Charles Robert Maturin (23/54) Melmoth The Wanderer

MELMOTH THE WANDERER.....
One of the first horror novels, it tells the story of Melmoth, who sells his soul so he could have an extended life. Throughout the novel, he wanders around the world in search of someone who would replace him and lift his curse. It is known for its many sub-plots, the true horror it makes one feel, and its criticism of the Catholic church. This is certainly one of the most important books of all times, quoted in countless other works, and praised by authors and critics alike.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY.....
Charles Robert Maturin (September 25, 1780 – October 30, 1824), was an Irish Protestant clergyman (ordained in the Church of Ireland) and a writer of Gothic plays and novels. His best known work is the novel Melmoth the Wanderer, published in 1820.

Maturin was descended from Huguenot émigrés who left France and found shelter in Ireland in the anti-Protestant persecution which followed the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in the late seventeenth century. One of these descendants was Gabriel Jacques Maturin, who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin after Jonathan Swift in 1745. Charles Robert Maturin was born in Dublin and attended Trinity College. Shortly after being ordained as curate of Loughrea, County Galway, in 1803, he moved back to Dublin as curate of St Peter's Church. He lived in York Street with his father William, a Post Office official, and his mother, Fedelia Watson, and married on October 7, 1804 the acclaimed singer Henrietta Kingsbury. On October 7, 1803, Maturin and Kingsbury were involved in a marriage settlement, in which Maturin was noted as living in Banagher in the King's County (modern-day County Offaly) at the time.

In January 1805, Maturin acted as a witness to a deed in which his father William signed a lease taking on a property on the south side of York Street, Dublin for 50 years from one "James Switsir of the City of Kilkenny". The transaction had been made "in Consideration of the Sum of £500 to (Switsir) partly paid, and partly secured to be paid, by William Maturin". In March 1805, William sub-leased the same property to a "Patrick Sharkey, Doctor of Physic" and in May 1805 took out another lease on a separate property on the north side of "Fitzwilliams Street", Dublin. Further property dealings were made in subsequent years by William Maturin concerning property on Lower Mount Street, Dublin.

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