Charles Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer

Christina Morin (University of Limerick)
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Shortly after the publication of his fourth novel,

Women; or, Pour et Contre

(1818), the Anglo-Irish clergyman and author, Charles Robert Maturin, proposed an unnamed prose work to his publisher, Archibald Constable. Over the next two years, Maturin worked sporadically and unevenly on what would eventually be published as

Melmoth the Wanderer

in 1820. Throughout the troubled composition process, Maturin continually toyed with different narrative structures and literary genres, at one point suggesting a series of tales and, at another, a long poem interspersed with prose (Ragaz 363). The novel in its finished form consists of several nested tales linked together by the presence of the eponymous Wanderer. A combination of several common Gothic figures, including the Wandering Jew and the…

2633 words

Citation: Morin, Christina. "Melmoth the Wanderer". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 September 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3663, accessed 28 March 2024.]

3663 Melmoth the Wanderer 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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