Herman Melville

This unique introduction explores Herman Melville as he described himself in Billy Budd-"a writer whom few know." Moving beyond the recurring depiction of Melville as the famous author of Moby-Dick, this book traces his development as a writer while providing the basic tools for successful critical reading of his novels.

• Offers a brief introduction to Melville, covering all his major works
  
• Showcases Melville's writing process through his correspondence with Nathaniel Hawthorne
  
• Provides a clear sense of Melville's major themes and preoccupations
  
• Focuses on Typee, Moby-Dick, and Billy Budd in individual chapters
  
• Includes a biography, summary of key works, interpretation, commentary, and an extensive bibliography.

Author: Wyn Kelley
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Published: 02/11/2008
Pages: 248
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.13lbs
Size: 9.46h x 6.45w x 0.85d
ISBN: 9781405131575

Review Citation(s):
Reference and Research Bk News 05/01/2008 pg. 345

About the Author
Wyn Kelley is a Senior Lecturer in the Literature Faculty at MIT. She is the author of Melville's City: Literary and Urban Form in Nineteenth-Century New York (1996) and editor of A Companion to Herman Melville (Blackwell, 2006) and an edition of Benito Cereno 2006, and has also written a number of essays on Melville. She is Associate Editor of the Melville Society journal Leviathan.