Remembered today for his Gothic masterpiece, Melmoth the Wanderer (1820), Charles Robert Maturin (1780-1824) played a pivotal role in the development of Romantic national fiction in Ireland in the early-nineteenth century. A Church of Ireland clergyman, Maturin was profoundly shaped by the conflict of loyalties inherent to his Irish Anglican identity. Born shortly before Ireland’s brief parliamentary independence beginning in 1782 – a period known as Grattan’s parliament, named for the leading patriot spokesman, Henry Grattan – Maturin was firmly attached to the idea of an independent Ireland. Despite his Protestant mindset and firm support of Anglican ascendancy in Ireland, his fictional works …
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