{"id":95110,"date":"2019-05-06T19:00:16","date_gmt":"2019-05-06T08:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/?p=95110"},"modified":"2019-05-17T15:22:01","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T04:22:01","slug":"listen-sarah-perry-melmoth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2019\/05\/06\/listen-sarah-perry-melmoth\/","title":{"rendered":"LISTEN: Sarah Perry on Melmoth"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sarah<\/a>

Sarah Perry<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never been in fashion and I\u2019m not about to start.\u201d says Sarah Perry.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a wonderful declaration of self-confidence from an author who has just held an entire room spellbound at her panel at the Sydney Writers\u2019 Festival like it was no big deal. We\u2019re now sitting in a cosy little office upstairs somewhere at Carriageworks, where I\u2019m chatting to her about our mutual love of Gothic fiction, the ethics of consuming and creating art, and, of course, her latest novel Melmoth<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

So, what is Melmoth<\/em>? It\u2019s a modern, multi-faceted story based on the 1820 Gothic novel by Charles Maturin called Melmoth the Wanderer<\/a><\/em>, about a figure who is cursed to wander the earth for all eternity bearing witness to the world and all of its evils. Sarah’s novel has threads in many different times and places that it weaves together to create a story centred around the novel\u2019s self-punishing protagonist Helen Franklin. Helen is a woman trying to atone for something terrible she did many years ago, and who discovers an unsettling ancient manuscript telling the story of Melmoth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melmoth <\/em>is a true Gothic horror story with a modern twist, leaning into all of the sensibilities of the genre for a reading experience that is deliciously sensory. While reading it, you might find yourself looking over your shoulder more often than usual, or giving that pile of washing in the corner a second glance, convinced for just a second that it was Melmoth standing there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I loved it when I first read it and I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting it now. More than anything I was struck by how timely it seems, as if right now is the perfect time to bring this haunting 19th century figure to life, and this was completely Sarah’s intention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMelmoth<\/em> is my way of insisting that literature can matter and a way of addressing what\u2019s happening around us.\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sarah<\/a>
Sarah Perry’s Gothic trilogy.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This book is the third in Sarah Perry\u2019s unofficial Gothic trilogy, comprised of After Me Comes the Flood<\/a><\/em> and the bestselling The Essex Serpent<\/a><\/em>, and it shares all of the elements which made her first two books so brilliant and which made Sarah herself so beloved by her readers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This adoration continues to surprise the author, who jokes that her books are quite old-fashioned in the sense of the way they\u2019re written (with beautifully flowing cadences and rhythm, borrowed from the Bible verses she read as a child), and the heavy concepts they address. The idea of belief is central to many of her novels – belief in a higher power, belief in a supernatural entity, belief in science – and it\u2019s a topic very close to Sarah\u2019s heart. She had a deeply religious upbringing which came to shape her entire worldview as an adult, even after drifting away from the church. Perry is a natural storyteller, though, and her novels never feel preachy or condescending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would find it very difficult and I think it would be futile to write against who I am.\u201d she says, and her books are all the richer for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sarah also revealed the exciting news that she is working on something new. It\u2019s a more personal work for the author, who sees herself as tying up the loose ends of a vast Gothic project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019ve investigated the sensation and now I want to move on\u2026 but at the same time I think I\u2019m always going to be a little bit haunted by that feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider me excited – listen to my chat with Sarah Perry below!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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