The monastery

by Walter Scott

Set on the eve of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland, The Monastery is full of supernatural events, theological conflict, and humor. Located in the lawless Scottish Borders, the novel depicts the monastery of Kennaquhair (a thinly disguised Melrose Abbey, whose ruins are still to be seen near Scott's own home at Abbotsford) on the verge of dissolution and the fortunes of two brothers as they respond to a new social and religious order.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Scotland, British Literature, Gothic, Adventure

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1820

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Sir Walter Scott was a Scottish novelist, poet, historian, and biographer, widely recognized as the founder and master of the historical novel. His most celebrated works, including Waverley, Rob Roy, and Ivanhoe, helped shape not only the genre of historical fiction but also modern perceptions of Scottish culture and identity.

Born in Edinburgh in 1771, Scott was the son of a solicitor and a mother with a strong interest in literature and history. At the age of two, he contracted polio, which left him with a permanent limp. He spent much of his childhood in the Scottish Borders, where he developed a deep fascination with the region's folklore, ballads, and history. He studied at Edinburgh High School and later at the University of Edinburgh, qualifying as a lawyer in 1792. Though he worked in law for some time, his literary ambitions soon took precedence.

Scott began his literary career with translations and collections of traditional ballads, notably in his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. He gained early fame with narrative poems such as The Lay of the Last Minstrel and The Lady of the Lake. As the popularity of poetic storytelling declined, especially with the rise of Lord Byron, Scott turned to prose. His first novel, Waverley, published anonymously in 1814, was set during the Jacobite rising of 1745 and is considered the first true historical novel. The success of Waverley led to a long series of novels, known collectively as the Waverley Novels, which blended historical events with compelling fictional narratives.

Over the following years, Scott produced a remarkable number of novels, including Old Mortality, The Heart of Midlothian, and The Bride of Lammermoor, each contributing to the romantic image of Scotland that became popular throughout Europe. With Ivanhoe, published in 1819, he turned his attention to medieval England, broadening his appeal and confirming his status as a major literary figure. His works were not only popular in his own time but also laid the groundwork for historical fiction as a respected literary form.

Scott married Charlotte Genevieve Charpentier in 1797, and they had five children. In 1820, he was granted a baronetcy and became Sir Walter Scott. He built a grand home, Abbotsford House, near Melrose, which reflected his passion for history and the Scottish past. However, in 1825, financial disaster struck when his publishers went bankrupt. Rather than declare bankruptcy himself, Scott chose to work tirelessly to pay off the debts through his writing. He continued to produce novels and non-fiction works at a staggering pace despite declining health.

Walter Scott died in 1832, leaving behind a literary legacy that influenced generations of writers and readers. His works remain widely read and studied, and he is credited with helping to revive interest in Scottish history and culture. Abbotsford House, now a museum, stands as a monument to his life and achievements.

Reviews

[Issicratea · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Monastery (1820) is not one of Scott’s better known novels, but I found it one of his most engaging to date. (I have read quite a few over the past decade, drawn in by a memorable Lucia di Lammermoor at the ENO in 2010—in order, The Bride of Lammermoor, Waverley, Ivanhoe, Guy Mannering, and Redgauntlet.)

The Monastery is set in Scott’s beloved border country, in around 1550. The monastery of the title is the fictional Benedictine Kennaquhair—based, it seems on the real, Cistercian abbey of Melrose, which survives in ruins. Scott portrays this great monastic house on the brink of its extinction (which we see enacted in the sequel, The Abbot, also 1820). This gives a special poignancy to his representation of its age-old rituals and powers and indulgences (indulgences in every sense).

I find the religious history of this period fascinating, and I liked Scott’s representation of it here. His characters are pretty much split between Catholics and Reformers, with a majority of the former at the beginning, but a few converting along the way. The narrative voice tends to be fairly decided in its preference for the ‘true’ and ‘rational’ faith of Protestantism, but Scott is too empathetic to be fully sectarian, and the Catholics get their fair say.

One thing that Scott captures very evocatively is the way in which religious sympathies are bound together with personal and family and historical loyalties. The main characters in the novel are a family who are tenants of the monastery, living in a remote tower on the ancient monastic lands. This serves well as a reminder of how closely meshed the religious and the secular were in this period. One vivid scene shows the bon viveur Abbot Boniface stirring himself to visit his feudatories for lunch (and some light political scheming), bringing with him not only the entire monastic kitchen staff and larder, but also his own armchair, just in case.

