Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile

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More About This Book

Overview

Melville's eighth book was begun as a simple rewrite of an obscure little narrative entitled Life and Remarkable Adventures of Israel R. Potter, in which Israel tells the story of his sad fall from Revolutionary hero to London peddler. Following its opening chapter Melville's novel retells that tale, with close adherence to the language and events of the Life, and then, shaking free of the original narrative, alternately moves between invented episodes and historical sources unrelated to the Life. Israel Potter is unique among Melville's books. It is the only one to be offered in the guise of literal biography, the tale presuming to offer an accurate life history of the man Israel Potter who did in fact fight at Bunker Hill. It is also Melville's only historical novel: it presents famous men of the American Revolution - Benjamin Franklin, John Paul Jones, Ethan Allen, and others - in situations that are a matter of historical record.

Editorial Reviews

Library Journal

Published in 1855, Melville's fictional biography is his only historical novel. It tells the story of Israel Potter, a Revolutionary War hero and Bunker Hill survivor who ultimately ends up on the streets of London. Melville mixes fact with fiction and real characters (Ben Franklin) with invented ones.


—Michael Rogers

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780143105237
  • Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
  • Publication date: 3/25/2008
  • Pages: 288
  • Sales rank: 582,965
  • Lexile: 1300L (what's this?)
  • Series: Penguin Classics Series
  • Product dimensions: 5.18 (w) x 7.75 (h) x 0.55 (d)

Meet the Author

Herman Melville

Herman Melville was born in August 1, 1819, in New York City, the son of a merchant. Only twelve when his father died bankrupt, young Herman tried work as a bank clerk, as a cabin-boy on a trip to Liverpool, and as an elementary schoolteacher, before shipping in January 1841 on the whaler Acushnet, bound for the Pacific. Deserting ship the following year in the Marquesas, he made his way to Tahiti and Honolulu, returning as ordinary seaman on the frigate United States to Boston, where he was discharged in October 1844. Books based on these adventures won him immediate success. By 1850 he was married, had acquired a farm near Pittsfield, Massachussetts (where he was the impetuous friend and neighbor of Nathaniel Hawthorne), and was hard at work on his masterpiece Moby-Dick.

Literary success soon faded; his complexity increasingly alienated readers. After a visit to the Holy Land in January 1857, he turned from writing prose fiction to poetry. In 1863, during the Civil War, he moved back to New York City, where from 1866-1885 he was a deputy inspector in the Custom House, and where, in 1891, he died. A draft of a final prose work, Billy Budd, Sailor, was left unfinished and uncollated, packed tidily away by his widow, where it remained until its rediscovery and publication in 1924.

Biography

Herman Melville was born in August 1, 1819, in New York City, the son of a merchant. Only twelve when his father died bankrupt, young Herman tried work as a bank clerk, as a cabin-boy on a trip to Liverpool, and as an elementary schoolteacher, before shipping in January 1841 on the whaler Acushnet, bound for the Pacific. Deserting ship the following year in the Marquesas, he made his way to Tahiti and Honolulu, returning as ordinary seaman on the frigate United States to Boston, where he was discharged in October 1844. Books based on these adventures won him immediate success. By 1850 he was married, had acquired a farm near Pittsfield, Massachussetts (where he was the impetuous friend and neighbor of Nathaniel Hawthorne), and was hard at work on his masterpiece Moby-Dick.

Literary success soon faded; his complexity increasingly alienated readers. After a visit to the Holy Land in January 1857, he turned from writing prose fiction to poetry. In 1863, during the Civil War, he moved back to New York City, where from 1866-1885 he was a deputy inspector in the Custom House, and where, in 1891, he died. A draft of a final prose work, Billy Budd, Sailor, was left unfinished and uncollated, packed tidily away by his widow, where it remained until its rediscovery and publication in 1924.

Author biography courtesy of Penguin Group (USA).

    1. Date of Birth:
      August 1, 1819
    2. Place of Birth:
      New York, New York
    1. Date of Death:
      September 28, 1891
    2. Place of Death:
      New York, New York
    1. Education:
      Attended the Albany Academy in Albany, New York, until age 15

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5
( 4 )

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Sort by: Showing 1 – 5 of 4 Customer Reviews

  • Posted November 19, 2009

    I Also Recommend:

    9780981841885

    Meville's Take on the Revolution

    Herman Melville's ISRAEL POTTER is a satiric fictional account of the real life of Israel Potter. Melding the adventures of other early seamen into a romping pastiche, Melville cruises through major characters of the Revolutionary Era with rhetorical brilliance, skewering icons such as Ethan Allen, Benjamin Franklin and John Paul Jones. Taken in the comedic spirit, the novel is also a commentary on the character of America and Americans. The most unsettling aspect, however, is to learn that a greater tale of intrigue and real life adventure lurks beneath the surface of the original tale by Henry Trumbull and its later adaption by Melville. See GONE OVER, by David Chacko and Alexander Kulcsar, for a more realistic and suspenseful treatment of this timeless story.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted August 19, 2006

    Melville Under The Radar

    Anybody reading this novel will, no doubt, know that Melville is always a challenge. Nothing he wrote was conventional. ISRAEL POTTER, in many ways Melville's most straightforward novel of those written after the publication of MOBY-DICK, is, nevertheless, weird in that it is caught somewhere between tragedy and satire. While relating the story of an American impressed into the British navy before the War of 1812, Melville uses the chance to paint broad, humorous portraits of Ben Franklin, John Paul Jones and other major figures in our history. These are not flattering portraits. Melville's models here are 18th-century British satirists. As was often the case with Melville, he based this book on an actual account. Israel Potter did exist and wrote a book about his fifty-year effort to return to the United States. Melville's book is a novel, but it is, in essence, a retelling, with a comedic twist, of one man's autobiography. It is well worth reading and is, at times, laugh-out-loud funny. There are passages of intense description of nature, as is always the case with Melville, and one will learn much about daily existence in England and America at that time. But it's hard to tell what Melville thinks of the historical figures he ridicules here. Certainly the book is a tribute to the freedom America represented. But it is not necessarily a celebration of the Founders as human beings. Bear in mind that Melville was a staunch supporter of the Union during the Civil War. He was definitely a nationalist. But the realist in him made sure we knew our most famous men had their flaws.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted January 2, 2012

    Good but

    The typos are annoying he dpoes g on
    o

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  • Posted November 27, 2011

    Would recommend, if you enjoy Melville.

    Here goes! I have a B.A. in English, an M.B.A., and an M.Ed. in Language Arts; but this doesn't begin to allow me to write a serious review of one of Melville's novels. I enjoy Melville, as I've read his past year all he has published, and am willing to share my opinions as a reader. Israel Potter was written later in his career, and only before The Confidence Man and Billy Budd. I struggled to finish Confidence Man, but found Potter to be as adventuresome as Typee, Omoo, Moby Dick, etc. Better than Redburn and White Jacket, Potter exhibits some of the same storytelling tools that made Forrest Gump enjoyable - one man seems to have encountered many culturally significant events and persons. He fought at Bunker Hill, worked for Benjamin Franklin in Paris, and fought with John Paul Jones on the Bonhomme Richard. Towards the end of his stay in England, Potter chances to meet Ethan Allen as a prisoner of the British.
    If you like Melville, like I said, you would enjoy this book.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted January 18, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

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