Café de Nuit

I can haz a new question pleze?

Excuse me, Lady Soth, but I've been long trying to find a good question.
Here goes, I hope it's an interesting one:

Melmoth the Wanderer and the Ancient Mariner are two famous types of the Wandering Jew archetype. Although a medieval tale, it was much explored in Gothic fiction. Percy Bysshe Shelley has a number of poems around this theme.

What other short story from the first half of the XIXth century, from none of the authors alluded to in this introduction, uses this archetype and indeed explicitly evokes the Wandering Jew in its opening lines?

P.S.: I really hope there are no other short stories fitting these conditions, but I cannot assure it. The one I'm looking for was written by an English author.

Edit: just to give an additional small clue.

One additional clue: the author was related in real life to one of the three authors mentioned or implied in the introduction.

Ail wrote:Excuse me, Lady Soth, but I've been long trying to find a good question.
Here goes, I hope it's an interesting one:

Melmoth the Wanderer and the Ancient Mariner are two famous types of the Wandering Jew archetype. Although a medieval tale, it was much explored in Gothic fiction. Percy Bysshe Shelley has a number of poems around this theme.

What other short story from the first half of the XIXth century, from none of the authors alluded to in this introduction, uses this archetype and indeed explicitly evokes the Wandering Jew in its opening lines?

P.S.: I really hope there are no other short stories fitting these conditions, but I cannot assure it. The one I'm looking for was written by an English author.

Edit: just to give an additional small clue.

I'm currently researching the answer to this one, its an interesting question! Good luck to everyone, I think we're going to need it again!

On a side note Ail, I also love the poem Rime of the Ancient Mariner too, but I'm a little foggy on the jewish connection . . . could you elaborate?

Hi Lady Soth,

thanks for finding the question motivating. To be honest, I haven't yet found the time to read the Ancient Mariner completely, but the idea is that the sailor is condemned to wander aimlessly and, if I've understood it right, without a definite term, to pay for his crime (shooting an albatross).

This ties with the curse of the Wandering Jew, who was condemned to live forever, or better said, until Jesus's second coming, for some offense done to Him. So, the connection between them is that of wandering for long span of time without visible end. In a sense, immortality or too prolonged life.

The case of Melmoth the Wanderer is similar, but not exactly the same, because he is given an additional 150 years of life. This, however, also qualifies as a 'long span of time' =).

Ail wrote:Hi Lady Soth,

thanks for finding the question motivating. To be honest, I haven't yet found the time to read the Ancient Mariner completely, but the idea is that the sailor is condemned to wander aimlessly and, if I've understood it right, without a definite term, to pay for his crime (shooting an albatross).

This ties with the curse of the Wandering Jew, who was condemned to live forever, or better said, until Jesus's second coming, for some offense done to Him. So, the connection between them is that of wandering for long span of time without visible end. In a sense, immortality or too prolonged life.

The case of Melmoth the Wanderer is similar, but not exactly the same, because he is given an additional 150 years of life. This, however, also qualifies as a 'long span of time' =).

This is great, an interesting connection, so the connection has more to do with the fact of the main character "wandering" than any explicit "jewish" connection. At first I thought this archetype referred explicitly to Moses, but reading this I see its a different story completely. Well, in the research so far, I've come up with this, although I think not what you are looking for, but still extremely interesting:

The novel by George Croly called "Tarry Thou Till I come" was originally published in 1828, and is explicitly about the life of the Wandering Jew. The title, and the first line in the book are references to the biblical story, when Jesus decreed that the man who taunted him would be doomed to walk the earth until His second coming.

This author is English, the book's from the 19th century and the opening line invokes the Wandering Jew archetype directly, however it is not a short story and I don't think Croly was related to Shelley. I guess I'll have to keep looking, but wanted to share this -- great question!

Hi Lady Soth,

thanks for your answer. As you guessed, it is not the one I have in mind, so you're willing to try a bit more, I'll wait.

The connection you got is very interesting by the way, but I've never read it.

You are very near the answer, the author is indeed related to Percy Shelley and not Charles Maturin nor Samuel Coleridge.

Good luck.

Its Thomas Medwin! Shelley's cousin!

Shelley's book-length poem "The Wandering Jew" was supposedly actually written by Medwin himself, and Shelley later took most of the credit Medwin later said in his famous book "The Shelley Papers". . . it this it?

There's also a "Thomas Percy" who published a ballad about the wandering Jew, but this was in the 1700s. . . and no relation to Shelley except in nationality and the name "Percy". . .

What do you think Ail? This one's giving me a run for my money.

LadySoth wrote:Its Thomas Medwin! Shelley's cousin!

Shelley's book-length poem "The Wandering Jew" was supposedly actually written by Medwin himself, and Shelley later took most of the credit Medwin later said in his famous book "The Shelley Papers". . . it this it?

There's also a "Thomas Percy" who published a ballad about the wandering Jew, but this was in the 1700s. . . and no relation to Shelley except in nationality and the name "Percy". . .

What do you think Ail? This one's giving me a run for my money.

Would you mind another run, then?
Not the one indeed. That is supposedly still a Percy's text. The short story I need is indeed short, in prose, and there are no quibblings about who the author is, as far as I know, at least.

And the Wandering Jew does not explicitly appear in it either
I mean, the character of the Wandering Jew does not appear.

Ail wrote: Would you mind another run, then?

Ah well, I've given it my best, I think I'll give someone else a try with it. . .

. . . this is a tough one!

K, last clue everyone.
It was written by Mary Shelley, and the connection with the Wandering Jew is not to much on the Wandering part but on the Immortality.
Rather, I should say, the Curse of Immortality.

Ail Wrote:

What other short story from the first half of the XIXth century, from none of the authors alluded to in this introduction, uses this archetype and indeed explicitly evokes the Wandering Jew in its opening lines?

Ail also wrote:

And the Wandering Jew does not explicitly appear in it either

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so confused!

I think Ail means that the Wandering Jew is mentioned (by narrator or by one of the characters) early in the novel, but he doesn't actually appear in the story. Like how a contemporary novel's character might mention Superman, even though it's not a superhero story.

Rotipher of the FoS wrote:I think Ail means that the Wandering Jew is mentioned (by narrator or by one of the characters) early in the novel, but he doesn't actually appear in the story. Like how a contemporary novel's character might mention Superman, even though it's not a superhero story.

Yes, exactly. He is named in like the third line in the story, but is not a character in it.

Oh, and it's not big enough to be a novel.

Well, just so this thread can be revived, here goes the answer to the last question:

"The Mortal Immortal", by Mary Shelley.

It starts like this:

July 16, 1833. -- This is a memorable anniversary for me; on it I complete my three hundred and twenty-third year!

The Wandering Jew? -- certainly not. More than eighteen centuries have passed over his head. In comparison with him, I am a very young Immortal.