- Paperback: 216 pages
- Publisher: Dartmouth College Press (May 1 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 158465094X
- ISBN-13: 978-1584650942
- Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 13.8 x 1.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 227 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #585,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Library Journal
Literature is always open to interpretation, and Melville's Moby-Dick has long been a subject of study for its vast symbolism. Just when everyone thought it had been picked clean, along came James's 1953 study, which takes an economic approach to the novel. James suggests that the doomed ship Pequod, with its full whale-processing facilities, can serve as a symbol for the American factory system, with its workers being used perilously and brought to their untimely deaths by a mad captain of industry at the helm. Strictly for the academics.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"[An amalgam of brilliant critical analysis and desperate personal pleading . . . The publication of Mariners, Renegades and Castaways by the University Press of New England this summer - the first time the book has been printed in complete form in nearly 50 years - is simply the latest evidence of a major James revival now under way . . . [James's posthumous popularity makes sense. Just as he argued that Melville's novel 'is alive today as never before since it was written,' James's work from more than 50 years ago neatly prefigured an impressive number of contemporary academic trends." --New York Times
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First Sentence
One evening over a hundred years ago, an American whaling-vessel is out at sea on its way to the whaling-grounds, when suddenly its one-legged captain, Ahab, asks Starbuck, the first mate, to send everybody aft. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
One evening over a hundred years ago, an American whaling-vessel is out at sea on its way to the whaling-grounds, when suddenly its one-legged captain, Ahab, asks Starbuck, the first mate, to send everybody aft. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
C.L.R James interpretation of Melville's works
Feb 9 2003
Format:Paperback
When I first read this book by James, I was preparing to write an essay on Melville and his "isolatoes." James gives ample evidence for establishing the reasons why some of the protagonists appear elusive, enigmatic, and, of course, reclusive. I found this text quite helpful in its explanations of why Melville portrayed his male characters the way he chose; perhaps James own exile for passport violations sets up the framework for presenting his theories on the characters he analyzes. The work is a fine read, although the socialist commentary remains controversial.
Brilliant Analysis of Melville's Classic Text
Jun 20 2002
Format:Paperback
C.L.R. James's analysis of Moby Dick brings the book to life and makes it understandable for a 21st century audience. You'll read "Mariners, Renegades, and Castaways, and want to immediately run out and read Moby Dick and Melville's other classics. James argues that Melville used the novel to explore dramatic changes in the fabric of American culture including the rise of industrial capitalism, the international working class, and the increasingly savage character of political and industrial life and leadership.
C.L.R. James wrote this book while he was interned with the newest generation of "Mariners, Renegades, and Castaways" on Ellis Island awaiting deportation. James's fate--that of a foreigner who offers the finest existing interpretation of one of America's greatest books and is still deported--serves as a cautionary tale for our own times. James concludes, "What the writing of this book has taught the writer is the inseparability of great literature and of social life."
poco Po-Co
April 25 2002
Format:Paperback
This book is more than a little bit of early Postcolonial writing. The intoduction by Donald Pease is new, and the last chapter - an autobiographical sketch and personal appeal by James - was omitted from a previous edition. In terms of literary criticism, this is what Pease has to say about James and his writing: "He was one of the few critics who emerged from the Third World in the 1950's and traveled throughout Britain and the United States generating what are now called post-colonial readings." The real value of this book however is in its brilliant reinterpretation of MOBY DICK.
Rather than see Ahab and Ishmael as representing respectively "totalitarian" and "American" cultural themes as critics in the 1950's saw it, James offers a vison focused on the Pequod and its crew. A view in which the MARINERS, RENEGADES & CASTAWAYS of the ship were at the mercy of their Captain. In James' interpretaion the Pequod is a factory ship and the crew are the workers. Ahab is no longer a mere sailor but is now illustrative of a "Captain of industry."
I agree with the reviewer from New Haven regarding the peculiar situation James found himself in. The established interpretation of a Cold War allegory was in keeping with the times in the 1950's. If James or Melville himself were writing today, the interpretation on offer here - rather than something to be persecuted for - would be considered far more plausible than the narrow and blinkered view of the 1950's mainstream critics.
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