Uploaded March 2019 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Regular readers have long since noted that your correspondent is not a great reader of fiction. But he is a reader of great fiction, of which Melmoth is a prime example.
This spooky, gothicky tale, written by the author of The Essex Serpent (separately reviewed), concerns a malevolent, ghostly woman, clad in flowing black with bleeding feet, who is condemned to walk the Earth for all eternity in search of souls similarly tormented by guilt or despair, to whom she clings like a leech until their inevitable demise.
One such prospective victim is an expat British translator, in her thirties, who flees from England to the cobblestoned city of Prague under a cloud, having committed what she feels is a totally unforgivable sin. Donning the equivalent of a hair-shirt, and living like a pauper by way of self-flagellation, she accidentally befriends a local named Karel, himself the unwitting inheritor of Melmoth's curse. The evocative, if sinister, tale that ensues, which is fashioned refreshingly around a female anti-heroine, is what sets this remarkable tale apart.
Inspired by Robert Charles Maturin's 1820 novel, Melmoth the Wanderer, this is nonetheless highly original gothic fiction - of such a standard, in fact, that it prompted Susan Hill, of The Woman in Black fame, to inform the author that she had had to move the book physically from her bedside table in order to be able to sleep at all. It involves mysterious letters, a confession, a manuscript, an unwanted legacy, and the constant presence of a ghostly figure lurking in the background, endlessly waiting and watching for her next opportunity to pounce.
Sarah Perry has done it again. As contemporary ghost stories go, one of the best.
More mystery video book reviews at
bookreviewsandvideos.com/category/mystery-book-reviews
Regular readers have long since noted that your correspondent is not a great reader of fiction. But he is a reader of great fiction, of which Melmoth is a prime example.
This spooky, gothicky tale, written by the author of The Essex Serpent (separately reviewed), concerns a malevolent, ghostly woman, clad in flowing black with bleeding feet, who is condemned to walk the Earth for all eternity in search of souls similarly tormented by guilt or despair, to whom she clings like a leech until their inevitable demise.
One such prospective victim is an expat British translator, in her thirties, who flees from England to the cobblestoned city of Prague under a cloud, having committed what she feels is a totally unforgivable sin. Donning the equivalent of a hair-shirt, and living like a pauper by way of self-flagellation, she accidentally befriends a local named Karel, himself the unwitting inheritor of Melmoth's curse. The evocative, if sinister, tale that ensues, which is fashioned refreshingly around a female anti-heroine, is what sets this remarkable tale apart.
Inspired by Robert Charles Maturin's 1820 novel, Melmoth the Wanderer, this is nonetheless highly original gothic fiction - of such a standard, in fact, that it prompted Susan Hill, of The Woman in Black fame, to inform the author that she had had to move the book physically from her bedside table in order to be able to sleep at all. It involves mysterious letters, a confession, a manuscript, an unwanted legacy, and the constant presence of a ghostly figure lurking in the background, endlessly waiting and watching for her next opportunity to pounce.
Sarah Perry has done it again. As contemporary ghost stories go, one of the best.
More mystery video book reviews at
bookreviewsandvideos.com/category/mystery-book-reviews
