The Piazza Tales

With an Introduction and Notes by David Herd, Lecturer in English and American Literature at the University of Kent at Canterbury and co-editor of 'Poetry Review' Moby Dick is the story of Captain Ahab's quest to avenge the whale that 'reaped' his leg. The quest is an obsession and the novel is a diabolical study of how a man becomes a fanatic. But it is also a hymn to democracy. Bent as the crew is on Ahab's appalling crusade, it is equally the image of a...

Herman Melville (1819-1891) was an American poet and novelist of the American Renaissance, best known for his allusive adventure novel "Moby-Dick." Mysterious and unpredictable, the "Pierre: or, The Ambiguities" contains all the good and intriguing features of the Gothic fiction genre. Being the major author's historical work in later years, the novel "Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land" considered to be one of the longest in the American literature. The book tells the story of an...

Herman Melville (1819 - 1891) was an American poet and novelist of the American Renaissance, best known for his allusive adventure novel "Moby-Dick". The part fictional story, part autobiography, "White-Jacket" is a remarkable, epic travel novel of its time. It is also one of the most politically oriented H. Melville stories, revealing in-depth all of the relationships in the Navy, its rules, and customs.

Herman Melville (1819-1891) was an American poet and novelist of the American Renaissance, best known for his allusive adventure novel "Moby-Dick". Mysterious and unpredictable, the "Pierre: or, The Ambiguities" contains all the good and intriguing features of the Gothic iction genre. "Typee" is one of the most famous and critically acclaimed traveling adventures of the nineteenth century. It is a semi-autobiographical story of the Melville's Polynesian travels, an examination of nature, people...

'Call me Ishmael.' So begins Herman Melville's masterpiece, one of the greatest works of imagination in literary history. As Ishmael is drawn into Captain Ahab's obsessive quest to slay the white whale Moby-Dick, he finds himself engaged in a metaphysical struggle between good and evil. More than just a novel of adventure, more than an paean to whaling lore and legend, Moby-Dick is a haunting social commentary, populated by some of the most enduring characters in literature.

Herman Melville (1819-1891) was an American poet and novelist of the American Renaissance, best known for his allusive adventure novel "Moby-Dick." "The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade" is the ninth and the final large poem of the author. Onboard the boat floating down the Mississippi to New Orleans, the Devil himself decides to entertain himself and assumes various guises to expose passengers. Intriguing masquerade and identity shift combined with the witty satire of the society and the American...