Great Short Works of Herman Melville Pdf Summary Reviews By Herman Melville

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Great Short Works of Herman Melville Pdf Summary

Billy Budd, Sailor and Bartleby, the Scrivener are two of the most revered shorter works of fiction in history. Here, they are collected along with 19 other stories in a beautifully redesigned collection that represents the best short work of an American master.As Warner Berthoff writes in his introduction to this volume, “It is hard to think of a major novelist or storyteller who is not also a first-rate entertainer . . . a master, according to choice, of high comedy, of one or another robust species of expressive humour, or of some special variety of the preposterous, the grotesque, the absurd. And Melville, certainly, is no exception. A kind of vigorous supervisory humour is his natural idiom as a writer, and one particular attraction of his shorter work is the fresh further display it offers of this prime element in his literary character.”

The town-ho’s story —
Bartleby, the scrivener : a story of Wall-Street —
Cock-a-doodle-doo! or, The crowing of the noble cock Beneventano —
The encantadas or Enchanted Isles —
The two temples —
Poor man’s pudding and rich man’s crumbs –The happy failure : a story of the river Hudson —
The lightning-rod man —
The fiddler —
The paradise of bachelors and the tartarus of maids —
The bell-tower —
Benito Cereno —
Jimmy Rose —
I and my chimney —
The ‘Gees —
The apple-tree table, or Original spiritual manifestations —
The piazza —
The Marquis de Grandvin —
Three “Jack Gentian sketches” —
John Marr —
Daniel Orme —
Billy Budd, sailor.

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Great Short Works of Herman Melville Review

Twain Bunyan

5.0 out of 5 stars “I’d prefer not to…”
Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2007

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This book includes one of my favorite works by Melville (or anyone, for that matter), “Bartleby The Scrivener”. It tells the story of the document copier (or scrivener) Bartleby as narrated by his increasingly perplexed, unnamed employer. Unlike Mobey Dick which is so symbolic and philosophical, I gave up on page 13 or so, this story is strangely accessible and contemporary. The alienation that Bartleby feels for his job, his fellow employees, and the narrator is, at once, sad and humorous. Today, when it seems a job can easily become interchangeable with who we are, the fact that Bartleby is, at first, reluctant to do what’s asked of him and later would “prefer not to” do anything at all is a bitter, if accurate, portrayal of the kind of ever-threatening psychosis that nibbles around the edges of the world of work from time to time, whatever it is we do to make a living. What’s the word? Yeah; there’s an existential quality to this tale that fits just as securely in 2007, as it does in the mid-19th century, the story’s actual setting. Like Bartleby, I sometimes find myself fading away before the tasks I am asked to perform on the job; “I would prefer not to…” comes to mind pretty often, but, of course, I push on because at the time it all seems to mean something. And it does….Doesn’t it? Melville was on to something.

john brueggeman

4.0 out of 5 stars If you want to expand your knowledge of Melville, this is a good source…
Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2015

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I struggle with how to rate a collection of short works, especially works written in the time that Melville was around. I would start by saying that the kindle version was free of typos… a plus. Like most, I had only read “Moby Dick”, and if you would like to expand on your knowledge of Melville, “Great Short Works” is a good source. I think for those that find the king’s english of that time period a bit tedious, you may not enjoy this book, but there are some amusing stories, and some adventure as well. There are intros to each story that explain the history, and some critical comments… that’s helpful.

About Herman Melville Author Of Great Short Works of Herman Melville pdf Book

Herman Melville author of moby-dick pdf — Herman Melville

Celebrated American author Herman Melville wrote ‘Great Short Works of Herman Melville’ pdf book and several other sea-adventure novels before turning to poetry later in his literary career. Herman Melville was born in New York City in 1819. He worked as a crew member on several vessels beginning in 1839, his experiences spawning his successful early novels Typee (1846) and Omoo (1847). Subsequent books, including his masterpiece Moby-Dick pdf(1851), sold poorly, and by the 1860s Melville had turned to poetry. Following his death in New York City in 1891, he posthumously came to be regarded as one of the great American writers. Melville was born in New York City on August 1, 1819, to Allan and Maria Gansevoort Melvill (Maria added the “e” to the family name following her husband’s death). In the mid-1820s, young Melville fell ill to scarlet fever, and though he regained his health not long afterward, his vision was left permanently impaired by the illness.