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A review by dknippling
Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Robert Maturin
3.0
I normally like stories within stories as a structure, but this felt like someone talking my ear off. "BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE." This was so overwrought that I skimmed most of it.
I loved that idea of the book, but -- the book doesn't do what it sets out to do. Melmoth is seen as cruel and evil because he doesn't solve people's problems for them and he sneers a lot. So what? The real antagonist of the book is the Catholic church, which the author intrusively takes every opportunity to slam. The book felt like listening to a bitter old man complain about religion for 600 pages. "But what about Melmoth? When does the bad guy come back? And when does he do anything?"
I feel like Anne Rice took Melmoth, made him a vampire, and had a great deal more fun with Lestat than the author ever did with Melmoth. Likewise Oscar Wilde and The Picture of Dorian Gray. I can't say my time was wasted here, but I wish the author had been more respectful and less hysterical with it.
I loved that idea of the book, but -- the book doesn't do what it sets out to do. Melmoth is seen as cruel and evil because he doesn't solve people's problems for them and he sneers a lot. So what? The real antagonist of the book is the Catholic church, which the author intrusively takes every opportunity to slam. The book felt like listening to a bitter old man complain about religion for 600 pages. "But what about Melmoth? When does the bad guy come back? And when does he do anything?"
I feel like Anne Rice took Melmoth, made him a vampire, and had a great deal more fun with Lestat than the author ever did with Melmoth. Likewise Oscar Wilde and The Picture of Dorian Gray. I can't say my time was wasted here, but I wish the author had been more respectful and less hysterical with it.