Melmoth legend7/8/2023 ![]() However, I found it isn’t necessary to read it first in order to appreciate her contemporary take on Maturin’s novel in which her interpretation of Melmoth is female even if some of the finer subversions were inevitably lost on me. The main inspiration behind Sarah Perry’s third novel is a little-known 1820 novel ‘Melmoth the Wanderer’ by Charles Maturin in which a man makes a pact with the devil to extend his life by 150 years. ![]() ![]() Helen’s initial scepticism of the legend wanes when Karel disappears and she is forced to confront the reasons why she cannot forgive herself for the outcome of events in her own past. Among the papers is a manuscript which tells of Melmoth the Witness, an obscure legend in which, according to superstition, Melmoth travels through the ages, persuading those wracked with guilt to wander alongside her on a journey of eternal damnation. Her friend Karel has come into possession of the papers of fellow scholar Josef Hoffman who has recently been found dead in the National Library. ![]() ![]() ‘Melmoth’ by Sarah Perry tells the story of Helen Franklin, a British woman in her forties working as a translator in Prague where she has lived for some twenty years in self-imposed exile. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |