The Monk book club questions

The reading plan

Meeting 1: Chapters 1 to 3

1. How should we judge Ambrosio's refusal of mercy alongside his offer of comfort?
2. What might a sermon offer strangers that makes them form new attachments?
3. How much weight would you give the fortune-teller's warning to Antonia?
4. Is exposing a secret romance necessarily helpful, or can secrecy deserve protection?
5. What response does Rosario's struggle to explain his distress call for?

Meeting 2: Chapters 4 to 8

6. Where should family caution end and the lovers' freedom begin?
7. How does the aunt's jealousy affect your judgment of the lovers' secret plan?
8. What does convent secrecy suggest about the balance between protecting an institution and helping people?
9. What does Ambrosio's effort to protect his reputation suggest about what matters most to him?
10. How does Ambrosio's growing boredom with the affair affect your view of his connection with Matilda?

Meeting 3: Chapters 9 to 12

11. When does the pursuit of justice become another wrong?
12. How does the destruction of the convent complicate your response to its earlier secrecy?
13. What changes when Lorenzo's pursuit of justice takes him into hidden vaults?
14. How does the hidden prisoner's escape challenge the idea that escape means safety?
15. How does Ambrosio's capture change the significance of his earlier efforts to protect his reputation?

Themes to talk about

Tips for the host

1. Open each meeting with one question everyone can answer, then go deeper.
2. Anyone who fell behind can catch up with the 15-minute summary.