Melmoth the Wanderer

xvii, [1], 505, [1] pp. 1993 reissue from the text of the 1820 original, with minor emendations. Introduction by Devendra P. Varma, color plates by Felix Zakar. "All the miscreants of melodrama... are almost all the grandchildren of the renowned wanderer Melmoth, that great satanic creation of the Reverend Maturin." - Charles Baudelaire. Also endorsed by Edgar Allan Poe, Mario Praz, and Leslie Fielder. "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."