Melmoth the Wanderer is an 1820 Gothic novel by Irish playwright, novelist and clergyman Charles Maturin.

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 offers social commentary on early 19th-century England, and denounces Roman Catholicism in favour of the virtues of Protestantism.

[2] In reality, Maturin was under pressure from his publisher to fulfil a contractual obligation, which goes some way to explaining the "chaotic and haphazard process by which (he) wrote".

At his uncle's funeral, John is told an old family story about a stranger called Stanton, who arrived looking for "Melmoth the Traveller" decades earlier.

He meets a venerable Jewish scholar, Adonijah, who lives in a secret chamber decorated with the skeletons of his own family.

In exchange for food and shelter, Adonijah compels Monçada to transcribe a manuscript for him: the Tale of the Indians.

Melmoth reappears and he and Isidora elope by night; he leads her to a remote chapel where they are married by an undead hermit.

By this point in the story, Isidora's father has fallen asleep, and wakes to find the stranger at the inn replaced by Melmoth.

Honoré de Balzac wrote a follow-up story (Melmoth Reconciled) and considered Maturin's novel worthy of a place among Molière's Dom Juan, Goethe's Faust and Lord Byron's Manfred as one of the supreme icons of modern European literature.

[5] The novel was described by H. P. Lovecraft as "an enormous stride in the evolution of the horror-tale",[4] and Maurice Richardson also wrote an essay for Lilliput magazine praising Melmoth.

[10] The literary critic John Strachan notes the fact that much of the novel is set in contemporary Ireland and Spain is not surprising, considering the extent to which both countries haunted Maturin's imagination.

[11] Marsh's Library held an exhibition celebrating the bicentenary of the book in 2020, entitled Ragged, Livid & On Fire: The Wanderings of Melmoth at 200.