Ghost story vs Melmoth the Wanderer: Which Should You Read?

Ghost story Peter Straub · 1979 ★★★★☆ 3.9 507 pages · ≈ 9 h 23 m · Moderate

In a seedy motel in Florida, a young man holds captive a little girl in a soiled pink dress. He is anxious, tormented, introspective. She is calm, passive, strangely detached. She says her name is Angie Maule.

Melmoth the Wanderer Charles Robert Maturin · 1820 ★★★★☆ 3.7 560 pages · ≈ 10 h 22 m · Challenging

“John Melmoth, student at Trinity College, Dublin, having journeyed to County Wicklow for attendance at the deathbed of his miserly uncle, finds the old man, even in his last moments, tortured by avarice, and by suspicion of all around him.”

"In a satanic bargain, Melmoth has sold his soul in exchange for immortality and now preys on the helpless in their darkest moments, offering to ease their suffering if they will take his place and release him from his…