Some other pleasures of this novel: first, there are some excellent characters here. I liked the subtle, tortured-intellectual sub-prior of the monastery, Father Eustace, a good foil to Abbot Boniface. The two love-hate brothers of the tenant family, impulsive, martial Halbert Glendinning and his studious brother Edward, are both also well drawn. Among the female characters, another nice, contrasting pair were the wispy, abstracted, aristocratic universal-object-of-desire, Mary Avenel, and the foxy, enterprising miller’s daughter Mysie, who steals quite a number of scenes.

Most effulgently resplendent of all (as he might put it himself) is the effete, Euphuistic Elizabethan-courtier-in-exile, Sir Piercie Shafton, who washes up at the Glendinnings’ windswept tower after getting caught up in a Catholic plot. Sir Piercie was not a great hit with Scott’s contemporaries, in a way that seems to have sent Scott into a tail-spin of self-justification (he notes defensively in a subsequent edition that satires of social types specific to one period are probably not going to work for readers of another age). I don’t know about that. Sir Piercie certainly did it for me, and I laughed when I saw a reader on this site describing him as a “metrosexual knight,” confirming my feeling that his type is not 100% dead.

One final merit of this novel: it has a very fine satire in its frame-tale of the novelistic device of the “found” manuscript, as exploited from Don Quijote onwards. I was also amused to realize that the fictional name for Scott’s monastery, Kennaquhair, means “know-not-where” in Scots—i.e. Utopia, more or less. This confirmed the impression I have always had, reading Scott, that he is a far more sophisticated novelist than the rollicking surface of his fictions suggest. He thinks very subtly about history and romance and the novel, and the ways in the three interact.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed The Monastery and look forward to reading The Abbot. The story is set in the 1550s on the borders of England and Scotland. It is a time of when Elizabeth 1 is on the English throne and her cousin Mary on the Scottish one. The setting is around a monastery based on the Melrose monastery. The battle between the Protestant reformers and the incumbent Catholic clergy is raging.

I liked the story of the two sons Edward and Halbert brought up together with Mary a heiress of a castles that was usurped by her uncle Julien Avenel. The character of the knight Piercie Shafton a comical gallant windbag on the run from England after a failed Catholic plot where he was set up as the patsy.

The supernatural element is interesting and entertaining as well as the poetry the White Lady of Avenel uses in her prophecies. A duel, escape, broken hearts, villainy, a battle and political intrigue make a wonderful yarn.

[Lobstergirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't be deterred by the title: only about 10-20% of Scott's novel takes place in a monastery. Also, you don't have to read the whole Waverley "series" and you can read many of them "out of order"; as far as I can tell, most of the novels in the "series" are completely unrelated. This one does apparently have a sequel, so you should read this before The Abbot.

The conflict between the Catholic church and the Anglican heretical church is one of the major plotlines, but don't get worked up over that. All you have to know is that Elizabeth I, queen at the time the novel is set, is an Anglican heretic, and that several of the main characters are living under the protection of the titular Scottish monastery and are seen by the abbot and monks to therefore owe allegiance to the Catholic church. One of them confiscates a lady's heretical Bible, but it gets rescued from a forest phantom (the White Lady of Avenel) and begins to convert people.

The novel begins with a frame story. The narrator, Walter Scott, meets a traveler who happens to have a manuscript that needs editing given to him by a Benedictine monk. Would the narrator mind editing and publishing it? Why, no. The edited manuscript begins. Two widows whose husbands have fallen in battle, one a fine lady who has been turned out of her castle, raise their children together in the non-noble lady's tower. The noble lady brings with her a young daughter, and the rustic lady has two young sons. They are raised as if siblings; the gentlelady dies; the boys, the elder bold and fearless, the younger intelligent and bookish, fall in love with the girl Mary (who has no personality) and they all arrive at adolescence.

Now enters one of the great male characters of 19th century literature, Sir Piercie Shafton. Piercie is an English cavalier seeking temporary protection in the tower, who can't stop talking about his clothes. And you don't want him to stop talking. His pompous, hilarious speeches are the best thing in the novel*. While living in the tower he usually directs them at Mary, whom he considers the only resident highborn enough to converse with, irritating the older son, Halbert, who seeks help from the White Lady of Avenel. The White Lady instructs Halbert how to piss off Piercie, who challenges Halbert to a duel, which ends most mysteriously, setting the rest of the events of the novel in motion.

