Bøker av Herman Melville

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 co-operative community at work: all hands dependent on all hands, each individual responsible for the security of each.Among the crew is Ishmael, the novel's narrator, ordinary sailor, and extraordinary reader. Digressive, allusive, vulgar, transcendent, the story Ishmael tells is above all an education:in the practice of whaling, in the art of writing. Expanding to equal his 'mighty theme' - not only the whale but all things sublime - Melville breathes in the world's great literature. Moby Dick is the greatest novel ever written by an American.

American writer Herman Melville wrote Moby Dick in 1851 but it took decades before finally it was regarded as a great American novel, and worthy of its place amongst the greatest texts of humankind. This edition offers a specially written introduction to contextualise the book.

With an essay by Alfred Kazin.'The frail gunwales bent in, collapsed, and snapped, as both jaws, like an enormous shears, sliding further aft, bit the craft completely in twain...'Moby-Dick is one of the most expansive feats of imagination in the whole of literature: the mad, raging, Shakespearean tale of Captain Ahab's insane quest to kill a giant white whale that has taken his leg, and upon which he has sworn vengeance, at any cost. A creation unlike any other, this is an epic story of fatal monomania and the deepest dreams and obsessions of mankind.The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.

A story of the war between man and mammal, in which the author explores his obsessions with good and evil, love and solitude, speech and silence, using his technical knowledge of sailing and the sea to tell a story which is at once minutely realistic and powerfully symbolic.

Part of Alma Classics Evergreens series of popular classics, this edition is thoroughly edited and extensively annotated, features an insightful foreword by Jay Parini and includes pictures and a comprehensive section on Melville's life and works.

A sailor called Ishmael narrates the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaler Pequod, for revenge on Moby Dick, a white whale which on a previous voyage destroyed Ahab's ship and severed his leg at the knee.

A new selection of Melville's most electrifying stories, in a beautiful Pushkin Collection edition'Some of the most brilliant stories of his or any other century' Philip Hoare, author of LeviathanHerman Melville produced some of the most singular, enigmatic stories in American literature. From surreally funny tales of office life to claustrophobic accounts of obscure tensions at sea, his darkly modern sensibility produced works of unparalleled narrative inventiveness.A lawyer hires a new copyist, who begins to exhibit a strange, confounding resistance to work. A cynical lightning-rod salesman plies his trade by exploiting fears in stormy weather. After boarding a beleaguered Spanish slave ship, a cheerful American trader is repeatedly struck by paralyzing unease as figures move in the shadows. These are stories of unsettling ironies and absurd humour, where nothing is as it first appears.

For this Sesquicentennial Norton Critical Edition, the Northwestern-Newberry text of Moby-Dick has been generously footnoted to include dozens of biographical discoveries, mainly from Hershel Parker's work on his two-volume biography of Melville.

Teeming with ideas and imagery, and with its extraordinary intensity sustained by mischievous irony and moments of exquisite beauty, Moby-Dick is both a great American epic and a profoundly imaginative literary creation.Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features an afterword by Nigel Cliff.On board the whaling ship Pequod a crew of wise men and fools, renegades and seeming phantoms is hurled through treacherous seas by crazed Captain Ahab, a man hell-bent on hunting down the mythic White Whale. Herman Melville transforms the little world of the whale ship into a crucible where mankind's fears, faith and frailties are pitted against a relentless fate.

From A to Z, the Penguin Drop Caps series collects 26 unique hardcovers—featuring cover art by Jessica HischeIt all begins with a letter. Fall in love with Penguin Drop Caps, a new series of twenty-six collectible and hardcover editions, each with a type cover showcasing a gorgeously illustrated letter of the alphabet. In a design collaboration between Jessica Hische and Penguin Art Director Paul Buckley, the series features unique cover art by Hische, a superstar in the world of type design and illustration, whose work has appeared everywhere from Tiffany & Co. to Wes Anderson's recent film Moonrise Kingdom to Penguin's own bestsellers Committed and Rules of Civility. With exclusive designs that have never before appeared on Hische's hugely popular Daily Drop Cap blog, the Penguin Drop Caps series debuted with an 'A' for Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, a 'B' for Charlotte Brönte's Jane Eyre, and a 'C' for Willa Cather's My Ántonia. It continues with more perennial classics, perfect to give as elegant gifts or to showcase on your own shelves.M is for Melville, who wrote of his masterpiece, "It is the horrible texture of a fabric that should be woven of ships' cables and hawsers. A Polar wind blows through it, and birds of prey hover over it." In part, Moby-Dick is the story of an eerily compelling madman pursuing an unholy war against a creature as vast and dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself. But more than just a novel of adventure, more than an encyclopedia of whaling lore and legend, Moby-Dick is a haunting, mesmerizing, and important social commentary populated with several of the most unforgettable and enduring characters in literature. Written with wonderfully redemptive humor, Moby-Dick is a profound and timeless inquiry into character, faith, and the nature of perception.

