Herman Melville

ISBN-13: 9781405131582 / Angielski / Miękka / 2008 / 256 str.

Wyn Kelley

Opis

This unique introduction explores Herman Melville as he described himself in Billy Budd--a writer whom few know.- Moving beyond the recurring depiction of Melville as the famous author of Moby-Dick, this book traces his development as a writer while providing the basic tools for successful critical reading of his novels.

• Offers a brief introduction to Melville, covering all his major works
  
• Showcases Melville's writing process through his correspondence with Nathaniel Hawthorne
  
• Provides a clear sense of Melville's major themes and preoccupations
  
• Focuses on Typee, Moby-Dick, and Billy Budd in individual chapters
  
• Includes a biography, summary of key works, interpretation, commentary, and an extensive bibliography.

Recenzje

Read alongside Melville′s original writings, this book will be an excellent companion for a Melville course. Essential. ( Choice, November 2008)

Spis treści

Texts and Abbreviations.

List of Illustrations.

Acknowledgments.

Preface.

Part I: Introduction.

1. Melville s Life.

2. Agatha and the Invention of Narrative.

Part II: Melville s Early Yarns.

3. Making Literary Use of the Story : Typee and Omoo.

4. A Regular Story Founded on Striking Incidents : Mardi, Redburn, and White–Jacket.

Part III: Writing New Gospel in Moby–Dick and Pierre.

5. So Much of Pathos & So Much of Depth : Moby–Dick.

6. All Tender Obligations : Pierre.

Part IV: Turning a New Leaf: Short Fiction, Israel Potter, and The Confidence–Man.

7. A Leaf from Professional Experience : Short Fiction of the 1850s.

8. Peculiarly Latitudinarian Notions : Israel Potter and The Confidence–Man.

Part V: Melville s Later Career.

9. Fulness & Veins & Beauty : Battle–Pieces and Clarel.

10. Different Considerations : Late Poetry.

11. Instinct with Significance : Billy Budd.

Afterword: Restoring To You Your Own Property : Owning Melville.

Appendix: The Agatha Correspondence.

Notes.

Bibliography.

Index

O autorze

Wyn Kelley is a Senior Lecturer in the Literature Faculty at MIT. She is the author of Melville′s City: Literary and Urban Form in Nineteenth–Century New York (1996) and editor of A Companion to Herman Melville (Blackwell, 2006) and an edition of Benito Cereno 2006, and has also written a number of essays on Melville. She is Associate Director of the Melville Society journal Leviathan.

Blurb

This unique introduction explores Herman Melville as he described himself in Billy Budd a writer whom few know. Moving beyond the recurring depiction of Melville as the famous author of Moby–Dick, this book traces his development as a writer while providing the basic tools for successful critical reading of his novels. Using the extraordinary Agatha correspondence with Nathaniel Hawthorne as a key to Melville′s writing practices, beliefs, and inclinations, the volume introduces Melville as a writer who constantly reflected on his craft and experimented with new forms and genres.

Arranged chronologically, the volume focuses on Typee, Moby–Dick, and Billy Budd, as well as other novels, short fiction, and poems, to explore Melville′s distinctive narrative style. A biography, summaries of key works, interpretation, commentary, and an extensive bibliography are all included.