Melmoth the Wanderer empty. They follow Melmoth's tracks to the top of a cliff, and see his handkerchief on a crag below them. "Exchanging looks of silent and unutterable horror", they return home. Honoré de Balzac wrote a follow-up story ("Melmoth Reconciled") and considered Maturin's novel worthy of a place among Molière's "Don Juan", Goethe's "Faust" and Lord Byron's "Manfred" as one of the supreme icons of modern European literature. Oscar Wilde, during his travels after release from prison, called himself Sebastian Melmoth, deriving this pseudonym from the title character in his great-uncle's novel and from Saint Sebastian. Historian of English literature Walter
William Melmoth years of 1703–1711 that Melmoth composed "The Great Importance". "The Great Importance of a Religious Life Consider'd" was published for the first time in 1711. Melmoth published the book anonymously. Like William Law's later "A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life" (1728), Melmoth's book emphasized personal renewal and religious awakening. Instead of focusing on social ills and matters of politics or polity, Melmoth focused on the individual Christian and urged a revitalized faith. The book was immediately successful and was translated into French and Welsh within a year. Melmoth's authorship of the book was not definitely asserted until