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The Fatal Revenge; Or, the Family of Montorio: A Romance
I was grasped by an influence that froze me up. The cold and bony hand was on me; the blood in my veins thrilled and crept like the cold motion of a worm...I knew I was among the dead...
Written with the express desire to counter the comfortable familiarity with which ghost stories were being written, Fatal Revenge begins with an introduction by an anonymous Italian officer at the siege of Barcelona in 1697. From this dramatic beginning the story of the Montorios - a distinguished, though wild family from Naples with a murky and sensational past - unfolds. The Present Count Montorio, "dark, silent and solitary", has achieved wealth and position through the untimely death of the previous Count and his entire family in suspicious circumstances.
A harrowing romance in the Gothic tradition, populated by extravagant, often decadent characters, Fatal Revenge is founded exclusively on what Maturin described as the "passion of supernatural fear", in which the reader is never allowed to feel comfortable with the horrors or apparitions which haunt the Montario family.
Written with the express desire to counter the comfortable familiarity with which ghost stories were being written, Fatal Revenge begins with an introduction by an anonymous Italian officer at the siege of Barcelona in 1697. From this dramatic beginning the story of the Montorios - a distinguished, though wild family from Naples with a murky and sensational past - unfolds. The Present Count Montorio, "dark, silent and solitary", has achieved wealth and position through the untimely death of the previous Count and his entire family in suspicious circumstances.
A harrowing romance in the Gothic tradition, populated by extravagant, often decadent characters, Fatal Revenge is founded exclusively on what Maturin described as the "passion of supernatural fear", in which the reader is never allowed to feel comfortable with the horrors or apparitions which haunt the Montario family.
3 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1806
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About the author
Charles Robert Maturin
160 books127 followersCharles Robert Maturin was an Irish Protestant clergyman (ordained by the Church of Ireland) and a writer of gothic plays and novels.
His first three works were published under the pseudonym Dennis Jasper Murphy and were critical and commercial failures. They did, however, catch the attention of Sir Walter Scott, who recommended Maturin's work to Lord Byron. With the help of these two literary luminaries, the curate's play, Bertram (first staged on 9 May 1816 at the Drury Lane for 22 nights) with Edmund Kean starring in the lead role as Bertram, saw a wider audience and became a success. Financial success, however, eluded Maturin, as the play's run coincided with his father's unemployment and another relative's bankruptcy, both of them assisted by the fledgling writer. To make matters worse, Samuel Taylor Coleridge publicly denounced the play as dull and loathsome, and "melancholy proof of the depravation of the public mind", going nearly so far as to decry it as atheistic. Coleridge's comments on Bertram can also be found in 'Biographia Literaria', chapter 23. The Church of Ireland took note of these and earlier criticisms and, having discovered the identity of Bertram's author (Maturin had shed his nom de plume to collect the profits from the play), subsequently barred Maturin's further clerical advancement. Forced to support his wife and four children by writing (his salary as curate was £80-90 per annum, compared to the £1000 he made for Bertram), he switched back from playwright to novelist after a string of his plays met with failure. One of his grandsons, Basil W. Maturin, a Chaplain at Oxford University, died in the sinking of RMS Lusitania in 1915.
Charles Robert Maturin died in Dublin on 30 October 1824. Honoré de Balzac and Charles Baudelaire later expressed fondness for Maturin's work, particularly his most famous novel, Melmoth the Wanderer.
