His cheek was fair, his chin downy, his hair flaxen, his hat a white fur one, with a long fleecy nap. He had neither trunk, valise, carpet-bag, nor parcel. No porter followed him. He was unaccompanied by friends. From the shrugged shoulders, titters, whispers, wonderings of the crowd, it was plain that he was, in the extremest sense of the word, a stranger. - excerpt from 'THE CONFIDENCE MAN: His Masquerade'

Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee. To the final moment of his death beneath the waves, Captain Ahab pursues the enigmatic White Whale that took off his leg--Moby-Dick, a symbol of all that is deep and undecipherable. In this greatest of all American novels, Herman Melville spins a gripping tale of whales and whalers, but more than that, he examines the mysteries and paradoxes that lie at the very heart of existence itself. Newly designed and...

Israel Potter (1744-1826) was born in Cranston, Rhode Island. Potter was a veteran of the Battle of Bunker Hill, a sailor in the Revolutionary navy, a prisoner of the British, an escapee in England, a secret agent and courier in France. He spent 45 years in exile from his native land. Melville's plot combines some Potter's actual encounters - King George III, Horne Tooke, and Benjamin Franklin - with some he never had - Ethan Allen and John Paul Jones.

This is a novel partly based on Melville's actual experiences as a captive on Nuku Hiva in the South Pacific Marquesas Islands. The book title comes from a valley located there.

"Call me Ishmael," Moby-Dick begins, in one of the most recognizable opening lines in American, or indeed English-language, literature. The narrator, an observant young man setting out from Manhattan, has experience in the merchant marine but has recently decided his next voyage will be on a whaling ship. On a cold, gloomy night in December, he arrives at the Spouter-Inn in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and agrees to share a bed with a then-absent stranger. When his bunk mate, a heavily tattooed Polynesian harpooner named Queequeg, returns very late and discovers Ishmael beneath his covers,...

Herman Melville's Mardi (1849) has stood the test of time as a superb allegorical fantasy, and as the third in a trilogy reflecting on Melville's experiences on the sea. Set on a fictional Pacific island, this adventure, love story, and exploration of the metaphysical sets the stage for later writers in the twentieth century who delve into the psychological. Appearing only two years before Moby Dick, the book may be regarded as the key to Melville's philosophical, religious, political, and social ideas during the most significant and productive period of his career. The incidents and scenes...

Melvilles beste Erzhlung

Herman Melvilles subversive Geschichte einer Verweigerung ist eines seiner Meisterwerke und einzigartig in ihrer absurden Komik. Jürgen Krug hat seine Neuübersetzung mit einem umfangreichen Kommentar versehen.§Die Geschichte spielt in der New Yorker Geschäftswelt um die Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Ein seltsamer, rätselhafter Mann wird in einer Kanzlei als Kopist eingestellt: Bartleby. Während er zunächst durch ungewöhnlich große Zurückhaltung und Schweigsamkeit auffällt, geht er mehr und mehr dazu über, die Ausführung bestimmter Tätigkeiten mit dem Satz "Ich möchte lieber...