My 1871 edition had several uncut pages in the middle, so that was exciting. Now we can reveal that Tom Fitzpatrick, the previous owner (his lovely nameplate adorns the endpaper), never got past p. 188. It also has nice etchings, including one by J.M.W. Turner.

* Small sample: "Certes, reverend sirs, I may well heave such a suspiration, who have, as it were, exchanged heaven for purgatory, leaving the lightsome sphere of the royal court of England, for a remote nook in this inaccessible desert - quitting the tilt-yard, where I was ever ready among my compeers to splinter a lance, either for the love of honour, or for the honour of love, in order to couch my knightly spear against base and pilfering besognios and marauders - exchanging the lighted halls, wherein I used nimbly to pace the swift coranto, or to move with a loftier grace in the stately galliard, for this rugged and decayed dungeon of rusty-coloured stone - quitting the gay theatre, for the solitary chimney-nook of a Scottish dog-house, bartering the sounds of the soul-ravishing lute, and the love-awakening viol-de-gamba, for the discordant squeak of a northern bagpipe - above all, exchanging the smiles of those beauties who form a galaxy around the throne of England, for the cold courtesy of an untaught damsel, and the bewildered stare of a miller's maiden....Gentle and reverend sir, forgive an unhappy person, who, in giving a history of his miseries, dilateth upon them extremely, even as he who, having fallen from a precipice, looketh upward to measure the height from which he hath been precipitated."

[Sotiris Karaiskos · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I have learned after reading several of Walter Scott's books is that he was a writer who did not want to be stagnant and wanted to try different things, while still maintaining his personal writing style. What he does in this book is a small return to older things, particularly in the field of early Gothic literature. After a historical introduction, the author begins his narrative in a way that reminded me of the books of Ann Radcliffe and other writers of the genre. We move on to the classical scenery of these books, buildings of Gothic architecture within a beautiful natural landscape that the writer is concerned enough to describe it before going on to this love story that stars brave and passionate men and sensitive women for whom they are capable of doing everything. From the beginning, the tone is more emotional, far from the usual more humorous tone of the author, and until the end becomes more and more dramatic to the very intense finale.

Almost from the very beginning, we are faced with another significant differentiation, with the intense metaphysical element playing a predominant role in the evolution of the plot, making this book eluding the realism prevailing in all his past work. This of course does not mean that we fly in the clouds throughout the book, the writer putting his story in the middle of the sixteenth century in a religious place apparently intended to talk about the conflict between the Protestants and the Catholics for sovereignty and that's exactly what he did. Expectingly is taking the Protestants side but this does not prevent him from talking about the hypocrisy of some who adopted the new religion to serve their interests. The basic thing he does, however, is to denounce the hypocrisy and the backwardness of the Catholic Church, contrasting it with the freshness of the reformation and, more generally, with the true religiosity that is the centre of a life full of goodness, which naturally turns us back to the Gothic novel.

A very good book, although from what I read it did not had very positive reviews in his era, mainly because of his diversification from his previous works. But I loved it very much because of this very fact and because I have a preference for early Gothic literature. In general, however, the author is more restrained and does not reach the dramatic extremes that are usual in this genre, eventually writing in a way that does not differ as much. He tells, however, an intense story, emotionally rich, with the author creating extraordinary characters who we get to know them well so that we can better understand this historical period and the passions that created. A story that keeps the reader's interest undisturbed until the end and even further after with the promise of a dramatic sequel in the next book.

Αυτό που έχω καταλάβει μετά από την ανάγνωση αρκετών βιβλίων του Walter Scott είναι ότι ήταν ένας συγγραφέας που δεν ήθελε να μένει στάσιμος και ήθελε να δοκιμάζει διαφορετικά πράγματα, διατηρώντας, όμως, ακέραιο τον προσωπικό του τρόπο γραφής. Αυτό που κάνει σε αυτό το βιβλίο είναι μία μικρή επιστροφή σε παλαιότερα πράγματα και συγκεκριμένα στο χώρο της πρώιμης γοτθικής λογοτεχνίας. Μετά από μία ιστορική εισαγωγή ο συγγραφέας ξεκινάει την αφήγηση του με έναν τρόπο που μου θύμισε αρκετά τα βιβλία της Ann Radcliffe αλλά και άλλων συγγραφέων του είδους. Μεταφερόμαστε στο κλασικό σκηνικό αυτών των βιβλίων, με τα κτίρια της γοτθικής αρχιτεκτονικής μέσα σε ένα όμορφο φυσικό τοπίο που ο συγγραφέας ασχολείται αρκετά με την περιγραφή του πριν προχωρήσει σε αυτή την ιστορία έρωτα που πρωταγωνιστούν γενναίοι και παθιασμένοι άντρες άντρες και ευαίσθητες γυναίκες για τις οποίες είναι ικανοί να κάνουν τα πάντα. Από την αρχή ο τόνος είναι περισσότερο συναισθηματικός, αρκετά μακριά από τον περισσότερο χιουμοριστικό τόνο που συνηθίζει ο συγγραφέας, και μέχρι το τέλος γίνεται όλο και περισσότερο δραματικός μέχρι το πολύ έντονο φινάλε.

