Melmoth, meanwhile, strikes a deal with the devil to extend his life but, if he is not to be dragged to hell upon his death, he must find another to take over the pact. His long tenure on Earth is cursed by the shadow of his own impending damnation, and the irony of Melmoth's bargain is that the knowledge of the price he may have to pay in the next world for his unnatural life span in this one drains any real pleasure from his existence. Melmoth the Wanderer is a book of tales