Best of Melville: Moby-Dick + D. H. Lawrence's critique of Moby-Dick + Typee + The Piazza Tales (The Piazza + Bartleby + Benito Cereno + The Lightning-Rod Man + The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles + The Bell-Tower) + The Confidence-Man


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This carefully crafted ebook: “Best of Melville: Moby-Dick + D. H. Lawrence's critique of Moby-Dick + Typee + The Piazza Tales (The Piazza + Bartleby + Benito Cereno + The Lightning-Rod Man + The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles + The Bell-Tower) + The Confidence-Man” is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. Table of contents: Moby-Dick D. H. Lawrence's critique of Moby-Dick Typee The Piazza Tales (The Piazza; Bartleby; Benito Cereno; The Lightning-Rod Man; The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles; The Bell-Tower) The Confidence-Man Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is a novel by Herman Melville, first published in 1851. The story tells the adventures of wandering sailor Ishmael, and his voyage on the whaleship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab. Ishmael soon learns that Ahab has one purpose on this voyage: to seek out Moby Dick, a ferocious, enigmatic white sperm whale. In a previous encounter, the whale destroyed Ahab's boat and bit off his leg, which now drives Ahab to take revenge. D. H. Lawrence's critique of Moby-Dick Lawrence's opinions earned him many enemies and he endured official persecution, censorship, and misrepresentation of his creative work throughout the second half of his life, much of which he spent in a voluntary exile which he called his "savage pilgrimage." Lawrence is now valued by many as a visionary thinker and significant representative of modernism in English literature. Typee is Herman Melville's first book, a classic in the literature of travel and adventure partly based on his actual experiences as a captive on the island Nuku Hiva in the South Pacific Marquesas Islands, in 1842. The Piazza Tales is a collection of short stories by Herman Melville, first published in 1856. Originally, Melville had intended to entitle the volume Benito Cereno and Other Sketches, but it was The Encantadas, his sketches of the Galápagos Islands, that garnered the most attention from critics. The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade was the last major novel by Melville. Published in 1857, the novel portrays a Canterbury Tales-style group of steamboat passengers whose interlocking stories are told as they travel down the Mississippi River toward New Orleans. Herman Melville (1819 – 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. His first two books gained much attention, though they were not bestsellers, and his popularity declined precipitously only a few years later. His longest novel, Moby-Dick was rediscovered in the 20th century as one of the chief literary masterpieces of both American and world literature.




The Essential H. Melville - 9 Books in One Volume


Book Description

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is a novel by Herman Melville, first published in 1851. The story tells the adventures of wandering sailor Ishmael, and his voyage on the whaleship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab. Ishmael soon learns that Ahab has one purpose on this voyage: to seek out Moby Dick, a ferocious, enigmatic white sperm whale. In a previous encounter, the whale destroyed Ahab's boat and bit off his leg, which now drives Ahab to take revenge. D. H. Lawrence's critique of Moby-Dick Lawrence's opinions earned him many enemies and he endured official persecution, censorship, and misrepresentation of his creative work throughout the second half of his life, much of which he spent in a voluntary exile which he called his "savage pilgrimage." Lawrence is now valued by many as a visionary thinker and significant representative of modernism in English literature. Typee is Herman Melville's first book, a classic in the literature of travel and adventure partly based on his actual experiences as a captive on the island Nuku Hiva in the South Pacific Marquesas Islands, in 1842. Table of contents: Moby-Dick D. H. Lawrence's critique of Moby-Dick Typee The Piazza Bartleby Benito Cereno The Lightning-Rod Man The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles The Bell-Tower The Confidence-Man Herman Melville (1819–1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. His best known works include Typee (1846), a romantic account of his experiences in Polynesian life, and his whaling novel Moby-Dick (1851).




The Piazza Tales


Book Description

""The Piazza Tales"" is a collection of six short stories written by Herman Melville. The first story, ""The Piazza,"" is about a narrator who buys a house in the countryside and builds a piazza. He spends much of his time on the piazza, watching his neighbors and contemplating the mysteries of life. The second story, ""Bartleby, the Scrivener,"" is about a lawyer who hires a scrivener named Bartleby. Bartleby is a very strange man who eventually refuses to do any work, leading to his dismissal and tragic end. The third story, ""Benito Cereno,"" is a tale of a ship captain who is taken captive by his own slaves while on a voyage. The story explores themes of race and power. The fourth story, ""The Lightning-Rod Man,"" is about a man who sells lightning rods and claims that he can protect a house from lightning strikes. The story is a satire on the marketing tactics of the time. The fifth story, ""The Encantadas,"" is a series of ten sketches depicting the Galápagos Islands. Melville explores the history and natural beauty of the islands. The final story, ""The Bell-Tower,"" is about the construction of a bell-tower in a small town. The narrator becomes obsessed with the tower and the bell, and eventually commits a terrible crime. Overall, ""The Piazza Tales"" is a collection of diverse stories that explore themes of human nature, society, and the natural world.




