Jane Austen July 2025 discussion

If anyone would like to discuss this book please let me know.
There will be spoilers.

Hah, I only made it as far as the black veil! I must be less of a reader than Isabella Thorpe.

Hi Abigail,

Lovely to see you here. 👋

It is quite the marathon read.😩

The black veil hah hah. 😂

I couldn't even get past the first few pages the one time I tried it.

I never made it past chapter 1. I enjoy description and atmosphere, but that was too much description! I may try again some other time.

Definitely a pre-TV book!

I defiantly struggled to get through it.

I listened in the car to Librivox recordings of it. One time the melodrama actually spoke to me-- I cried in a scene about Emilie's grief. But in general it was more of an eye roll book to me, & with one Scooby-Doo Doo subplot, others really earning the term Gothic.

I loved it, but I get that it's a book that requires a lot of patience.

nx74defiant wrote: "I defiantly struggled to get through it."

Hi Diane,

Thanks for the laugh today.

Emily can be a bit much and the potential love interest bothered me too. Scooby Doo plot 🤣

Bronte wrote: "I loved it, but I get that it's a book that requires a lot of patience."

Hello,

100%. It took my ages to read it. The prose was a bit purple.

Bronte wrote: "I loved it, but I get that it's a book that requires a lot of patience."

That sums it up very nicely 😊 I liked it DESPITE all the drama, the tears, the fainting fits, the anxiety, the ridiculous coincidences and much more.

I read it because it's referenced in Northanger Abbey. Anybody here read The Monk, too? What did you think?

Lindenblatt wrote: "Anybody here read The Monk, too?"

I didn't, but I did hear that it can be pretty uncomfortable read because of all the sexual violence.

But I'm kind of tempted to read it anyway now, because I read that Zofloya is a kind of "feminist" (or maybe women-centric?) twist on Monk and that is making me really intrigued 😂

Jassmine wrote: "Lindenblatt wrote: "Anybody here read The Monk, too?"

I didn't, but I did hear that it can be pretty uncomfortable read because of all the sexual violence.

But I'm kind of tempted to read it anyw..."

Don't add to my TBR, Jassmine!! 😂 Who would have thought that this (Zofloya, I mean) is available at my library. Must be a sign...

I really enjoyed The Monk, but, yes, there is lots of sexual violence (rape, torture, seduction), though in the flowery language of that time. Now I want to read the feminist version of it...

I slogged through MU a few years ago mostly because of the reference in NA. I could barely take the neverending travel log, but I enjoyed some of the gothic sensationalism. Having read MU enhanced my enjoyment of NA.

That same year, I read The Monk. The Monk is better written even with the purple prose and violence. I kept waiting for a twist that never came. I found it more "horrid" than any of the nine other horrid novels mentioned in Northanger Abbey.

Lindenblatt wrote: "Don't add to my TBR, Jassmine!! 😂 Who would have thought that this (Zofloya, I mean) is available at my library. Must be a sign..."

Haha, my TBR exploded as a result of reading Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction so I'm passing it on! 🤭 It was a great read btw, it doesn't give that much on each singular author but it makes great book recommendations. Definitely worth your time if you are interested in gothic fiction or in horror. It starts with Margaret Cavendish and ends with contemporary authors, so there is something for everybody.


I checked and there are two LibriVox version of Monk, so... I might be giving it a go sometimes. Sadly, I wasn't able to check out if they are good, becuase apparently, the attack on Internet Archive means that the LibriVox files aren't accessible as well. This is really terrible, I do hope that it gets sorted out soon... (and not just because life without LibriVox would be sad...)

Jassmine wrote: "...the attack on Internet Archive ..."

So that's what happened! Thanks for enlightening me. I had been trying to access IA for days now (it being Victober and all), but only saw that the site was continuously down 🙁 Hope they can get back online soon.

Yeah, I noticed it only recently and I'm not sure what exactly happened, but if I get it right there was some sort of cyber attack around 9th October and they did get some things up since then, but the things that interest me the most are still down.

It's kind of terrible considering the legal battles against them in the last years... they just really deserve some break for a bit!

Hello,

If you are looking for some fantastical reading do try "The Castle of Otranto" and "Vathek." They are both reads with mad plots. 🤣