Melville's Short Novels: Authoritative Texts, Contexts, Criticism

Melville's Short Novels: Authoritative Texts, Contexts, Criticism
ISBN-10
0393976416
ISBN-13
9780393976410
Category
Literary Criticism / American / General
Pages
408
Language
English
Published
2002
Publisher
Norton
Author
Herman Melville

Description

This Norton Critical Edition presents three of Melville's most important short novels -- Bartleby, The Scrivener; Benito Cereno; and Billy Budd. The texts are accompanied by ample explanatory annotation. As his writing reflects, Melville was extraordinarily well read. "Contexts" offers selections from works that influenced Melville's writing of these three short novles, including, among others, Ralph Waldo Emerson's "The Transcendentalist" and Amasa Delano's Narrative of Voyages and Travels. Johannes Dietrich Bergmann, H. Bruce Franklin, and Robert M. Cover provide overviews of Melville's probable sources. An unusually rich "Criticism" section includes twenty-eight wide-ranging pieces that often contradict one another and that are sure to promote classroom discussion. Book jacket.

Similar books