Pursuing Melville collects fourteen representative chapters and essays out of nearly fifty pieces written between 1940 and 1980 by this influential Melville scholar, drawing also on his extensive correspondence of those years concerning Melville and Melvilleans. The selections range from a previously unpublished graduate seminar paper of 1940 through later articles and books to an authoritative study of Melville and the Platonic tradition composed especially for this volume. Presented chronologically, these writings reflect not only the development of Professor Sealts's own thinking but also the direction taken by Melville scholarship generally over a period of forty years. The book conveys its author's evident love of his subject and the enthusiasm with which he has shared his findings, in his classroom and in his publications. A variety of readers can consult it with pleasure and profit--those making their first acquaintance with Melville and his works, more advanced students who are learning the methodology of literary study, and those scholars who deal professionally with American literature, American literary scholarship, and the cultural history of both the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. As his Preface observes, Professor Sealts has been an explorer of five recurrent themes: Melville's reading, first in philosophy and then in general literature; his shorter fiction, from his magazine writing of the 1850s through Billy Budd, Sailor, the fruit of his last years; his three seasons of lecturing between 1857 and 1860; his relations with certain relatives, friends, and early biographers; and, along with all the rest, his distinctive temperament and personality, which are as enigmatic and alluring as the books he wrote.

These lucid essays, though varied in subject, have the commonality of an emphasis on teaching. The first essay, entitled "Emerson as Teacher," demonstrates how Emerson "provoked and inspired and educated his students - and his students' students.".

By examining the unique problems that 'blackness' signifies in Moby-Dick, Pierre, 'Benito Cereno' and 'The Encantadas', Christopher Freeburg analyzes how Herman Melville grapples with the social realities of racial difference in nineteenth-century America. Where Melville's critics typically read blackness as either a metaphor for the haunting power of slavery or an allegory of moral evil, Freeburg asserts that blackness functions as the site where Melville correlates the sociopolitical challenges of transatlantic slavery and US colonial expansion with philosophical concerns about mastery. By focusing on Melville's iconic interracial encounters, Freeburg reveals the important role blackness plays in Melville's portrayal of characters' arduous attempts to seize their own destiny, amass scientific knowledge and perfect themselves. A valuable resource for scholars and graduate students in American literature, this text will also appeal to those working in American, African American and postcolonial studies.

No book is more central to the study of nineteenth-century American literature than Herman Melville's Moby-Dick; or The Whale. First published it 1851, it still speaks powerfully to readers today. Combining reprinted documents with clear introductions for student readers, this volume examines the contexts of and critical responses to Melville's work. It draws together: *an introduction to the contexts in which Melville was writing and relevant contextual documents, including letters *chronology of key facts and dates *critical history and extracts from early reviews and modern criticism *fully annotated key passages from the novel *a list of biblical allusions *an annotated guide to further reading. Extensive cross-references link contextual information, critical materials and passages from the novel providing a wide-ranging view of the work and ensuring a successful and enjoyable encounter with the world of Moby-Dick.

This collection of analytical essays is the result of several conferences throughout 1991, the centennary of Herman Melville's death. They survey the past and present of Melville Studies and suggest directions for the future.

`Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges.' So wrote Melville of Billy Budd, Sailor, among the greatest of his works and, in its richness and ambiguity, among the most problematic. As the critic E. L. Grant Watson writes, `In this short history of the impressment and hanging of a handsome sailor-boy are to be discovered problems as profound as those which puzzle us in the pages of the Gospels.' Outwardly a compelling narrative of events aboard a British man-of-war during the turmoil of the Napoleonic Wars, Billy Budd, Sailor is a nautical recasting of the Fall, a parable of good and evil, a meditation on justice and political governance, and a searching portrait of three extraordinary men. The passion it has aroused in its readers over the years is a measure of how deeply it addresses some of the fundamental questions of experience that every age must reexamine for itself. The selection in this volume represents the best of Melville's shorter fiction, and uses the most authoritative texts. The eight shorter tales included here were composed during Melville's years as a magazine writer in the mid 1850's and establish him, along with Hawthorne and Poe, as the greatest American story writer of his age. Several of the tales - Bartleby the Scrivener, Benito Cereno, The Encantadas, The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids - are acknowledged masterpieces of their genres. All show Melville a master of irony, point-of-view, and tone whose fables ripple out in nearly endless circles of meaning. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Explore two lively classic tales of adventure on the high seas with CliffsNotes Billy Budd & Typee, the study guide that can raise your insight as well as your test scores! Meet Billy Budd, the sailor that everyone likes . . . or do they? And then set sail through the wild side of the South Seas in Typee. You’ll be up to speed on all the plot details and more with in-depth character analysis, critical essays, and insight into the novel's literary devices. You'll also discover background information on the life of Herman Melville and his place in American literature.