Melmoth the Wanderer

Name: Melmoth the Wanderer
Price: 14.40 USD
Availability: BackOrder
ISBN: 9780140447613

By: Charles Robert Maturin

Penguin Classics / 2001 / Paperback

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Product Description

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Melmoth, one of the most fiendish characters in literature, was created by an Irish clergyman determined, as he put it, to 'display all my diabolical resources'. In a satanic bargain, Melmoth has sold his soul in exchange for immortality. As his story is pieced together through those who have glimpsed his eerie existence over the centuries, we witness Melmoth's desperate quest to find someone who will take his place and release him from his tortured wanderings. Comic, violent, allusive and profound, Melmoth the Wanderer casts a plumb line into the depths of human perversity. Ever since it appeared in 1820 it has been hugely influential, numbering Balzac, Poe, Andri Breton and Oscar Wilde among its many admirers. It is, according to Victor Sage, 'a labyrinthine form without a centre...the Gothic romance to end all Gothic romances.' This edition includes a critical introduction, explanatory notes, and further reading.

Product Information

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Title: Melmoth the Wanderer
By: Charles Robert Maturin
Format: Paperback
Vendor: Penguin Classics
Publication Date: 2001

Dimensions: 8.12 X 5.12 (inches)
Weight: 1 pound 1 ounce
ISBN: 014044761X
ISBN-13: 9780140447613
Stock No: WW47610

Publisher's Description

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The 19th-century horror novel that inspired Sarah Perry's Melmoth

A Penguin Classic

Created by an Irish clergyman, Melmoth is one of the most fiendish characters in literature. In a satanic bargain, Melmoth exchanges his soul for immortality. The story of his tortured wanderings through the centuries is pieced together through those who have been implored by Melmoth to take over his pact with the devil. Influenced by the Gothic romances of the late 18th century, Maturin's diabolic tale raised the genre to a new and macabre pitch. Its many admirers include Poe, Balzac, Oscar Wilde and Baudelaire.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Author Bio

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Charles Robert Maturin (1782-1824) was born in Dublin and educated at Trinity College. He took orders and worked as a curate in Loughrea and Dublin. Maturin enjoyed literary success with his Gothic novels and a tragedy 'Bertram' (1816). His later plays and fiction, including Melmoth the Wanderer, were neglected and he died in poverty.

Victor Sage is Reader in Literature in the School of English and American Studies at the University of East Anglia.