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Melmoth el Errabundo
Cuando a principios del siglo XIX la novela gótica languidecía repitiéndose a sí misma, un excéntrico clérigo irlandés, de familia hugonote huida de Francia tras la revocación del Edicto de Nantes, le proporcionó su cota más alta que ciertamente excedió a todo cuánto el género había logrado hasta entonces. Se trata de Charles Robert Maturin (1780-1811), oscuro autor de varias novelas publicadas anónimamente o bajo seudónimo y de algunas tragedias de efímero éxito, como Sir Bertram o The Castle of St. Aldobrand, quién se aseguró la inmortalidad literaria con Melmoth el Errabundo, "obra romántica por excelencia y código del romanticismo" , en opinión de Charles Baudelaire.
Desmedida y fragmentaria en su estructura, pero exenta de la ampulosidad y retórica propias de la ficción gótica así como las usuales explicaciones racionales a sus profusos efectos sobrenaturales, la novela narra, con una sabia dosificación de elementos terroríficos, la pesadillesca historia de un hombre condenado a la inmortalidad como consecuencia de un pacto con el diablo. La trágica grandeza del personaje, para Lovecraft una de las "supremas figuras alegóricas de la moderna literatura europea" equiparable a Don Juan de Moliere, al Fausto de Goethe y al Manfredo de Byron, explica la fascinación que despertó en escritores como Walter Scott, Balzac, Poe, Víctor Hugo, Baudelaire y, más recientemente, André Bretón.
Desmedida y fragmentaria en su estructura, pero exenta de la ampulosidad y retórica propias de la ficción gótica así como las usuales explicaciones racionales a sus profusos efectos sobrenaturales, la novela narra, con una sabia dosificación de elementos terroríficos, la pesadillesca historia de un hombre condenado a la inmortalidad como consecuencia de un pacto con el diablo. La trágica grandeza del personaje, para Lovecraft una de las "supremas figuras alegóricas de la moderna literatura europea" equiparable a Don Juan de Moliere, al Fausto de Goethe y al Manfredo de Byron, explica la fascinación que despertó en escritores como Walter Scott, Balzac, Poe, Víctor Hugo, Baudelaire y, más recientemente, André Bretón.
- GenresFiction
447 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1820
About the author
Charles Robert Maturin
147 books128 followersCharles Robert Maturin was an Irish Protestant clergyman (ordained by the Church of Ireland) and a writer of gothic plays and novels.
His first three works were published under the pseudonym Dennis Jasper Murphy and were critical and commercial failures. They did, however, catch the attention of Sir Walter Scott, who recommended Maturin's work to Lord Byron. With the help of these two literary luminaries, the curate's play, Bertram (first staged on 9 May 1816 at the Drury Lane for 22 nights) with Edmund Kean starring in the lead role as Bertram, saw a wider audience and became a success. Financial success, however, eluded Maturin, as the play's run coincided with his father's unemployment and another relative's bankruptcy, both of them assisted by the fledgling writer. To make matters worse, Samuel Taylor Coleridge publicly denounced the play as dull and loathsome, and "melancholy proof of the depravation of the public mind", going nearly so far as to decry it as atheistic. Coleridge's comments on Bertram can also be found in 'Biographia Literaria', chapter 23. The Church of Ireland took note of these and earlier criticisms and, having discovered the identity of Bertram's author (Maturin had shed his nom de plume to collect the profits from the play), subsequently barred Maturin's further clerical advancement. Forced to support his wife and four children by writing (his salary as curate was £80-90 per annum, compared to the £1000 he made for Bertram), he switched back from playwright to novelist after a string of his plays met with failure. One of his grandsons, Basil W. Maturin, a Chaplain at Oxford University, died in the sinking of RMS Lusitania in 1915.
Charles Robert Maturin died in Dublin on 30 October 1824. Honoré de Balzac and Charles Baudelaire later expressed fondness for Maturin's work, particularly his most famous novel, Melmoth the Wanderer.
