Herman Melville

by Harold Bloom (Editor)

Overview

Unappreciated at the time of his death, Herman Melville is known today as one of the most important figures in the development of American literature. While Moby-Dick now is universally acknowledged as Melville's masterpiece, during his lifetime his travelogues Typee and Omoo were more widely read. Melville also wrote classic short stories such as "Bartleby the Scrivener" and "Benito Cereno," as well as the posthumously published novella Billy Budd. This new edition of essays, introduced by Harold Bloom, gathers together some of the best criticism available on the works of Herman Melville.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780791095577
Publisher:	Chelsea House Publishers
Publication date:	12/28/2007
Series:	Bloom's Classic Critical Views Series
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

One of our most popular, respected, and controversial literary critics, Yale University professor Harold Bloom's books -- about, variously, Shakespeare, the Bible, and the classic literature -- are as erudite as they are accessible.

Hometown:

New York, New York and New Haven, Connecticut

Date of Birth:

July 11, 1930

Date of Death:

October 14, 2019

Place of Birth:

New York, New York

Education:

B.A., Cornell University, 1951; Ph.D., Yale University, 1955

Table of Contents

Editor's Note     vii
Introduction   Harold Bloom     1
Towards "Bartleby the Scrivener"   Milton R. Stern     13
Melville's Problematic "Being"   Sanford E. Marovitz     39
Reenvisioning America: Melville's "Benito Cereno"   Sandra A. Zagarell     57
Allegory and Breakdown in The Confidence-Man: Melville's Comedy of Doubt   John Bryant     77
"The Author at the Time": Tommo and Melville's Self-Discovery in Typee   Bryan C. Short     93
Melville and the Woman's Story   Nancy Fredricks     113
"To Tell Over Again the Story Just Told": The Composition of Melville's Redburn   Stephen Mathewson     127
Israel Potter: Melville's "Citizen of the Universe"   Bill Christopherson     135
Disquieting Encounters: Male Intrusions/Female Realms in Melville   Judith Hiltner     151
Narrative Self-Fashioning and the Play of Possibility   John Wenke     167
Whose Book Is Moby-Dick?   Merton M. Sealts, Jr.     185
Naples and HMS Bellipotent: Melville on the Police State   Stanton Garner     201
Naturalist Psychology in Billy Budd   Thomas Hove     211
We Are Family: Melville'sPierre   Cindy Weinstein     227
Discipline and the Lash in Melville's White-Jacket   Peter Bellis     249
Chronology     265
Contributors     267
Bibliography     271
Acknowledgments     275
Index     277