About the Book
This is nonfiction commentary. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: 1820 Novels, 1821 Novels, 1822 Novels, 1823 Novels, 1824 Novels, 1825 Novels, 1826 Novels, 1827 Novels, 1828 Novels, 1829 Novels, the Last Man, Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years, the Betrothed, Les Chouans, the Last of the Mohicans, Redgauntlet, the Prairie, Kenilworth, the Fair Maid of Perth, the Talisman, Quentin Durward, the Pirate, the Fortunes of Nigel, Hope Leslie, Peveril of the Peak, Anne of Geierstein, Woodstock, the Betrothed, St. Ronan's Well, the Monastery, Valperga, the Abbot, the Pioneers, the Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, the Lustful Turk, Melmoth the Wanderer, Ourika, the Last Day of a Condemned Man, Gaston de Blondeville, the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, Fanshawe, the Wilderness, Lichtenstein, Jud Suss, the Epicurean, Vivian Grey, Bug-Jargal, the Skeleton Count, or the Vampire Mistress, Armance, the Misfortunes of Elphin, the Pilot: a Tale of the Sea, Lucy Temple, Maid Marian, the White Hoods, Emile. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: Melmoth the Wanderer is a gothic novel published in 1820, written by Charles Robert Maturin (uncle of Jane Wilde who was mother of Oscar Wilde ).Synopsis The central character, Melmoth (a Wandering Jew type), is a scholar who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for 150 extra years of life and spends that time searching for someone who will take over the pact for him. The novel actually takes place in the present, but this back story is revealed through several nested stories-within-a-story that work backwards through time (usually through the Gothic trope of old books).Reception The novel was cited by Karl Edward Wagner as one of the thirteen best supernatural horror novels, and by H. P. Lovecraft as "an enormous stride in the evolution of the horror-tale." . The ..