Σχεδόν από την αρχή ερχόμαστε αντιμέτωποι και με μία ακόμα σημαντική διαφοροποίηση, με το έντονο μεταφυσικό στοιχείο να παίζει κυρίαρχο ρόλο στην εξέλιξη της πλοκής, κάνοντας αυτό το βιβλίο να ξεφεύγει από τον ρεαλισμό που κυριαρχούσε σε όλα τα προηγούμενα. Αυτό φυσικά δεν σημαίνει ότι πετάμε στα σύννεφα σε όλη τη διάρκεια του βιβλίου, ο συγγραφέας βάζοντας την ιστορία του στα μέσα του δέκατου έκτου αιώνα, σε ένα θρησκευτικό χώρο, προφανώς είχε σκοπό να μιλήσει για τη�� διαμάχη μεταξύ των Προτεσταντών και των Καθολικών για κυριαρχία και αυτό ακριβώς έκανε. Αναμενόμενα παίρνει το μέρος των Προτεσταντών αλλά αυτό δεν τον εμποδίζει να μιλήσει για την υποκρισία κάποιων που υιοθετούσαν την νέα θρησκεία για να εξυπηρετήσουν τα συμφέροντά τους. Το βασικό, όμως, που κάνει είναι να καταγγέλλει την υποκρισία και την οπισθοδρόμηση της καθολικής εκκλησίας, αντιπαραθέτοντας την με την φρεσκάδα της μεταρρύθμισης και γενικότερα με την γνήσια θρησκευτικότητα που είναι το επίκεντρο μιας ζωής γεμάτη καλοσύνη, κάτι που φυσικά μας γυρίζει πάλι στο γοτθικό μυθιστόρημα.

Ένα πολύ ωραίο βιβλίο, αν και από ότι διαβάζω δεν είχε και πολύ θετικές κριτικές στην εποχή του, κυρίως εξαιτίας της διαφοροποίησης του από τα προηγούμενα έργα του. Εμένα, όμως, μου άρεσε πάρα πολύ εξαιτίας αυτού ακριβώς του γεγονότος και επειδή έχω μία προτίμηση στην πρώιμη γοτθική λογοτεχνία. Γενικότερα βέβαια ο συγγραφέας είναι περισσότερο συγκρατημένος και δεν φτάνει στις δραματικές ακρότητες που συνηθίζονταν σε αυτό το είδος, γράφοντας τελικά με έναν τρόπο που δεν διαφοροποιείται πόσο πολύ. Αφηγείται, όμως, μία έντονη ιστορία, συναισθηματικά πλούσια, με το συγγραφέα να δημιουργεί εξαιρετικούς χαρακτήρες που φροντίζει να μας τους γνωρίσει καλά, για να μπορέσουμε μέσα από αυτούς να καταλάβουμε καλύτερα αυτήν την ιστορική περίοδο και τα πάθη της. Μία ιστορία που κρατάει το ενδιαφέρον του αναγνώστη αμείωτο μέχρι το τέλος και ακόμα πιο μετά με την υπόσχεση για μία δραματική συνέχεια στο επόμενο βιβλίο.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another epic story, by a masterful story teller, of a time and place and people and events which are now largely forgotten in history. The story is set during the reigna of Queens Elizabeth and Mary, at the time of the Reformation. One of the interesting choices the author makes is to have protagonists (or one might argue antagonists) on all sides of the complex plot. One protagonist is the Sub-Prior of a monastery, while another is a Protestant minister. Another is the warrior son and heir of a man who died in a battle, and another is the bookish younger son, both of whom fall in love with an orphan girl who is herself heiress of a castle and title (usurped by an outlaw uncle).

