole warren. You could get lost down there like it was St. Clare's Sepulchre. That's from The Monk, by the way. They spend all sorts a time down vaults and catacombs and shit. I just don't want to get lost down there and forget to get back to reading Austen.

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