Herman Melville: The Contemporary Reviews

by Brian Higgins, Hershel Parker

Overview

Herman Melville: The Contemporary Reviews reprints virtually all the known contemporary reviews of his writings from the 1840s until his death in 1891. Many of the reviews are reprinted from hard-to-locate contemporary newspapers and periodicals. These materials document the response of the reviewers to specific works and show the course of Melville's nineteenth century reputation as travel writer, romancer, short-story writer, and poet.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521414234
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	10/27/1995
Series:	American Critical Archives , #6
Pages:	586
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.49(h) x 1.61(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Typee; 2. Omoo; 3. Mardi; and A Voyage Thither; 4. Redburn; 5. White-jacket; 6. Moby-Dick; 7. Pierre; or, The Ambiguities; 8. Israel Potter: his fifty years of exile; 9. The Piazza tales; 10. The confidence-man: his masquerade; 11. Battle-pieces and aspects of the war; 12. Clarel: a poem and pilgrimage in the Holy Land; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"All libraries serving serious students of literature should have these volumes." Q. Grigg, Choice

"An invaluable reference that reprints virtually all known contemporary reviews of Herman Melville's (1819-1891) writings from the 1840s until his death. Many of the reviews are reprinted from relatively inaccessible contemporary newspapers and periodicals. These materials document the responses of reviewers to specific works and chart the course of Melville's 19th-century reputation as a travel writer, romance writer, short-story writer, and poet." Book News

"This invaluable compilation reprints virtually all the known reviews of Melville's writings from the 1840s until his death in 1891. Most of the reviews are reprinted from hard-to-locate newspapers and periodicals, unavailable (except with great difficulty and expense) to most students of nineteenth-century literary culture, who can benefit mightily from seeing how Melville's contemporaries responded to his work." Nineteenth-Century Literature

From the Publisher

An invaluable reference that reprints virtually all the known contemporary reviews of Herman Melville's (1819-1891) writings from the 1840s until his death. Many of the reviews are reprinted from relatively inaccessible contemporary newspapers and periodicals. These materials document the responses of reviewers to specific works and chart the course of Melville's 19th-century reputation as a travel writer, romance writer, short-story writer, and poet. The introduction by the editors surveys Melville's career in the context of the contemporary critical response. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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