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Product Description
Book Description
"Moby-Dick," Melville's masterpiece, is one of the great epics in all of literature. Ahab's idolatrous hunt for the white whale drives the narrative at a relentless pace, while Ishmael's meditations on whales and whaling, the sublime indifference of nature, and the grimy physical details of whale-oil extraction provide a reflective counterpoint. Sometimes read as a terrifying study of monomania or as a critical inquiry into the sinister effects of reducing life to symbols, "Moby-Dick" also offers colorful and comic glimpses of life aboard a whaling ship. This second volume of Melville's complete prose in The Library of America also includes two other stories of the sea: "Redburn," which relates a young man's initiation into the sailor's life, and "White-Jacket," a semi-autobiographical account of experiences in the U.S. Navy. All three are presented in the authoritative Northwestern-Newberry texts.
From the Publisher
The Library of America is an award-winning, nonprofit program dedicated to publishing America's best and most significant writing in handsome, enduring volumes featuring authoritative texts. Hailed as "the most important book-publishing project in the nation's history" (Newsweek), this acclaimed series is restoring America's literary heritage in "the finest-looking, longest-lasting edition ever made" (New Republic).
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Set Sail for More Rewarding Tracts,
By
This review is from: Redburn White Jacket (Hardcover)
Irrespective of what Penguin Books claims ("White-Jacket is one of the greatest novels of the sea. . ."), Herman Melville's book about life aboard a USN frigate in 1843, and, by extension, life in general (the Neversink is to be viewed "as a microcosm of the larger world") -- hardly merits consideration, let alone commendation. However, it is an exercise in drudgery. Indeed, upon completing the semi-autobiographical account one feels as if having personally made the grueling fourteen-month voyage. The few gripping anecdotes are hardly sufficient to keep the reader involved, their underlying meanings being either diffuse, dry, trite -- or all of the above. Verdicts such as "shallow," or "dull reading," as posted by similarly frazzled readers, are accurate, if euphemistic. Typically marvelous Melvillian prose, though.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant Presages of Moby-Dick,
By
This review is from: Redburn White Jacket (Hardcover)
While White-Jacket seems to have little overall relation to Melville's other works in the sense that it appears as a self-contained, highly enjoyable novel, Redburn is one of those central turning points in this great writer's life that makes it extraordinarily important. Forget "adventure" or "romance." This is a novel of psychological destruction, a disasterous novel of "growing up" that displays the shattering of a young mind and the destruction of "young America." Any reader who loves Moby-Dick should devour Redburn again and again as one of Melville's most important works.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Set Sail for More Rewarding Tracts,
By A Customer
This review is from: Redburn White Jacket (Hardcover)
Irrespective of what Penguin Books claims ("White-Jacket is one of the greatest novels of the sea. . ."), Herman Melville's book about life aboard a USN frigate in 1843, and, by extension, life in general (the Neversink is to be viewed "as a microcosm of the larger world") -- hardly merits consideration, let alone commendation. However, it is an exercise in drudgery. Indeed, upon completing the semi-autobiographical account one feels as if having personally made the grueling fourteen-month voyage. The few gripping anecdotes are hardly sufficient to keep the reader involved, their underlying meanings being either diffuse, dry, trite -- or all of the above. Verdicts such as "shallow," or "dull reading," as posted by similarly frazzled readers, are accurate, if euphemistic. Typically marvelous Melvillian prose, though.
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