Of the many central characters is a Scarlet Pimpernel-like English knight, named Sir Piercie Shafton, whose foppish airs are put on for different reasons than Sir Percy Blakeney. And, as in many of the Waverley novels, there is an element of the mystical, in this case a ghostly being who seems to intervene in strange ways for reasons of her own. One of main plot lines follows Sir Piercie, who is on the run from the forces of Queen Elizabeth. One of the great minor characters is the miller's daughter, who heroically rescues Sir Piercie several times through her courage and ingenuity. In another main plot line, someone has translated the bible into language that the Scots people can read, and the Abbot and Sub-Prior are very keen to apprehend this book, and to put to death all who have read of it. For a lay person to read it is a heresy.

The narrative focus shifts from protagonist to protagonist, building to a battle over the monastery and nearby village. The book is a great read, with poetic descriptions of Scotland (e.g., of the willow and oak trees changing colors in the fall), and of the people from all classes in that time period. The conflicts that pit protagonist against protagonist are well-crafted and sympathetic to all sides.

[Thomas R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was supposed to be a letdown in the Waverley series, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Now on to The Abbot!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Free download available at Project Gutenberg.

INTRODUCTION—(1830.)

It would be difficult to assign any good reason why the author of Ivanhoe, after using, in that work, all the art he possessed to remove the personages, action, and manners of the tale, to a distance from his own country, should choose for the scene of his next attempt the celebrated ruins of Melrose, in the immediate neighbourhood of his own residence. But the reason, or caprice, which dictated his change of system, has entirely escaped his recollection, nor is it worth while to attempt recalling what must be a matter of very little consequence.



4* Rob Roy
3* The Heart of Mid-Lothian
4* Ivanhoe
3* Waverley
4* The Fair Maid of Perth
4* The Bride of Lammermoor
$* Kenilworth
3* The Antiquary
3* The Talisman
4* The Monastery
TR The Pirate
TR The Waverly Novels: Anne of Geierstein
TR The Two Drovers
TR The Lady of the Lake

[Doreen Petersen · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the story wasn't bad it was too long and drawn out by the author. I really didn't care for this one.

[Steve R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set on the English-Scottish border in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, this supposedly unsuccessful entry in the Waverly series revolves around the Catholic convent of the title and two Scottish families: the Glendinnings and the Avanels, both of whom have lost their male heads as the novel opens. The widow of the Avanel estate goes to live with her counterpart of the Glendinnings at the Tower of Glendeareg, a fiefdom under the Monastery. The widow Glendinning has two sons, Halbert and Edward; the widow Avanel, one daughter, Mary. Upon the death of the widow Avanel, a black leather bound book is found by one of the monks to be a version of the Holy Sciptures written in the vernacular: a sin of heresy at this time. Confiscating the book, two different monks at different times try to take it back to the monstery only to have a mysterous White Lady of Avanel appear, leave them unconscious and return the book to Glendeareg. At this time, the best character in the book enters:a Euphuist, Sir Piercie Shafton, a man whose flowery phraseology is matched only by his attention to the fanciful manner of his apparel. Putting down Halbert as a rude rustic, a duel eventually follows in which the Euphuist is slain, only to recover miraculously 50 pages or so later. It turns out he is on the run from the English and when captured by Protestant forces from Edinburgh, led by Earl Murray, he is imprisoned at Glendeareg. The daughter of the miller for the monks, Mysie Happer, manages to help him escape. When he is later apprehended, it turns out that his title is but newly owned, as his grandfather was a tailor (hence his over-detailed attention to his clothes). He is thus eligible to marry Mysie, which they do prior to going to Flanders to escape the wrath of the English court. The monastery's forces, led by Julian Avanel, the uncle of Mary, who usurped her mother's rightful place as the head of Avanel castle on the death of her father, are defeated.Both Julian and his wise-cracking lieutenant, Christie of the Clinthill, are slain, as well as Catherine, the pathetic figure of Julian's mistress. Halbert marries Mary and is put in charge over Avanel castle; the monks are allowed to keep their monastery (!) by Murray, and Edward, thwarted in his love for Mary, enters the monastery as a novice. The most unsatisfying part of the story is the failure to elucidate the eventual resting place and significance of the black book, a tome to which the White Lady seems to have attached a high degree of importance. The novel is not as bad as the editor's notes to my edition make it out to be, although the supernatural element is a bit loose-ended, and at least one point of his conclusion seemingly rather artifically forced. Sir Piercie's speeches more than make up for any plot holes, and rather than melodrama, the work is better read as a light comedy.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

