Melmoth the Wanderer (The Penguin English Library)

Charles Robert Maturin (1782-1824) was born in Dublin and educated at Trinity College, going on to become a clergyman and writer of Gothic novels and plays. At first a failure, his work was nonetheless noticed by Sir Walter Scott and Lord Byron, which led to the staging and success of his tragedy Bertram. (Samuel Taylor Coleridge, on the other hand, dismissed it as 'melancholy proof of the depravation of the public mind'.) His later plays and fiction, including Melmoth the Wanderer, were neglected and Maturin died in poverty. The work's brilliance was recognised posthumously, and it now endures as one of the most famous gothic novels in English literature.