Herman Melville: A Biography And Analysis
Throughout American history, very few authors have earned the right to be called “great.” Herman Melville is one of these few. His novels and poems have been enjoyed world wide for over a century, and he has earned his reputation as one of the finest American writers of all time. A man of towering talent, with intellectual and artistic brilliance, and a mind of deep insight into human motives and behavior, it is certainly a disgrace that his true greatness was not recognized until nearly a generation after his death.
Born in the city of New York on August 1, 1819, Melville was the third child and second son of Allan Melvill(it wasn't until Allan's death in 1832 that the “e” at the end of Melville was added, in order to make a more obvious connection with the Scottish Melville clan), a wholesale merchant and importer then living in comfortable economic circumstances, and of Maria Gansevoort
Melvill, only daughter of “the richest man in Albany,” the respected and wealthy General Peter Gansevoort, hero of the defense of Fort Stanwix during the
American Revolution. In total, Allan and Maria had eight children. On his father' s side, his ancestry, though not so prosperous as on his mother's, was equally distinguished. Major Thomas Melvill, his grandfather, was one of the “Indians” in the Boston Tea Party during the events leading to the war and who had then served his country creditably throughout the hostilities. The Melvill family kept on their mantelpiece a bottle of tea drained out of Major Melvill's clothes after the Tea Party as a momento of this occasion.
Herman attended the New York Male High School from about the age of seven until 1830. By that time, Allan Melvill's business had begun to fail, due to his credit being overextended. After futile attempts to re-establish himself, he eventually found it necessary to accept the management of a New York fur company back in Albany. The family moved there in the autumn of 1830, and during that time Herman attended, along with his brothers Gansevoort and Allan, the
Albany Academy. Just as luck seemed to again be favoring the Melvills, Allan's business affairs again suffered a setback. Excessive worry and overwork finally took their toll upon his health. By January, 1832, he was b...
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...an left behind in a tin box after his death. It was here Billy Bud was first discovered and later published, which introduced a whole new generation to Melville's work.
Soon critics, students, and the general public were reading his novels and stories, and greeting some of them as masterpieces. In 1927, American novelist
William Faulkner declared that Moby Dick was the book he most wished he had written. Knowing the quality of his work, one can not help but feel sympathetic to Melville's passing. He died on September 28, 1891 in his home in New York
City, still unknown by the general public. If any writer deserved to be recognized and praised during their lives, Melville is that writer. Although unfortunate that his passing went almost unnoticed by the public, he is now and justly so, an immortal in the annals of American literature, and his work will be looked upon with both admiration and envy for many years to come.
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Melville stated, "He knows the same law which impels it-the same law by which the culprits of the day must suffer; that by that very law he also is liable at any time to be judged and condemned.
In contradistinction to Captain Vere's argument or the naval chronicle's "authorized" version, then, Dryden asks us to examine Melville's own way of telling his story. Is it formally ordered and highly symmetrical?
To begin, Melville believed that "we are all sons, grandsons, or nephews or great-nephews of those who go before us. No one is his own sire." Thus, his writings both mimic Emerson's views and repel it. For ex...
In Herman Melville's short story, Bartleby, the Scrivener, the narrator's attitude towards Bartleby is constantly changing, the narrator's attitude is conveyed through the author's use of literary elements such as; diction-descriptive and comical, point of view-first person, and tone-confusion and sadness.
...leaving eerie remains. All the animals died. He went into retirement and wrote an autobiography. The public ate it up. He also struck up a friendship with Nancy Fish, who was 40 years younger then him, when he was still living with his wife. In 1871 he ended his retirement.
...W.H. Gilman, eds. The Letters of Herman Melville. New Haven: Yale UP, 1960. Online. Internet. 29 July 1998. Available HTTP: www.melville.org
Melville, Herman, and Herman Melville. Bartleby ; And, Benito Cereno. New York: Dover Publications, 1990. Print.
Herman Melville’s last name was changed from Melvill to Melville. His mother changed it but of spite for her husbands failures in life. Herman’s father Allan had many financial failures so Herman had a hard life.
His name was Herman Melville, and he was born in New York, New York, to Allan and Maria Melville. He lived a VERY privileged childhood, and began his erratic education at age five. I say erratic because Allan Melville loved spending money that was or wasn't his. That forced the family to move a lot, and it also meant that tuitions were difficult to pay for. Allan Melville died in 1832, still in debt. That forced Herman to get a job.
American Identity with his works . Being the first American author to make a living off of his
Sometimes when we read a story it doesn’t end in the way that we like or expect it to. Because of this we are left with the oh so common “cliffhanger” wonder what happened to a character or how the story goes on. This can be very frustrating but is probably the best way for an author to leave things. Sometimes, even though we don’t know what is happening, it is the best thing for the story. The not knowing what happened conclusion leaves the reader to think about what they believe happened and also if there is a sequel it ensures the reader will buy the next part of the tale. A great example, of how leaving the story with no conclusion, is shown in Herman Melville’s “Bartleby” making it even more clear that a story without a conclusion is
Herman was baptized in South Reformed Dutch Church, on August 19, 1819 (Allen 14). A few months after that, the alarum fever sickness reappeared again, which in turn forced his mother to flee to Albany, while his father stood behind in NY with his business. However, when the fever sustained, she returned to NY, and discovered that Mr. Melville’s business was damaged. Therefore, he had to borrow money from his family, including his brother-in-law. From time to time, his mother would go to Albany and visit because her parents lived there.
Insanity can be a dark descent into the strange, nightmarish unknown realms of the mind unable to return to the known world of reason. This is a major theme in literature, and is particularly evident in the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville. The nightmarish undertones are one of the main similarities in Hawthorne's and Melville's works. Another similarity is writing style. Both men write very descriptively, and their writing is based more in intellect than emotion. Also both men write about the nightmarish descent into madness.
Moby dick is a novel written by Herman Melville. The books takes place on the open seas, where very little happens. It has earned its status as a literary classic not by the typical presentation of a nuanced, epic plot or by devoting itself to absolute perfect portrayal of the world, but by its sheer bravado and omnipresence matched only by the god-character whom the novel takes its name from, Moby Dick. This is not to say that Moby Dick’s plot is bad by any means, it is just minimal. It is difficult to imagine, or find another book that is able to pick such good minimal elements and make so much of them. The novel reaches out to all regions of intellect and occupies them in a way that very few have come close to completing since.