Herman Melville

Captain Delano is approached on the open sea by a battered-looking ship lead by Captain Benito Cereno. Cereno, always accompanied by his personal slave Babo, explains that his crew was transporting a group of slaves from Africa when their ship was caught and damaged in severe weather. He is polite but always timid, and requests supplies for his ships remaining journey. Captain Delano agrees to help but begins to notice the strange social interactions and atmosphere of Cereno's crew and the...

"Bartleby, the Scrivener" – An elderly Manhattan lawyer with a comfortable business in legal documents has two scriveners employed, but an increase in business leads him to advertise for a third. He hires the forlorn-looking Bartleby in the hope that his calmness will soothe the irascible temperaments of the other two. An office boy nicknamed Ginger Nut completes the staff. At first, Bartleby produces a large volume of high-quality work, but one day, when asked to help proofread a document,...

A fictionalized account about the revolt on a 19th-century Spanish slavery ship, Benito Cereno was first published in three installments in 1855. Melville scholar Merton M. Sealts, Jr. called the story “an oblique comment on those prevailing attitudes toward blacks and slavery in the United States that would ultimately precipitate civil war between North and South.” The famous question of what had cast such a shadow upon Cereno was used by American author Ralph Ellison as an epitaph to his 1952...

Ameerika kirjanduse klassik HERMAN MELVILLE (1818 – 1891) on maailmakirjanduse suurimaid merekirjanikke, milleks annab esmajoones alust ta monumentaalne romaan “Moby Dick ehk Valge Vaal”, ilmunud eesti keeles 1974. aastal “Varamu” sarjas. Mereaineline on ka lühiromaan “Benito Cereno”, mis kuulub kirjaniku keskmisse loomeperioodi. Teose aluseks on reaalselt toimunud sündmused, mis on lühidalt kirjas Ameerika kapteni Amasa Delano pikema reisikirja ühes peatükis. Nimelt toimus 1799. aastal Tšiili...

Considered to be the least characteristic of Melville's stories, somewhat resembling the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe, “The Bell-Tower” is a dark literary work that explores, though never fully reveals, its central mystery. An eccentric artist and architect dreams up plans for a magnificent bell tower. After receiving approval from the city, he happily begins construction. When city residents begin to notice strange occurrences associated with the project, their...

"Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War" by Herman Melville. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly...

Una historia de Wall Street. Ese es el importante subtítulo de esta pequeña pero gran obra de Herman Melville. Leerla es un desborde de emociones contrapuestas que te dejará pensando o todo y nada a la vez, durante varias semanas. Bartleby, uno de los personajes más enigmáticos de la literatura clásica universal, y y con uno de los mensajes más difíciles de descifrar. Varias interpretaciones y estudios literarios lo señalan, desde el precursor del absurdismo kafkiano, hasta como la simple...

Herman Melville towers among American writers not only for his powerful novels, but also for the stirring novellas and short stories that flowed from his pen. Two of the most admired of these — «Bartleby» and «Benito Cereno» — first appeared as magazine pieces and were then published in 1856 as part of a collection of short stories entitled The Piazza Tales."Bartleby" (also known as «Bartleby the Scrivener») is an intriguing moral allegory set in the business world of...

Herman Melville towers among American writers not only for his powerful novels, but also for the stirring novellas and short stories that flowed from his pen. Two of the most admired of these — «Bartleby» and «Benito Cereno» — first appeared as magazine pieces and were then published in 1856 as part of a collection of short stories entitled The Piazza Tales."Bartleby" (also known as «Bartleby the Scrivener») is an intriguing moral allegory set in the business world of...

"Bartleby, the Scrivener" – An elderly Manhattan lawyer with a comfortable business in legal documents has two scriveners employed, but an increase in business leads him to advertise for a third. He hires the forlorn-looking Bartleby in the hope that his calmness will soothe the irascible temperaments of the other two. An office boy nicknamed Ginger Nut completes the staff. At first, Bartleby produces a large volume of high-quality work, but one day, when asked to help proofread a document,...