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
Melmoth (comics) on what Gerhard could find in library architecture books. He couldn't find anything specific about the doctor's office or Wilde's final resting place, aside from Wilde's "famous last line" indicating that the "wallpaper had to be really ugly." He drew inspiration from Barry Windsor Smith for the series covers. The story was originally serialized in "Cerebus" #139–150. The issues were further numbered "Melmoth Zero" ("Cerebus" #139, October 1990) through "Melmoth Eleven" ("Cerebus" #150, September 1991), although this numbering is not acknowledged in the collection. The collection appeared in October 1991. It included an 11-page text section with reproductions of letters