Melmoth the Wanderer

Charles Robert Maturin (1782-1824) was born in Dublin and educated at Trinity College, going on to become a clergyman and writer of Gothic novels and plays. At first a failure, his work was nonetheless noticed by Sir Walter Scott and Lord Byron, which led to the staging and success of his tragedy Bertram . (Samuel Taylor Coleridge, on the other hand, dismissed it as 'melancholy proof of the depravation of the public mind'.) His later plays and fiction, including Melmoth the Wanderer , were neglected and Maturin died in poverty. The work's brilliance was recognised posthumously, and it now endures as one of the most famous gothic novels in English literature.