'Call me Ishmael.' So begins the author'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.

Illustrated edition containing illustrations, a detailed summary, author biography, and a complete characters listTypee by Herman Melville is a captivating adventure novel based on the author's own experiences in the South Pacific. The story follows Tommo, a sailor who escapes his ship and finds himself on the island of Nuku Hiva, where he encounters the indigenous Typee people. While initially welcomed into their culture, Tommo begins to fear the rumors of cannibalism that surround the tribe, leading to a thrilling and suspenseful exploration of freedom, captivity, and cultural differences.This Illustrated Edition offers a vivid portrayal of Melville's exotic setting through carefully curated illustrations that bring the rich landscape and people of the island to life. Along with these visual enhancements, the edition includes a comprehensive summary of the plot, a biography of Herman Melville, and a full list of characters, giving readers a deeper insight into one of Melville's most famous works. Perfect for fans of classic literature and adventure tales, this edition is a must-read for anyone intrigued by the mysteries of distant lands.

Narrated by the sailor Ishmael, Moby-Dick is the tale of the maniacal quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship Pequod, as he seeks vengeance against Moby-Dick, the giant white sperm whale that bit off his leg on the ship's previous voyage. More than an epic sea-story, the detailed and realistic descriptions of whale hunting and the process of extracting whale oil, as well as life aboard ship among a culturally diverse crew, are mixed with exploration of class and social status, good and evil, and the existence of God.

Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street is a short story written by the American author Herman Melville. It was first published anonymously in two parts in the November and December 1853 issues of Putnam's Magazine. This enigmatic novella is a timeless tale of isolation and defiance in the heart of New York City. Bartleby, a quiet, passive scrivener, refuses to conform to societal norms, challenging the very fabric of the rigidly structured Wall Street world. Through its profound exploration of individual agency and the complexities of human interaction, Melville's masterpiece continues to captivate readers, inviting contemplation on the nature of autonomy, compassion and the inherent contradictions of modern existence.

'Struck dead by an angel of God! Yet the angel must hang!' Outwardly a compelling narrative of events aboard a British man-of-war during the turmoil of the Napoleonic Wars, Billy Budd 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. This edition draws on a new authoritative edition of Billy Budd, Sailor, which corrects the inaccuracies and excesses of former editions of Melville's notoriously incomplete final novella. Accompanied by extensive critical apparatus that draws on a wealth of recent Melville scholarship which highlights his contemporary relevance for questions of economics, ecology, identity, and sexuality and connects it to the key formal and interpretive issues at stake in understanding his art of fiction. It also includes a selection of Melville's short stories, as well as his review of Hawthorne's short fiction, 'Hawthorne and His Mosses'. 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.

"Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War" by Herman Melville is a poignant and introspective exploration of the American Civil War. Published in 1866, this collection of poems showcases Melville's ability to grapple with the complexities of war, human conflict, and the profound impact of historical events on the collective consciousness. Melville, best known for his novel "Moby-Dick," shifts his literary focus to the battlefield, offering readers a poetic panorama that captures the multifaceted nature of the Civil War. The collection is not a glorification of war but a nuanced examination of its various facets-its brutality, its impact on individuals, and its implications for a nation torn apart. The poems within "Battle-Pieces" serve as lyrical vignettes, each offering a unique perspective on the war's unfolding drama. Melville employs a range of poetic forms and styles to convey the emotional weight of the conflict, from solemn elegies for fallen soldiers to reflections on the moral and existential questions raised by war.

