Books with title Melmoth the Wanderer

Newbery Honor Book * ALA Notable Children's Book“A beautifully written and imaginatively constructed novel that speaks to the power of survival and the delicacy of grief.” —School Library Journal (starred review)This acclaimed bestselling Newbery Honor Book from multi-award-winning author Sharon Creech is a classic and moving story of adventure, self-discovery, and one girl's independence.Thirteen-year-old Sophie hears the sea calling, promising adventure and a chance for discovery as she sets sail for England with her three uncles and two cousins. Sophie’s cousin Cody isn’t so sure he has the strength to prove himself to the crew and to his father.Through Sophie’s and Cody’s travel logs, we hear stories of the past and the daily challenges of surviving at sea as The Wanderer sails toward its destination—and its passengers search for their places in the world.“Sophie is a quietly luminous heroine, and readers will rejoice in her voyage.” —BCCB (starred review)"Like Creech's Walk Two Moons and Chasing Redbird, this intimate novel poetically connects journey with self-discovery.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Thirteen-year-old Sophie is the only girl among the surly crew of her three uncles and two bothersome cousins on a small sailboat bound for England to see her Grandpa Bompie. Through Sophie's and cousin Cody's travel logs, the amazing experiences of these six wanderers and their perilous journey unfold. For Sophie, the true journey is into her past - as she unlocks the pain she has been hiding from herself and learns that she does truly belong to a family.

In the autumn of 1816, John Melmoth, a student in Trinity College, Dublin, quitted it to attend a dying uncle on whom his hopes for independence chiefly rested. John was the orphan son of a younger brother, whose small property scarce could pay John's college expences; but the uncle was rich, unmarried, and old; and John, from his infancy, had been brought up to look on him with that mingled sensation of awe, and of the wish, without the means to conciliate, (that sensation at once attractive and repulsive), with which we regard a being who (as nurse, domestic, and parent have tutored us to believe) holds the very threads of our existence in his hands, and may prolong or snap them when he pleases.On receiving this summons, John set immediately out to attend his uncle.The beauty of the country through which he travelled (it was the county Wicklow) could not prevent his mind from dwelling on many painful thoughts, some borrowed from the past, and more from the future. His uncle's caprice and moroseness,-the strange reports concerning the cause of the secluded life he had led for many years,-his own dependent state,-fell like blows fast and heavy on his mind. He roused himself to repel them,-sat up in the mail, in which he was a solitary passenger,-looked out on the prospect,-consulted his watch;-then he thought they receded for a moment,-but there was nothing to fill their place, and he was forced to invite them back for company.

Newbery Honor Book * ALA Notable Children's Book“A beautifully written and imaginatively constructed novel that speaks to the power of survival and the delicacy of grief.” —School Library Journal (starred review)This acclaimed bestselling Newbery Honor Book from multi-award-winning author Sharon Creech is a classic and moving story of adventure, self-discovery, and one girl's independence.Thirteen-year-old Sophie hears the sea calling, promising adventure and a chance for discovery as she sets sail for England with her three uncles and two cousins. Sophie’s cousin Cody isn’t so sure he has the strength to prove himself to the crew and to his father.Through Sophie’s and Cody’s travel logs, we hear stories of the past and the daily challenges of surviving at sea as The Wanderer sails toward its destination—and its passengers search for their places in the world.“Sophie is a quietly luminous heroine, and readers will rejoice in her voyage.” —BCCB (starred review)"Like Creech's Walk Two Moons and Chasing Redbird, this intimate novel poetically connects journey with self-discovery.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

This eBook has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Melmoth the Wanderer tells the story of John Melmoth, a Dublin student and a scholar who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for 150 extra years of life, and searches the world for someone who will take over the pact for him, in a manner reminiscent of the Wandering Jew.

"Melmoth the Wanderer" is a novel written by Charles Robert Maturin, published in 1820 and considered the last of the classic English gothic romances. Influenced by the Gothic romances of the late 18th century, Maturin's diabolic tale raised the genre to a new and macabre pitch. The book was especially admired in France, notably by Charles Baudelaire. Honoré de Balzac wrote an ironic sequel in 1835, “Melmoth Reconciled”. Oscar Wilde, in exile, chose “Sebastian Melmoth” as his pseudonym.The novel's titular character is a scholar who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for 150 extra years of life, and searches the world for someone who will take over the pact for him, in a manner reminiscent of the Wandering Jew.The novel is composed of a series of nested stories-within-stories, gradually revealing the story of Melmoth's life. The novel offers social commentary on early-19th-century England, and denounces Roman Catholicism in favour of the virtues of Protestantism.

A student visits his dying uncle and upon noticing a centuries-old painting of a distant relative is told, "the original is still alive … you shall see him again." Thus begins a tale of transformation, loneliness, and evil that centers on a Faustian bargain. Melmoth the Wanderer wins an extra 150 years of life but risks eternal hellfire unless he can find someone to take his place. With all the devil's powers at his command, he floats restlessly across oceans and continents, preying upon the innocent as well as the guilty, seeking out desperate and tortured souls and trying to shift the burden of his damnation.Author Charles Maturin, an Irish clergyman, wrote Melmoth the Wanderer in 1820. His inventive and original tale is considered both the last of the great Gothic novels and the forerunner of a new school epitomized by the works of Edgar Allan Poe and Bram Stoker. The book attracted a cult following that included Baudelaire and Balzac and was later characterized by H. P. Lovecraft as "an enormous stride in the evolution of the horror-tale," and cited by Thomas M. Disch as a classic fantasy story. Narrated in a nested series of stories-within-a-story, this moody fable continues to enchant lovers of Gothic romance.