Herman Melville (1819 - 1891) |
Moby Dick is not just about a whale. Melville: dear friend and admirer of Hawthorne, metaphysical muser, extraordinarily beautiful and peculiarly Amrrican writer, and precursor to Conrad and Faulkner. I share a passage from Israel Potter (1855) as a small example of his gift: "A hermitage in the forest is the refuge of the narrow-minded misanthrope; a hammock on the ocean is the asylum for the generous distressed. The ocean brims with natural griefs and tragedies; and into that watery immensity of terror, man's private grief is lost like a drop." |
Typee complete online text
Moby Dick; or the Whale complete online text
"I and My Chimney" online text
List of Works
Typee
Omoo
Redburn
White-Jacket
Moby Dick (or the Whale)
Pierre (or the Ambiguities)
Israel Potter
The Confidence Man
Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War
(not a complete list)
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(In a letter to Hawthorne 1851): "...Truth is the silliest thing under the sun. Try to get a living by the Truth - and go to the Soup Societies...Why so? Truth is ridiculous to men."
"Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope."
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