What is not to like about Sir Walter Scott? In this work, he introduces us to a metrosexual knight, faeries, a forbidden book, a wimpy monk, and a motley crew of other knights, cast out preachers and such. This began with a promising start and kept up a consistent and intriguing story and then it deflated at the end. I still thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Scott knows how to write and does it beautifully.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. An interesting, eventful historical fiction novel with a supernatural element, set in the Scottish Borders during the period 1550 to 1575. The Catholic monastery of Kennaquhair comes into conflict with reformist protestants. Old school friends, Catholic sub-prior Eustace of the monastery and Protestant preacher Henry Warden, become enemies. When Sir Piercie Shafton arrives, a refugee from the English court, things become complicated. Shafton is an entertaining character. He is very verbose, having lots to comment on, for example, the outfits people are wearing. Halbert Glendinning, son of Dame Elspeth who resides in a lonely tower, is a head strong, no nonsense, athletic young man. Halbert quarrels with Shafton and a duel is fought.

With the spread of Reformation doctrines, the occupants of the monasteries depended on protection from their tenants and vassals.

Whilst ‘The Monastery’ is an entertaining read, I prefer Sir Walter Scott’s novels, ‘Rob Roy’ and ‘Ivanhoe’.

[Monty Milne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve read all Scott’s novels, but I am currently re-reading them all, in chronological order of publication. It’s enjoyable, of course, but…some are more enjoyable than others. Up till now I thought the Black Dwarf was the weakest, but this – the eleventh novel – is the first real dud.

It’s not all bad. Captain Clutterbuck’s introductory letter is better than the overworked Jedediah Cleishbotham motif of previous introductions, but Scott ruins it by a silly and prolix epistle purporting to be a reply. But there are two great faults with this: the greatest is the absurd over reliance on silly supernaturalism, and the other is the boring and bigoted anti-Roman Catholic prejudice. Scott’s Protestant prejudices are in full flow, and the theological dispute between the Sub Prior and the Reformed Preacher (for example) is tedious in the extreme.

It is the Fairy Doggerel of the White Spirit which is the most annoying of all, however. Does she have to keep popping up, materialising and dematerialising, and speaking in that really irritating babyish rhyming? I can’t take this in the slightest bit seriously, and I don’t think Scott did either. It’s so silly it reminds me of the boy in the Viz comic with the magic backside who says:

“My arse isn’t magic all the time
Only when I talk in Rhyme”

Thank goodness the sequel to this – the Abbot – is a hundred times better, mainly because the White Spirit is permanently evaporated.

[Richard Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Sir Walter Scott, and I *liked* this book. Still fun; still some cool stuff; not quite as awesome as other novels (IMO). But I enjoyed reading it. Casual readers might find less to enjoy.

This is set on the Scottish side of the border with England, in a rough, hilly region where the local monastery is the landlord, late in the 16th century. Elizabeth is queen in of England--and a protestant--while Protestantism is also on the rise in Scotland, edging out Catholicism for the first time. That makes for odd allies among different factions on each side of the border, which is what the novel is mostly about.

The main characters are a pair of brothers, one thin and studious and the other athletic and outdoorsy, from a family a little above common (but not noble) and a young noblewoman in their household whose inheritance has been taken by a robber-baron relative. The brothers are both in love with her even though she is above their station. The action in the story takes off when a Catholic rebel from England, a well known knight, is sent to live in hiding with them and (1) he takes notice of the young woman in a way the brothers don't like, and (2) important people are close to finding him every moment.

Unusually for Scott, this novel has supernatural elements, specifically a female spirit that shows herself to some of the characters, and she has a direct impact on events. At times, this gives the story a feel rather like modern fantasy, or perhaps gothic, and I liked how that worked. Sorta spooky and sorta old-fashioned.

The prose, as always, is amazing. Perhaps most impressive is the speech of the English knight throughout. He is a Euphuist, which means he speaks constantly with elevated diction, employing excessive metaphors and similes and generally grandiose language. Whenever he's asked a question by the abbot or anyone else, he takes forever to get to the point, which is comedic and fun, but the pages and pages of incredibly dense, poetic dialogue is astonishing. The incredible hyperbole, the obscure allusions, the lengthy similes... it's all very impressive.

