Added by: arcadius | Karma: 2802.10 | Fiction literature | 19 August 2010
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Typee by Herman Melville
Sailors are the only class of men who nowadays see anything like stirring adventure; and many things which to fire-side people appear strange and romantic, to them seem as common-place as a jacket out at elbows. Yet, notwithstanding the familiarity of sailors with all sorts of curious ad venture, the incidents recorded in the following pages have often served, when "spun as a yarn," not only to relieve the weariness of many a night-watch at sea, but to excite the warmest sympathies of the author's shipmates.
Moby-Dick is considered to be an undisputed classic, and many believe it to be the epitome of the great American novel. With an unforgettable cast of characters, including the mad Captain Ahab, Melville skillfully documents the Pequod crew's tragic hunt for the great white whale. The full-length essays presented in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, Updated Edition provide expert commentary on the huge canvas of symbols, themes, and subjects presented in this novel, as well as an introduction, a chronology, a bibliography, and an index, that will help students navigate confidently through Melville's masterpiece.
Added by: ninasimeo | Karma: 4370.39 | Fiction literature | 18 April 2010
4
Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville
"Bartleby the Scrivener" is one of Melville's most famous stories. It is also one of the most difficult to interpret. For decades, critics have argued over numerous interpretations of the story. Melville wrote "Bartleby" at a time when his career seemed to be in ruins, and the story reflects his pessimism. The narrator, a successful Wall Street lawyer, hires a scrivener named Bartleby to copy legal documents,but he is a scrivener with a difference...
Herman Melville's Moby Dick first appeared in 1851. It is in no way an immature work, though Melville was little over thirty when he wrote it. His unimaginable crowded years of experience in trading vessel, whaler and man-of -war were already behind him; already he had written five other books, including Typee, Omoo and Redburn. Moby Dick is not a book one would offer to a young novelist as a model; though to most of its admirers it is a book more returnable to than any other.
This revision of Herman Melville A to Z (2001) is an addition to the publisher's Critical Companions series. Part 1 is a biography of Melville. Part 2 has entries on many of Melville's publications, including summaries and publication history, and for the more substantive works, critical commentary, entries on characters, and brief secondary bibliographies. The third section contains encyclopedic entries on people, places, publications, and events. The fourth section is made up of several appendixes: a chronology, a primary and secondary bibliography, selected contemporary reviews, selected letters between Melville and Hawthorne, and a genealogy extending from Melville's grandparents to his grandchildren.