The Geography of the Imagination


Book Description

In the 40 essays that constitute this collection, Guy Davenport, one of America's major literary critics, elucidates a range of literary history, encompassing literature, art, philosophy and music, from the ancients to the grand old men of modernism.




The Piazza Tales


Book Description

Included in this Herman Melville collection are six tales that range considerably -- from "The Encantadas" (an allegorical travelogue) to the haunting "Bartleby, the Scrivener." Opening the volume is "The Piazza," a pastoral sketch that frames the collection. "Benito Cerenno" -- a subversive satire -- of grows out of a true story of mutiny among the enslaved . . .




The Piazza Tales (Illustrated)


Book Description

ncluded in this Herman Melville collection are six tales that range considerably -- from "The Encantadas" (an allegorical travelogue) to the haunting "Bartleby, the Scrivener." Opening the volume is "The Piazza," a pastoral sketch that frames the collection. "Benito Cereno" -- a subversive satire -- of grows out of a true story of mutiny among the enslaved . . .1."The Piazza"2."Bartleby the Scrivener" (first published in Putnam's November and December 1853)3."Benito Cereno" (first published in Putnam's October, November and December 1855)4."The Lightning-Rod Man" (first published in Putnam's August 1854)5."The Encantadas or Enchanted Isles" (first published in Putnam's March, April, and May 1854)6."The Bell-Tower" (first published in Putnam's August 1855)




Secret Sharers: Melville, Conrad and Narratives of the Real


Book Description

The present book explores a variety of fundamental questions that all of us secretly share. Its twenty-one chapters, written by some of the world’s leading Melville and Conrad scholars, indicate possible directions of comparativist insight into the continuity and transformations of western existentialist thought between the 19th and 20th centuries. The existential philosophy of participation—so mistrustful of analytical categories—is epitomized by the lives and oeuvres of Melville and Conrad. Born in the immediacy of experience, this philosophy finds its expression in uncertain tropes and faith-based actions; rather than muffle the horror vacui with words, it plunges head first into liminality, where logos dissolves into a “positive nothing.” Unlike analytical philosophers, both Melville and Conrad refrain from talking about reality: they expose those who would listen to a first-hand experience of participation in an interpretive act. Employing literary tropes to denude the essence of the human condition, they allow their readers to transgress the limitations of language. Mistrustful of language, they accept the necessity of discourse which, to make sense, must be actively reshaped, endlessly questioned, and constantly revised. And if uncertainty is the only certainty available to us, our lowly human condition also necessitates compassion: an existential cure against the liquid, capricious reality we are afforded.




Herman Melville - Mariner and Mystic


Book Description

Devil's Advocate, Ghosts, Parents and Early Years, A Substitute for Pistol and Ball, Discoveries on Two Continents, Pedagogy, Pugilism and Letters, Blubber and Mysticism, Leviathan, The Pacific, Man-Eating Epicures—The Marquesas, Mutiny and Missionaries—Tahiti, On Board a Man-of-War, to the Racing Tide, Across the Atlantic Again, Neighbour of Hawthorne's, The Great Refusal, The Long Quietus, Bibliography




The Biology of Horror


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Moby Dick


Book Description

One of America's greatest writers, Herman Melville often based his novels on the remarkable experiences of his own life. Unpopular in their time, they are now recognized as works of unique power and genius. Moby Dick is one of the world's greatest and most famous sea stories. It tells of Ishmael, who joins the whaler Pequod in search of adventure. Instead he finds himself caught in the grip of the mad, lame Captain Ahab and his obsessive pursuit of the great white whale, Moby Dick. The Confidence-Man also takes place on board a ship, but this time on a steamer on the Mississippi River. The Piazza Tales are full of delights at all levels, and these short stories are considered to be among the small masterpieces of American fiction. Billie Budd lay undiscovered for over twenty years after Melville's death. In it he returns to the sea, in the story of an innocent young sailor whose life is ruined by one explosive act of violence.