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THE MONK “This work of Artaud is
that of an alchemist, an evil angel. The Monk – an epic of blood,
plague and death, sorcery and poison – blazes and ravages us” Antonin Artaud’s evil simulacrum of THE MONK is the only surviving work of sustained fiction by the infamous literary provocateur. Taking Matthew Gregory Lewis's gothic novel of 1794 as the raw material for an astonishing exploration of the far edges of death, sexuality, terror, language and the body, Artaud conducted an aberrant evisceration of the original novel, discarding entire chapters, recreating others and stamping his own distinctive identity on the work in his avowed aim to accentuate the story’s violence and atrocity to the maximal degree. In Artaud's THE MONK, sexual obsession is irrepressibly crushed together with murder, cruelty and blasphemy. The result is a searing narrative of massacred nuns, raped virgins and satanic retribution which will leave the reader simultaneously ensnared, gratified and abused. Best known for his extreme Theatre of Cruelty manifestos, experimental film projects and corporeal poetry, Artaud created THE MONK in France in 1930, at a time when his explicit purpose in his work was to cancel out all existing social and moral systems. With an introduction by author, cultural historian and Artaud biographer Stephen Barber. SOLAR VISIONARIES
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