CHARLES ROBERT MATURIN was to many people the most unlikely person to have written this terrifying Gothic horror novel. A curate at St Peter's Church, Dublin, he was a quietly-spoken, introverted man given to long perlods of depression (although towards the end of his life literary acclaim did bring him more out of himself and his parties became famous in Dublin society). His family were exiled French
• Protestants, but they did not lack the funds to provide him with a first-class education at Trinity College, Dublin, Maturin was still at college when he married and, in order to make a living, ill-advisedly entered the Church. Although he fulfilled his duties with quiet zeal, he was more often to be found labouring over his latest literary work. Writing had been his passion from an early age, but he dared not let this fact be too well known among the Church authorities and therefore published his first three books under a pseudonym.
Melmoth the Wanderer appeared in 1820 shortly before Maturin's death, but despite its Immediate popularity amongst the public and critics it did not ease the financial burden that had weighed on him most of his life.