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Melmoth the Wanderer: A Tale. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co., 1820.
Details
MATURIN, Charles (1780-1824).
Melmoth the Wanderer: A Tale. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co., 1820.
Exceptional first edition of a landmark of Gothic literature, in a contemporary monogrammed binding for the Marchioness of Londonderry. The novel's protagonist sells his soul to the devil in exchange for 150 extra years of life and travels the world in a tormented search for someone who will take over the pact. Its influence was lasting and wide-ranging—references to the work can be found in Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin, Nabokov’s Lolita and the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Honoré de Balzac wrote a sequel and considered Maturin's novel worthy of a place among the supreme icons of modern European literature, while Oscar Wilde, a great-nephew of Maturin, derived his famous pseudonym, Sebastian Melmoth, from the work. In The English Novel (1905), the critic Walter Raleigh wrote, ‘in Frankenstein and Melmoth the Wanderer, the Romantic orgy reached its height’. Sadleir 1667.
4 volumes, 12mo (175 x 104mm). Half-titles in all vols., advertisement leaf T12 in vol. IV (a handful of trivial spots and minor chips to some blank margins). Contemporary green half roan over marbled boards, gilt monogram of Frances Anne Vane-Stewart to head of spine (light wear at corners). Provenance: Frances Anne Vane-Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry (1800-1865; inscription in each volume; binding).
Melmoth the Wanderer: A Tale. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co., 1820.
Exceptional first edition of a landmark of Gothic literature, in a contemporary monogrammed binding for the Marchioness of Londonderry. The novel's protagonist sells his soul to the devil in exchange for 150 extra years of life and travels the world in a tormented search for someone who will take over the pact. Its influence was lasting and wide-ranging—references to the work can be found in Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin, Nabokov’s Lolita and the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Honoré de Balzac wrote a sequel and considered Maturin's novel worthy of a place among the supreme icons of modern European literature, while Oscar Wilde, a great-nephew of Maturin, derived his famous pseudonym, Sebastian Melmoth, from the work. In The English Novel (1905), the critic Walter Raleigh wrote, ‘in Frankenstein and Melmoth the Wanderer, the Romantic orgy reached its height’. Sadleir 1667.
4 volumes, 12mo (175 x 104mm). Half-titles in all vols., advertisement leaf T12 in vol. IV (a handful of trivial spots and minor chips to some blank margins). Contemporary green half roan over marbled boards, gilt monogram of Frances Anne Vane-Stewart to head of spine (light wear at corners). Provenance: Frances Anne Vane-Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry (1800-1865; inscription in each volume; binding).
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