Melville: His World and WorkIf Dickens was nineteenth-century London personified, Herman Melville was the quintessential American. With a historian’s perspective and a critic’s insight, award-winning author Andrew Delbanco marvelously demonstrates that Melville was very much a man of his era and that he recorded — in his books, letters, and marginalia; and in conversations with friends like Nathaniel Hawthorne and with his literary cronies in Manhattan — an incomparable chapter of American history. From the bawdy storytelling of Typee to the spiritual preoccupations building up to and beyond Moby Dick, Delbanco brilliantly illuminates Melville’s life and work, and his crucial role as a man of American letters. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION | 3 |
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH | 17 |
BECOMING A WRITER | 59 |
HERMAN MELVILLE CRAZY | 176 |
SEEING TOO MUCH | 206 |
THE MAGAZINIST | 222 |
ADRIFT | 244 |
SEASON OF DEATH | 266 |
THE QUIET END | 288 |
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Common terms and phrases
aboard Allan Melvill American Bartleby become Benito Cereno Berkshire Athenaeum Billy Budd Boston brother Bulkington called Captain Ahab chapter Claggart Clarel Confidence-Man critic death Delano Democratic described Elizabeth Shaw Melville Emerson Evert Duyckinck eyes father feel fiction Gansevoort Melville Hawthorne's heart Henry Herman Melville Hershel Parker HM to Evert HM to Nathaniel human ibid imagination Ishmael James John Journal entry later Lemuel Shaw letter Library literary living Lizzie look Mardi Maria Melville wrote Melville's mind Moby Dick Moby-Dick mother Nathaniel Hawthorne never novel Omoo Pierre Pittsfield poem political prose published quoted in Log quoted in Parker Redburn Review sailor savage Savage Shaw Sealts seemed sexual ship slave slavery Sophia story theme thing Thomas tion University Press Vere W. H. Auden whaleship White-Jacket wife William words writing written York young