A taste:

“You, reverend sir,” said the knight, “have, in the encounter of our wits, made a fair attaint; whereas I may be in some sort said to have broken my staff across. Pardon me, grave sir, that I speak in the language of the tilt-yard, which is doubtless strange to your reverend years.—Ah! brave resort of the noble, the fair and the gay!—Ah! throne of love, and citadel of honour!—Ah! celestial beauties, by whose bright eyes it is graced! Never more shall Piercie Shafton advance, as the centre of your radiant glances, couch his lance, and spur his horse at the sound of the spirit-stirring trumpets, nobly called the voice of war—never more shall he baffle his adversary's encounter boldly, break his spear dexterously, and ambling around the lovely circle, receive the rewards with which beauty honours chivalry!”

The novel also has its share of action, and I enjoyed it, though there is somewhat less of it than in Scott's other books, and perhaps a bit less tidying up at the end than is usual. I think readers interested in this exact period, when the fortunes of Catholicism and Protestantism were changing quickly, would enjoy reading this novel, but I think most readers would get more pleasure out of others.

Lovers of Scott don't need my recommendation.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a late-Romantic novel, a hybrid of historical reconstruction and melodramatic intrigue, yet through the postmodern eye, it transforms into a study of narrative authority, genre slippage, and the performativity of history. The Abbey itself functions as a textual character, a repository of memory and ideological friction, a site where religious, political, and gendered narratives collide.

Scott’s prose, typically omniscient and morally guided, becomes a platform for ironic distance: we read the sermons, duels, and clandestine meetings with a sense of historical mediation, aware that the author’s hand is orchestrating our sympathies.

The titular monastery, like a postmodern text, contains its own intratextual contradictions—pious characters perform deception, villains are intermittently sympathetic, and narrative timing stretches and compresses for effect. The subplot of the laird, the Protestant-Catholic tension, and the heroine’s agency expose the instability of social hierarchies, yet Scott does so within a textual framework that is both instructive and performative.

Postmodern reading revels in these tensions: the text is at once earnest and artificial, a historical pageant and a commentary on historical fiction itself. Scott’s occasional digressions—philosophical musings, historical excursuses—prefigure postmodern metafiction: the narrative interrupts itself to remind the reader that history is textualised, that literature mediates morality and memory. Characters are emblematic, yet their interiority is shaded with ambiguity, an early experiment in plural perspective.

Even the Gothic trappings—the dungeons, secret passages, and spectral threats—operate as both narrative engines and self-reflexive markers: the haunted spaces are haunted by narrative artifice itself. The novel’s ending, conventionally satisfying in a Romantic sense, also resonates as a commentary on narrative closure: the neat resolution is provisional, contingent, and only partially reconciled with the historical and ethical complexity the text has cultivated.

Scott thus exemplifies pre-postmodern reflexivity: a text aware of its own construction while still seducing the reader with immersive historical worlds.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairy tale. Or at least a story in which some of the characters encounter a fairy who plays an important role in their subsequent actions.

Not the best of Scott’s novels, something which he seems to acknowledge in his own introduction to the book after it had received criticism from the reading public. The story is set in the Scottish Borders during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Tensions between the Scots and English, a fairly natural state of affairs were exacerbated by the newly developed religious schism between the Catholic Church and the Reformers. Caught in these are the monks of the monastery of the title and their vassals who lived off the local land, providing the monks with produce and in turn receiving protection from the local barons affiliated to the Church. The story follows the trials and tribulations of some of these dependents in their love interests which are intertwined with the politics of the day. Here is where the fairy involves itself in ensuring the hero of the piece achieves his ambitions.

So what were the contemporary criticisms? Some did not think the fairy creature credible. This was not a concern for me. Many stories contain ‘other-worldly’ creatures as part of their plot and happily sit alongside human characters. Perhaps the satirical approach to the character portrayed as a court dandy with his elaborate speeches and dress was over done and could have taken up fewer pages. My main criticism would be how Scott concluded the story in a concentrated burst of activity in the last chapter. This is something that seems to be part of his style as I have noted this in previous novels. It felt that virtually all the characters arrived at the final scene to be apportioned their fates in one foul swoop. Having written the novel at a leisurely pace up to that point it felt as if the author had got fed up of the story and wanted to finish it as quick as possible.

So an enjoyable read which provided an interesting account of the political and religious challenges of the times somewhat marred by the way the novel ended.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little bit confusing here and there (also because there was a lengthy bit of Latin in it, which turned out to be a footnote, but yeah, I didn't pay enough attention so I missed the notice at the beginning of the footnote and wondered what was happening to the story...).

I think it suffices to say that I was distracted throughout listening to this audiobook version. Actually, I also willfully distracted myself by listening to the story while editing a story of my own.

