Melmoth the Wanderer

1993

Special Collections

London: Folio Society

Charles Maturin (1780-1824) was the great-uncle of Oscar Wilde. He wrote several Irish national tales and Gothic romances. His fifth novel, Melmoth the Wanderer (1820), was one of Wilde’s favourite books, and critics have noted the thematic resonances between it and Wilde’s own novels. One obvious influence of Maturin is in Wilde’s choice of the pseudonym ‘Sebastian Melmoth’, which he adopted upon his release from Reading Gaol. Wilde explained his reason to a friend: ‘to prevent postmen having fits I sometimes have my letters inscribed by the name of a curious novel by my great-uncle Maturin’.