Herman Melville, 2 Volume Set

A Half Known Life

von John Bryant

1392 Seiten, Hardcover

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

A COMPREHENSIVE EXPLORATION OF MELVILLE'S FORMATIVE YEARS, PROVIDING A NEW BIOGRAPHICAL FOUNDATION FOR TODAY'S GENERATION OF MELVILLE READERS. Herman Melville: A Half Known Life (Volumes 1 and 2) follows the unfoldings of an unpromising child, wayward adolescent, and uncommon sailor who became one of the world's greatest writers. These volumes comprise a comprehensive biography of the first half of Melville's life grounded in archival research, new scholarship, and incisive critical readings. Culminating with Melville's astonishing arrival on the literary scene with the publication of Typee in 1846, they cover Melville's family history and literary friendships; his father-longing, god-hunger, and search for the roots of Being; the genesis of his liberal politics, and his life-long evolving empathy for African Americans, Native Americans, Polynesians, South Americans, immigrants, and the dispossessed. The biography presents new information regarding Melville's early reading, his schooling, debating, and acting experience, his learning to write alongside a coterie of gifted siblings, his life at sea and on the road, and the unsettling death of his older, rival brother from mercury poisoning. A major addition to Melville scholarship, this important biographical study: - Explores the intimate nature of Melville's creative consciousness, through the lens of his revisions in manuscript and print - Assesses the range of his masculinities and his love for women and men - Discusses Melville's blending of dark humor and tragedy in his unique version of the picturesque - Examines the "replaying" of Melville's life traumas throughout his entire works, from Typee, Omoo, Redburn, White-Jacket, Moby-Dick, Pierre, Israel Potter, The Confidence-Man, and his epic Clarel to his shorter works, including "Bartleby," his poetry, and his last novella Billy Budd - Places Melville's life and works in the context of cultural and historical events from the American revolution of his grandparents to the traumas of the Jacksonian era, including cholera pandemic, whaling, slavery, and economic depression, New York street life and theater, Indian removal, and westward expansion; poverty in Liverpool, the Brazilian transatlantic slave trade, revolution in Peru, and Pacific imperialism - Underscores Melville's relevance for contemporary democratic society Written in an engaging style for scholars and general readers alike, Herman Melville: A Half Known Life, Volumes 1 and 2 integrates Melville's life and work in the context of early to modern American and literary culture. It is indispensable for readers seeking new insights into Melville biography and new ways of reading Melville.

• ISBN: 9781405121903
• Sprache: Englisch
• Erscheinungsdatum: 08.02.2021
• Größe: 236 x 160 mm
• Verlag: Wiley