Benito Cereno / Edition 1

by Herman Melville

Overview

This harrowing account of a slave revolt is one of Melville's finest tales. When a New England sea captain goes to aid a mysterious ship, it slowly unfolds, in almost surreal clarity, that it is a slave ship whose cargo has revolted, its captain is a prisoner and most of the crew has been murdered.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	2900312452420
Publication date:	12/19/2006
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.36(d)

About the Author

Wyn Kelley is a senior lecturer on the Literature Faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the author of Meville’s City: Literary and Urban Form in Nineteenth-Century New York (1996) and of essays in collections such as Savage Eye: Melville and the Visual Arts (1991), Melville’s Evermoving Dawn: Centennial Essays (1997), The Cambridge Companion to Herman Melville (1998), Ungraspable Phantom: Essays on Moby-Dick (2006), Melville and Women (2006), and Hawthorne and Melville: Writing Relationship (2007). She has edited Blackwell Publisher’s A Companion to Herman Melville (2006) and coedited with Jill Barnum and Christopher Sten Whole Oceans Away: Melville and the Pacific (2006). She serves as associate editor of the Melville Society journal Leviathan and as a founding member of the Melville Society Cultural Project.

Date of Birth:

August 1, 1819

Date of Death:

September 28, 1891

Place of Birth:

New York, New York

Place of Death:

New York, New York

Education:

Attended the Albany Academy in Albany, New York, until age 15

Table of Contents

Preface

Chronology: The Life of Herman Melville

An Introduction to Benito Cereno

Herman Melville, Benito Cereno

Amasa Delano, From A Narrative of Voyages and Travels, in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres: Comprising Three Voyages Round the World, Together with a Voyage of Survey and Discovery in the Pacific Ocean and Oriental Islands

Suggestions for Further Reading and Research

Glossary of Literary Terms

About the Editor

Editorial Reviews

"The Broadview Press edition of Herman Melville's 'Benito Cereno' is vital for teaching, research, and exploring the power of American short fiction. From abolitionist writings to texts about the Haitian Revolution to reflections by Melville's contemporaries, Brian Yothers has reassembled crucial materials for a profound journey into Melville's fictional universe. Whether you are interested in the historical context that inspired Melville or the philosophical questions that saturate his art, this captivating edition contains all of the major materials and literary artifacts. If you're teaching, rereading, or even discovering 'Benito Cereno' for the first time, this edition is a fresh and fully updated take on Melville's classic." -- Christopher Freeburg, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

From the Publisher