My final thoughts are first and foremost a rebuke to myself for not paying enough attention, especially since the story is not the easiest in the first place. To say something about the story itself; it held the middle between being an adventure story like Ivanhoe and a ridiculous mystery like Don Quixote in my opinion and from what I gathered. I'm pretty sure it deserves a second reading/listening...

[Bull Weaver · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of Scott's best books! He has the usual male-female romance working through the book and matching up high brow people with low brow. But the plot itself revolves around the Sixteenth Century clash between Roman Catholicism in south Scotland and the new Protestant Presbyterianism which is spreading like wildfire over the north country. Well told and very interesting! Scott speaks of a fascinating time in world history and one about which EVERYONE should know. What happened then informs us of what's happening in our own time. So unlike Camel Hairpin, we WANT to be burdened by the past and by what has been, for it's that past which has formed who we are today. We WANT to know what that was and hold fast to the best parts of it. Perhaps no Nineteenth Century writer reminds us better than Walter Scott.

[Daniel Callister · Rating 3 out of 5]

An editor would have encouraged Scott to play-up the supernatural elements of this story and probably suggested a better name to be The White Lady of Avenel or The Ghost of Avenel. The story was mildly interesting, mostly dealing with the controversy of the reformation and the politics of Scottland and England in the mid-16th c. The supernatural moments are by far the most interesting from my perspective. The copious author's notes interjected were more a distraction than a help, particularly one in which he provides a perfectly serviceable summary of an order of Robert Bruce, then feels compelled to provide the entire text of the original... in latin.

[Debyi Kucera (Book&BuJo) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this once the story started. The introduction at the beginning was a bit long and somewhat unnecessary in my opinion. Once the story started, I found it interesting and wanting to know how it ended. The formatting of the book could be updated, removing the footnotes in the text to an appendix would help the flow of the story, especially since some of them are multiple pages long. Not a sit at the edge of your seat page-turner, but The Monastery is worth the time. I look forward to reading the second book in the series - The Abbot.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I think this book should have been titled The Tower rather the Monastery, I did enjoy it, after I got used to the writing style.

Set during the 16th century during the beginnings of the reformation in Scotland. Elizabeth I is on the English throne. The battle between the Catholic clergy and the protestant reformers has begun. Scott's main character a family who becomes split between the two factions. Scott uses a supernatural device to move the plot forward in the form of a Lady in White.

I will be reading more of Scott.

[Norman Howe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scott throws bits of several different genres together in this one. There is a surprising lack of villains, and a remarkable appreciation of the real issues involved in the Protestant Reformation. There are many loose ends, leaving room for the sequel, "The Abbot."

[Helen Birkbeck · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took a long time to get into this as mot much happened in the first half, and the flowery Victorian language is not quickly read, but the second half was more exciting and the characters believable and interesting enough.I'm a little dismayed that there is a sequel, though!

[Jill M Caldwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I expected. This book doesn't flow well, and the character development was not satisfactory for me. It might appeal to a different audience, but I was looking for something less predictable.

[Alice Yoder · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not a fan of Scott...….too much going on with too many characters to remember. I'm assuming this was written as a serial and therefore so many words...….

[Nicola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible to be holding and reading a book well over a hundred years old!
Very enjoyable read, quite different to the other things I've read recently.

[Bob Kaufman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I had read this book before I read The Woman in White. There is content here that would have illuminated The Woman in White.

[Kay Ellicott · Rating 1 out of 5]

The second chapter was interesting. That was it. This book actually made me afraid to read anything else by this author.

[Roger Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting portrait of life at the time. So of the Gaelic conversations were hard to follow.

[Gem K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lost a star for the fifty pages of exposition at the beginning

[Martin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Now that I've read three Scott novels (and won't read any more of his works ever again), I totally understand his...tao, for lack of a better word:

1) Note ridiculously superfluous details with a too-keen eye and bore your reader to death because you focus too much on this and forget to tell a story.
2) Have a boring story to tell boringly.

Nothing interesting happens here, at all. There are no compelling characters, not a good hero, nor a good villain, nor a fun romance, not really any inspirational derring-do. Nothing. Bleh.

He couldn't even make the Monastery interesting. It's called The Monastery, for Pete's Sake. Can something interesting happen there? Can the monastery at least be interesting? Can anything be interesting? Or hey, can more than a slice of the novel actually take place there?

No?

Hello?

Walter?

Sir?