His first three works were published under the pseudonym Dennis Jasper Murphy and were critical and commercial failures. They did, however, catch the attention of Sir Walter Scott, who recommended Maturin's work to Lord Byron. With the help of these two literary luminaries, the curate's play, Bertram (first staged on 9 May 1816 at the Drury Lane for 22 nights) with Edmund Kean starring in the lead role as Bertram, saw a wider audience and became a success. Financial success, however, eluded Maturin, as the play's run coincided with his father's unemployment and another relative's bankruptcy, both of them assisted by the fledgling writer. To make matters worse, Samuel Taylor Coleridge publicly denounced the play as dull and loathsome, and "melancholy proof of the depravation of the public mind", going nearly so far as to decry it as atheistic. Coleridge's comments on Bertram can also be found in 'Biographia Literaria', chapter 23. The Church of Ireland took note of these and earlier criticisms and, having discovered the identity of Bertram's author (Maturin had shed his nom de plume to collect the profits from the play), subsequently barred Maturin's further clerical advancement. Forced to support his wife and four children by writing (his salary as curate was £80-90 per annum, compared to the £1000 he made for Bertram), he switched back from playwright to novelist after a string of his plays met with failure. One of his grandsons, Basil W. Maturin, a Chaplain at Oxford University, died in the sinking of RMS Lusitania in 1915.
Charles Robert Maturin died in Dublin on 30 October 1824. Honoré de Balzac and Charles Baudelaire later expressed fondness for Maturin's work, particularly his most famous novel, Melmoth the Wanderer.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 28, 2010
[These notes were made in 1982. I read the 1807 edition:]. To tell you the awful truth, I enjoyed this book immensely - more than Melmoth, which was too, too revolting in some places. This one was just revolting enough! The speeches in which Schemoli (Schemoli-Schedoni; I know) describes his life (?) as "goblin damned" are really quite impressive, and I had less trouble convincing myself that its underground mazes were tangible. Maturin has, I think - and it's hardly an original observation - a combination of the gruesome-Lewis with the suggestive-Radcliffe which can be downright spooky. The two heroes were refreshingly unvapid. One wonders if Maturin meant to make Annibal end up loving his half-sister, or whether he just discovered it at the last minute himself and had to kill her off! Short of Frankenstein, which is in an altogether different class, I must say this is the best "Gothic" I've read in a long while.
May 15, 2015
Al igual que la novela “La semilla del diablo”, esta spoilea con su título, pero en realidad eso es lo de menos.
Seguimos las andanzas de una familia a quienes sus miembros se les aparece un monje con una máscara, el que sólo les replica desdichas futuras. Ellos empiezan a huir de sus propiedades, pero por ello no les dejara de pasar cosas.
Al igual que en Melmoth, es narrado con historia dentro de otras, y mediante diarios. Una amplia variedad de estilos narrativos que tendrá que estar muy atento para no perderte en esta muñeca rusa literaria.
Lo fantástico no aparece, pero si una ambientación maravillosa, en la que visitamos castillos, abadías, palacios, posadas en las que las olas del lago golpean sus muros… Algunos momentos con buena tensión, que nos activa nuestros miedos. Y como no: hasta el final no entenderemos el por qué de todo.
Buena novela poco conocida injustamente, que es mejor que Melmoth.
Seguimos las andanzas de una familia a quienes sus miembros se les aparece un monje con una máscara, el que sólo les replica desdichas futuras. Ellos empiezan a huir de sus propiedades, pero por ello no les dejara de pasar cosas.
Al igual que en Melmoth, es narrado con historia dentro de otras, y mediante diarios. Una amplia variedad de estilos narrativos que tendrá que estar muy atento para no perderte en esta muñeca rusa literaria.
Lo fantástico no aparece, pero si una ambientación maravillosa, en la que visitamos castillos, abadías, palacios, posadas en las que las olas del lago golpean sus muros… Algunos momentos con buena tensión, que nos activa nuestros miedos. Y como no: hasta el final no entenderemos el por qué de todo.
Buena novela poco conocida injustamente, que es mejor que Melmoth.
February 21, 2025
Enjoyed reading this!
July 25, 2021
Confusing book about a family revenge plot by Oscar Wilde's uncle. The characters all have multiple names which makes it difficult to follow at first. I read this because I enjoyed his "Melmoth The Wanderer" and this was a bit of a disappointment. It could of been better if it was written more clearly.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews