DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

Melville

His World and Work

Andrew Delbanco author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Pan Macmillan

Published:23rd May '13

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Melville cover

Herman Melville was born into a family that in the fledgling republic had lost both money and status. Toughened at sea as a young man, he returned home to chronicle the deepest crises of his time while forever shaping our literature with Moby-Dick, “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” Benito Cereno, and Billy Budd.

Delbanco traces Melville’s growth from the bawdy storytelling of Typee through the spiritual preoccupations building up to Moby-Dick, and the profound disillusionment of later works. He uncovers autobiographical traces throughout Melville’s writing, shows the relentless financial pressure and declining critical and popular esteem that plagued his career, and, above all, illuminate the stunning achievements of his oeuvre. Finally we understand how Melville, more than any other American writer, has captured the popular imagination.

ISBN: 9781447241614

Dimensions: 234mm x 156mm x 25mm

Weight: 689g

448 pages