Talk:Melmoth the Wanderer

First Surrealist Novel?

Can we get a source for this? I'm pretty sure there's some confusion here, since, as far as I know, Andre Breton and the other Surrealists generally considered Les Chants de Maldoror by the Comte de Lautreamont to be the first Surrealist text, a book that just so happens to take a lot of influence from Melmoth. Vlad the Impaler (talk) 02:27, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Ok, well until we can get a citation for this, I'm going to remove it for now. I know Breton made a lot of flattering remarks about Melmoth, so if anyone can find those, perhaps we can include that. I'm also not sure if all these far flung examples count as "pop culture". Perhaps "Cultural References" would be more appropriate?--Vlad the Impaler (talk) 18:52, 30 November 2009 (UTC)

I added mention of Donald Wandrei's corespondences between H.P. Lovecraft. Its not exactly how I would like it worded, something should be added about Melmoth The Wander being a permutation or pun on Wandrei. But even now I can't word it correctly.

• • Now just why is that?

searching for the truth

This is actually one of my favorite books. The exquisiteness of description. The inner voyage through human suffering. The morbid fascination for fear and pain that each passage slightly wakes in the reader's mind. And in spite this, one can easily feel a naiveness and respect towards the highest consciousness and deepest inquiring.

Melmoth in popular culture

Regarding the below section moved here. It is an indiscriminate list of people or things named "Melmoth". It is original research to say they have anything to do with the novel. The entries are mostly unsourced. It is a list of trivia. See WP:NOT for relevant Wikipedia policy. If there are relevant entries here that are directly related to the novel, and can be discussed in a way that makes them notable, than please re-add to the article in non-list prose format, saying why they are important to the novel, with citations. To put it another way, if this section was spun off into a separate article Melmoth in popular culture, it would never survive an WP:AFD because of WP:NOT and WP:OR and WP:V -- Stbalbach 16:04, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

==Melmoth in popular culture==

The main character's name has been taken up by other writers.

• Serving as a pseudonym for Oscar Wilde in his self-imposed exile on the continent after his release from Reading Gaol.
• The writer Donald Wandrei used the name Melmoth the Wanderer in many of his letters to H.P. Lovecraft.
• Aleksandr Pushkin suggests in passing that the hero of his famous novel in verse Eugene Onegin might assume the role of a Melmoth.
• In Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita, Humbert Humbert drives a Melmoth car. Near the conclusion, he refers to it by name: "Hi, Melmoth, thanks a lot, old fellow". As explained in Alfred Appel's Annotated Lolita, the name is appropriate for the vehicle in which Humbert and Lolita wander across the United States — and for the connotations it evokes through association with Oscar Wilde and possibly Pushkin.
• Aviation writer Peter Garrison named his homebuilt aircraft Melmoth after the station wagon in the Vladimir Nabokov novel. Destroyed in an accident in 1982, its successor is Melmoth 2.
• The sixth story arc of Dave Sim' comic opus Cerebus, which was later collected in to the sixth graphic novel of the series, is titled "Melmoth", and is a fictionalized retelling of the last days of Oscar Wilde.
• The name also served as inspiration for Anne Rice's novel, Memnoch the Devil. Balzac wrote Melmoth Reconciled.
• The name Melmoth is also given to an immortal villain in DC Comics' Seven Soldiers series by Grant Morrison.
• In Jodorowsky's Metabarons, one of the Metabarons takes the name Melmoth for himself after uniting his body with the head of the last poet in the universe.

Typical of 19th C

Re: this:

The book is is very typical of 19th century Gothic novels with its fervent attack on Roman Catholicism. The Spaniards Tale within "Melmoth the Wanderer" is a very good example of this, showing the hypocrisy of a monastic community and the excessive cruelties of the Spanish Inquisition.

Makes no sense. Literature that attacks the Catholic Church has a strong tradition going back to at least Erasmus, 14th century The Decameron, etc... As well, classic Gothic literature such as Frankenstein does not attack the Catholic Church. It's unlcear why this is being brought up. -- Stbalbach 11:44, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Sure, but it is an extended portion of the novel, quite impressive in its elaboration and extension, still not common, and a notable feature of the novel - I remember the introduction of the edition I read commending close attention to that section to the reader. --Gwern (contribs) 18:39 6 May 2007 (GMT)

That's fine but the way its worded: typical of 19th century Gothic novels with its fervent attack on Roman Catholicism - problematic in a number of ways. -- Stbalbach 12:45, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

The real question is "typical of which 19th century Gothic novels". The Italian and The Monk illustrate this anti-Catholic sentiment, while other novels do not. --Kyoko 12:51, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

The Italian and The Monk are also not from the 19th century. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the book's fervent attack on Roman Catholicism follows a tradition of anti-Catholic sentiment in many English Gothic novels. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vlad the Impaler (talk • contribs) 22:02, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

Synopsis

The Synopsis (added by henrywcg in 2011) is good, but too long. It shouldn't be split by chapter, or include so many repeated "story continues" phrases. Anyone agree/disagree? I'll edit it down a bit; if anyone has strong feelings I'll be happy to roll it back.

(Also: why is the section called "Synopsis" not "Plot"? Anyone know of any reason? WikiProject:Novels doesn't have explicit guidelines but its templates use the latter.) Thecorinthian85 (talk) 18:05, 29 June 2014 (UTC)

My idea was to try to elucidate the quite complex structure of the novel, of the Gothic 'stories within stories' aspect. henrywgc

Fair enough, it just made the synopsis a bit long to scroll past. I've shortened it, and put a line about the structure in the header paragraph of the article. Tbh it is still too long... there's probably much more detail there than is needed. -corinthian

Infobox

I've added the standard infobox for books. If anyone is able to fill in any of the empty fields, go for it. twl_corinthian (talk) 21:01, 29 June 2014 (UTC)

"References in other works"

As per Stbalbach's much earlier comment (above): the references section is a bit tenuous in places.

Has anyone read enough Cerebus or Seven Soldiers to say whether these references are unambiguous? The former seems like an indirect reference, since it's just an allusion to Wilde.

The Edgar Allan Poe thing may not even be accurate... I can't find that "Purpose of Poetry" essay, and the quote seems to come from a letter and isn't quite on the subject that is suggested here. Also, is the fact that Poe mentioned Melmoth in one essay/letter really noteworthy enough?

Article class

I've upgraded the class from "stub" (which it had clearly ceased to be long ago) to "class B". twl_corinthian (talk) 16:45, 16 July 2014 (UTC)

Listed among Works based on Faust

The Novel is included in the List of Works based on Faust, but the whole Article does not elaborate or even mention that Connection at all. So is there actually any Foundation for that Inclusion or is that just based on it being a Story with a Devil's Pact? If there is I think it should be explained in the Article itself by someone who is educated on that.

Glimmer-Vigdís (talk) 21:05, 31 March 2023 (UTC)