MATURIN, Charles (1780-1824) - photo 1
MATURIN, Charles (1780-1824) - photo 2
MATURIN, Charles (1780-1824) - photo 3
MATURIN, Charles (1780-1824) - photo 4
MATURIN, Charles (1780-1824) - photo 5

MATURIN, Charles (1780-1824)

Lot 120
13.02.2025 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1362893
Lot 120 | MATURIN, Charles (1780-1824)
Estimate value
£ 10 000 – 15 000
MATURIN, Charles (1780-1824)
Melmoth the Wanderer: A Tale. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co., 1820.
An excellent first edition of a landmark of Gothic literature, in which the protagonist sells his soul to the devil in exchange for 150 extra years of life. 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 (174 x 103mm). Half-titles in all vols., advertisement leaf T12 in vol. IV (faintest marginal marks, minor marginal tear in O8 in vol. I). Contemporary half calf over marbled boards (light wear at extremities); custom modern quarter calf box. Provenance: some early underlining to a few leaves in vol. III, the words ‘religion itself’ censored with ink on p.335 – H. Bradley Martin (bookplate affixed to front pastedown of vol. I and loosely inserted into vol. III) – Barry Humphries (1934-2023; bookplate).
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
13.02.2025 – 13.02.2025
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
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