His first three works were published under the pseudonym Dennis Jasper Murphy and were critical and commercial failures. They did, however, catch the attention of Sir Walter Scott, who recommended Maturin's work to Lord Byron. With the help of these two literary luminaries, the curate's play, Bertram (first staged on 9 May 1816 at the Drury Lane for 22 nights) with Edmund Kean starring in the lead role as Bertram, saw a wider audience and became a success. Financial success, however, eluded Maturin, as the play's run coincided with his father's unemployment and another relative's bankruptcy, both of them assisted by the fledgling writer. To make matters worse, Samuel Taylor Coleridge publicly denounced the play as dull and loathsome, and "melancholy proof of the depravation of the public mind", going nearly so far as to decry it as atheistic. Coleridge's comments on Bertram can also be found in 'Biographia Literaria', chapter 23. The Church of Ireland took note of these and earlier criticisms and, having discovered the identity of Bertram's author (Maturin had shed his nom de plume to collect the profits from the play), subsequently barred Maturin's further clerical advancement. Forced to support his wife and four children by writing (his salary as curate was £80-90 per annum, compared to the £1000 he made for Bertram), he switched back from playwright to novelist after a string of his plays met with failure. One of his grandsons, Basil W. Maturin, a Chaplain at Oxford University, died in the sinking of RMS Lusitania in 1915.
Charles Robert Maturin died in Dublin on 30 October 1824. Honoré de Balzac and Charles Baudelaire later expressed fondness for Maturin's work, particularly his most famous novel, Melmoth the Wanderer.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 13, 2026
Toma mucho tiempo leerlo. Tiene sus partes buenas, pero hay que pasar un sinfín de lagunas soporíferas para llegar a gozarlas, además que está repleto de historias dentro de historias lo que tiende a confundir. Lo mejor, los ambientes creados en el final de ambos tomos: el primero acaecido en plena Inquisición en Madrid, el segundo donde finalmente Melmoth deja de errar.
Si consideramos que son dos tomos gordos re llenos de material gótico, es un reto no menor. (6.5.2005)
Si consideramos que son dos tomos gordos re llenos de material gótico, es un reto no menor. (6.5.2005)
February 5, 2020
I have read this first volume on my precious, my dear Kindle.
I gave it one star and decided not to read the following volumes because it is very exhausting to emerge into its pages.
The language is mundane, without any layers of actualization (in a sense of the Russian Formalists meaning). The only level of actualization are some archaic forms of English.
The composition is a typical one for a gothic romance. Many narrators, many diegetic levels of narration. And I do love the gothic genre, all of romanticism, but this bit of it was so boring.
By reading the first volume I can conclude that the gothic elements are very sporadical, I would consider it more of a realist than a romanticist novel. But, maybe the following volumes do contain true gothic elements.
The Wandering Jew is the foremost gothic topos that I came across in this novel. Also the byronic persona of the Wandering Jew.
But there were no true fantastic elements in this piece, thus I would consider it a more realist than a romanticist artwork. So in that way I am not sure is the Wandering Jew a Wandering Jew.
The anti-catholic sentiment is not unusual in the romanticist period but this concrete example is nothing but protestant propaganda.
I am a catholic and I am really fed up with the protestant-masonic shit that has been happening and is still happening. I am disgust by the anti-traditionalist base of protestantism. I do hope that London will fall some day, along with the shitty royal family, the masonic oligarchy and all of its imperialism.
Am I a lunatic to believe that Masons exist?
If you open-minded protestant know Spanish do watch this; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oZn7... and this one; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHCm4....
I really do wanna know how many liberals from North America and United Kingdom speak Spanish...
Or do Berkeley liberals speak any language besides English at all...
It would be like if Ortodox Serbs would have had any deeper concepts in their heads.
A science fiction!
But to not be so harsh there are a few things that came up good from your protestant culture; capitalism, The Ramones, The Clash, Dead Kennedys, Arctic Monkeys, Lord Byron and the rest of the romanticist crew from the British Isles. And Washington Irving from USA.
This flag will rise above London, New York and the rest of your rainy cities:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD3rk...
¡Hasta luego weones y weonas!
I gave it one star and decided not to read the following volumes because it is very exhausting to emerge into its pages.
The language is mundane, without any layers of actualization (in a sense of the Russian Formalists meaning). The only level of actualization are some archaic forms of English.
The composition is a typical one for a gothic romance. Many narrators, many diegetic levels of narration. And I do love the gothic genre, all of romanticism, but this bit of it was so boring.
By reading the first volume I can conclude that the gothic elements are very sporadical, I would consider it more of a realist than a romanticist novel. But, maybe the following volumes do contain true gothic elements.
The Wandering Jew is the foremost gothic topos that I came across in this novel. Also the byronic persona of the Wandering Jew.
But there were no true fantastic elements in this piece, thus I would consider it a more realist than a romanticist artwork. So in that way I am not sure is the Wandering Jew a Wandering Jew.
The anti-catholic sentiment is not unusual in the romanticist period but this concrete example is nothing but protestant propaganda.
I am a catholic and I am really fed up with the protestant-masonic shit that has been happening and is still happening. I am disgust by the anti-traditionalist base of protestantism. I do hope that London will fall some day, along with the shitty royal family, the masonic oligarchy and all of its imperialism.
Am I a lunatic to believe that Masons exist?
If you open-minded protestant know Spanish do watch this; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oZn7... and this one; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHCm4....
I really do wanna know how many liberals from North America and United Kingdom speak Spanish...
Or do Berkeley liberals speak any language besides English at all...
It would be like if Ortodox Serbs would have had any deeper concepts in their heads.
A science fiction!
But to not be so harsh there are a few things that came up good from your protestant culture; capitalism, The Ramones, The Clash, Dead Kennedys, Arctic Monkeys, Lord Byron and the rest of the romanticist crew from the British Isles. And Washington Irving from USA.
This flag will rise above London, New York and the rest of your rainy cities:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD3rk...
¡Hasta luego weones y weonas!
June 10, 2024
Melmoth the Wanderer is a quartet. The novel written early in the 19nth Century by a ( very clearly protestant clergyman). It is a gothic romance (with all the trimmings) and an allegory.However, most of it is melodrama, and it isn't really preachy. The story begins with one of the latter day members of the extended family who is visiting and tending to his dying Uncle. The Uncle extracts a promise from our narrator to attend to some matters after he dies. Uncle points out a door in the bedroom, and he asks the visitor to destroy a manuscript, as well as a portrait within. He cautions young Melmoth to destroy the painting without looking into the eyes of the subject and to destroy the manuscript without reading it. Of course, the young man studies the portrait ( the eyes of which do seem intently interesting) and reads the story of his ancestor contained in the manuscript, and the game is afoot.
After setting up the story which carries through the rest of the quartet, young Melmoth becomes the person to who the rest of the story is told in further manuscripts and extensive stories of Melmoth the wanderer which are told to him; and Melmoth the younger re-appears in the flesh ( so to speak) infrequently there after. Although the novels are told with the language and literary devises of its time it develops into the classic gothic outlines which for the most part found audience in the latter part of the Century. If you like gothic novels, and you like them well enough to read a thick tome ( I used Gutenberg downloads to avoid the heavy lifting ) you will probably like this; I ( not a confirmed Gotth) like it quite well.
After setting up the story which carries through the rest of the quartet, young Melmoth becomes the person to who the rest of the story is told in further manuscripts and extensive stories of Melmoth the wanderer which are told to him; and Melmoth the younger re-appears in the flesh ( so to speak) infrequently there after. Although the novels are told with the language and literary devises of its time it develops into the classic gothic outlines which for the most part found audience in the latter part of the Century. If you like gothic novels, and you like them well enough to read a thick tome ( I used Gutenberg downloads to avoid the heavy lifting ) you will probably like this; I ( not a confirmed Gotth) like it quite well.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews