En 1680, el monasterio de Berchtesgaden en los Alpes bávaros fue el escenario del desgraciado amor entre un joven franciscano y la hija de un verdugo. Dos siglos más tarde, Ambrose Bierce interpretó los siniestros pormenores de la leyenda hasta convertirla en su única novela y en una de las cimas de la literatura gótica.

93 p novella, purporting to be adapted from an ancient German text.
Narrated by young monk Ambrosius, sent to a monastery in Alpine Bavaria. He he encounters the "untouchable" hangman and his lovely daughter Benedikta. She too is- by reason of her parentage- a social outcast, yet Ambrosius begins to fall in love.
Our narrator seems - apart from his romantic feelings- a spiritually minded youth, ever dwelling on his vocation, and the majesty of nature.
But Benedikt is being pursued by a worthless young noble- Rochus.......and an unexpected twist brings the tale to a sudden end.
Quite an involving read. ( )

I thought I was picking up a story of forbidden passion and sundered lovers, but instead got a portrait of religious hypocrisy and, intensely depicted, narcissitic obsession and objectification of the "loved" person as a recepticle for the emotions of the protagonist. It's clear that Bierce has no sympathy for the actions of the main character, the monk, Ambrosius, but neither is he portrayed as a stock, moustache-twirling gothic villain. In presenting the narrative from the single point of view of Ambrosius's diary, Bierce ran the risk of seeming to empathise with or justify the monk's self-absorbed fantasies, but he's too good a writer for that, thankfully.

How much of this sentiment is in the original German-language story by [author:Richard Voss|232971], which Bierce co-translated, I don't know, but in his introduction he states that he added much material of his own, as well a translating Voss.

Gothic conventions he did use include: perverse monks; febrile religious passions; peasant village life; wild, rugged mountain landscapes; the dead, and intimations of mortality and doom. All to good effect. ( )

http://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2014/02/07/recent-reads-the-monk-an... ( )

The monk and the hangman's daughter is a short novella by Ambrose Bierce, written in 1892. It is a fairly simple story of impending doom, which is quite easy to predict. Nonetheless, the story takes some interesting turns, which keep the reader interested to go on reading.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the story is its peculiar, somewhat simplistic style. In the "Preface", by Bierce it is suggested that the story has German origins. This "Preface" is a playful artifice, a parody on the introductions in other nineteenth century novels, suggesting obscure origins of the story, long ago, 1680, and in a faraway place such as the Bavarian Alps. I do not know whether Bierce is the first to set this ploy up in a separate Preface, as opposed to the first pages of the novel.

While the story has its interesting moments, it is particularly the style that should draw the readers' attention. The story has something unreal to it. It is obviously very contrived, as it imitates and incorporates many style elements of German Fairy Tales: an innocent maiden / disgraceful wench, the doomed aspect of the gallows, the dark forest, a blond giant, an old, weak father, and many smaller emblems, such the way the characters behave.

At the same time, there are style characteristics of a much more modern type of story-telling. It is obvious, that the main character, Brother Ambrosius is an unreliable narrator: he views the world in a delusion, his delusion being love. As a priest, Brother Ambrosius must remain celibate, but from the time he first saw Benedicta, he has been in love, and makes it the mission of his life to rescue her. However, in his eagerness to do good, he misinterprets many things going on around him, and misunderstands the advice of his Superior. This leads to his inevitable doom.

The novella is very easy to read, with mostly short sentences, and short chapters, to emulate the style of the Fairy tales. The mixture of simplicity and irony make the story feel unreal, something not all readers may appreciate. ( )