The novel Moby Dick, or, the Whale (1851) by Herman Melville is a classic tale of the voyage of the whaling ship, Pequod and its captain, Ahab, who relentlessly pursues a sperm whale called Moby Dick around the world. Narrated from the perspective of Ishmael, the book tells the story of Ahab's madness and obsessiveness with his hunting pursuit. A novel of adventure and a treatise on whaling, the book is also the author's lifelong meditation on America, brilliantly put together in a peculiar style with dark humour."To convey an adequate idea of a book of such various merits as that which the author of Typee and Omoo has here placed before the reading public is impossible in the scope of a review. High philosophy, liberal feeling, abstruse metaphysics popularly phrased, soaring speculation, a style as many-coloured as the theme, yet always good, and often admirable; fertile fancy, ingenious construction, playful learning, and an unusual power of enchaining the interest, and rising to the verge of the sublime, without overpassing that narrow boundary which plunges the ambitious penman into the ridiculous; all these are possessed by Herman Melville, and exemplified in these volumes."-London Morning Advertiser, October 24, 1851

Moby Dick is a novel by Herman Melville that follows the adventurous journey of Ishmael and his obsessive Captain Ahab in their pursuit of the notorious white whale. The book is a complex, literary work that explores themes of obsession, revenge, and the struggles of humanity against nature. Moby Dick is a timeless classic of American literature.This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Herman Melvilles Buch `Vier Monate auf den Marquesas-Inseln' ist eine unglaubliche Erkundung der Inseln und ihrer Kultur. In Zusammenarbeit mit Ludolf Parisius ist dieses Werk ein beeindruckendes Beispiel von Melvilles Fähigkeit, Reisen mit scharfen, bemerkenswerten Einsichten aufzuführen.This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

"Bartleby, the Scrivener" by Herman Melville is a poignant and enigmatic quick story that explores the complexities of human behavior and the dehumanizing effects of current office existence. The narrative is provided through the angle of an unnamed narrator, a Wall Street attorney who employs Bartleby as a scrivener, or copyist. Bartleby, first of all a diligent and efficient employee, surprises the narrator and co-workers through responding to paintings requests with the phrase "I would select no longer to." As Bartleby an increasing number of withdraws from the needs of his activity, his passive resistance demanding situations the traditional expectancies of the place of work. The narrator grapples with how to deal with Bartleby's unconventional conduct, leading to a series of tries to apprehend and accommodate him. The tale unfolds as a meditation on empathy, isolation, and the human circumstance in an industrialized society. Herman Melville, pleasant acknowledged for his novel "Moby-Dick," showcases his narrative mastery in this exploration of the alienation and dehumanization inherent in the place of job. "Bartleby, the Scrivener" stays a traditional of American literature, celebrated for its psychological depth, diffused humor, and incisive critique of societal norms. The character of Bartleby has come to be a long lasting image of resistance and existential contemplation in the face of conformity.

"Embark on a gripping journey to the exotic South Seas with Herman Melville in 'Typee: A Romance of the South Seas.' Penned in the mid-19th century, this novel is a captivating blend of adventure, cultural exploration, and the author's personal encounters in the Marquesas Islands.As Melville's narrative unfolds, readers are immersed in the enchanting world of the Typee Valley, where the protagonist, Tommo, finds himself among the island's indigenous people. Melville's vivid descriptions transport readers to the lush landscapes, vibrant communities, and the allure of Polynesian culture.More than a romantic adventure, 'Typee' stands as a literary exploration that delves into the complexities of cultural exchange and the human spirit. Join Melville on this literary expedition where each page unveils a new facet of South Seas romance, making 'Typee' an essential read for those captivated by tales of exploration, cultural encounters, and the allure of the Pacific islands."

"Moby Dick," penned by the prolific Herman Melville and first published in 1851, is a literary masterpiece that transcends time, weaving a tale of obsession, vengeance, and the relentless pursuit of an enigmatic white whale.Set against the backdrop of the 19th-century whaling industry, the narrative is narrated by Ishmael, a young sailor drawn to the allure of the open sea. The story unfolds as Ishmael joins the crew of the whaling ship Pequod, led by the charismatic yet fanatical Captain Ahab. Ahab's singular focus is the elusive and monstrous white whale known as Moby Dick, who had previously maimed him, creating a personal vendetta that propels the crew into the heart of the treacherous ocean.Melville's prose is a symphony of maritime adventure, philosophical introspection, and vivid characterizations. The novel delves into the complexities of human nature, the consequences of obsession, and the interplay between man and nature. From the colorful characters populating the Pequod to the mesmerizing descriptions of the whaling process, Melville's narrative captures the essence of a bygone era while exploring timeless themes that resonate with readers across generations."Moby Dick" stands as a testament to Melville's literary genius, offering a profound exploration of the human psyche and the elemental forces of the natural world. The novel's depth, symbolism, and allegorical layers make it a timeless classic that continues to captivate readers, inviting them to embark on a seafaring adventure like no other, where the pursuit of a mythical whale becomes a metaphor for the pursuit of the ineffable truths that define the human experience.

