The Passages of H.M.: A Novel of Herman Melville

With the same masterly touch that made The Last Station so powerful, Jay Parini penetrates the mind and soul of another literary titan.

Through the eyes of his long-suffering wife, Lizzie, we are introduced to an aging, angry, and drunken Herman Melville. He is decades past his flourishing career as a writer of bestselling tales of seagoing adventures. His epic but ungainly Moby-Dick was meant to make him immortal, but critics scoffed and readers fled. He spends his days trudging the docks ...