Cast Off on a Sea of Obsession: Herman Melville's Moby Dick beckons you aboard the Pequod, a whaling vessel bound not for oil or plunder, but for the white whale Moby Dick, a leviathan woven from vengeance and myth. Captain Ahab, his spirit cleaved by Moby Dick's fury, steers this odyssey with monomaniacal purpose, dragging his diverse crew into a maelstrom of destiny. Through Ishmael's Mariner's Eye: Witness the perilous dance of existence aboard the Pequod. Every sailor, from the tattooed harpooner Queequeg to the enigmatic Pip, hides their own hidden depths. As Ishmael, our observant narrator, chronicles their daily struggles against the storm and the whale, their humanity unfolds against the canvas of the vast, untamed sea. Beyond the Thrill of the Hunt: Moby Dick transcends mere adventure. It plunges you into the abyss of philosophical inquiry. What drives good and evil? Can fate be defied? Is the struggle between man and nature eternally destined for tragedy? Each encounter with Moby Dick peels back another layer of these existential questions, leaving you grappling with their weight long after the Pequod's final plunge. Lyrical Echoes on a Canvas of Eternity: Prepare to be swept away by Melville's lyrical prose, as powerful and poetic as the ocean itself. He paints vivid portraits of the whale's fury, the camaraderie of the crew, and the awe-inspiring vastness of the sea. His words sear themselves into your mind, leaving indelible scars like Moby Dick's ivory tusks, marking you forever with the story's profound impact. A Monument in the Literary Seascape: Moby Dick is not just a novel; it's a literary colossus, its tale echoing through generations. Dive into its depths and emerge forever changed, shaped by its epic struggles, its timeless questions, and its haunting beauty. Let it become your own personal leviathan, a symbol of the depths of human experience and the enduring power of storytelling.

Moby-Dick is a literary masterpiece that immerses readers in the tumultuous world of Captain Ahab's relentless pursuit of the infamous white whale, Moby Dick. Written by Herman Melville, this iconic novel transcends its seafaring setting to explore profound themes of obsession, revenge, and the inherent struggle between man and nature.

Moby Dick is an epic adventure novel by Herman Melville, published in 1851. It tells the story of Captain Ahab, the monomaniacal captain of the whaling ship Pequod, who is obsessed with hunting down Moby Dick, a giant white whale that took his leg on a previous voyage.Ishmael, the novel's narrator, is a young sailor who joins the Pequod's crew. He is quickly drawn into Ahab's madness, as the captain becomes increasingly consumed by his quest for revenge. The novel follows the Pequod's journey as it hunts for Moby Dick, and explores themes of good and evil, man's relationship with nature, and the limits of human ambition.Moby Dick is considered one of the greatest American novels ever written. It is a complex and challenging book, but it is also a thrilling and unforgettable read. It is a must-read for anyone interested in classic literature, adventure stories, or the sea.Here are some of the things that make Moby Dick so special:The characters: Ahab is one of the most iconic characters in literature. He is a complex and fascinating figure, who is both admirable and terrifying. Ishmael is also a well-developed character, who serves as our guide through the novel's world. The rest of the crew is also a rich and diverse group, who come from all over the world.The setting: The novel is set on the open ocean, which is a vast and dangerous place. Melville's descriptions of the sea are both beautiful and terrifying, and they help to create a sense of awe and wonder.The themes: Moby Dick explores a wide range of themes, including good and evil, man's relationship with nature, and the limits of human ambition. These themes are still relevant today, and they make the novel a thought-provoking read.The language: Melville's writing is beautiful and evocative. He uses a wide range of literary devices, including metaphors, similes, and personification, to bring his story to life.If you're looking for a classic adventure novel that will stay with you long after you finish reading it, then Moby Dick is the book for you.