Herman Melville : Pierre, Israel Potter, The Piazza Tales, The

Herman Melville : Pierre, Israel Potter, The Piazza Tales, The Confidence-Man, Tales, Billy Budd (Library of America)

Forgoing the narratives of the sea that prevailed in his earlier works, Melvilleâ€™s later fiction contains some of the finest and many of his keenest and bleakest observations of life, not on the high seas, but at home in America. With the publication of this Library of America volume, the third of three volumes, all Melvilleâ€™s fiction has now been restored to print for the first time.

Pierre; or, The Ambiguities, published in 1852 (the year afterÂ Moby-Dick), moves between the idyllic Berkshire countryside and the nightmare landscape of early New York City. Its hero, a young American patrician trying to redeem the secret sins of his father, elopes to the city, discovers Bohemian life, attempts a literary epic, and struggles his way through incest, murder, and madness. Long a controversial work, it is Melvilleâ€™s darkest satire of American life and letters and one of his most powerful books.

A pivotal work, both for Melvilleâ€™s career and for American literature,Â PierreÂ was followed byÂ Israel Potter, the story of a veteran of the Revolution, victim of a thousand mischances, and a long-suffering exile in England. Along the way are memorable episodes of war and intrigue, with personal portraits of Benjamin Franklin, John Paul Jones, and George III. In the exploits of this touchingly optimistic soldier, Melville offers a scathing image of the collapse of revolutionary hopes.

The Piazza TalesÂ demonstrates Melvilleâ€™s dazzling mastery of many styles, including â€œThe Encantadas,â€ about natureâ€™s two facesâ€”enchanting and horrific; the famous â€œBartleby the Scrivener,â€ about a Wall Street copyist who â€œwould prefer not toâ€; and the enigmatic â€œBenito Cereno,â€ about a credulous Yankee sea captain who stumbles into an intricately plotted mutiny aboard a disabled slave ship.

The Confidence-Man, Melvilleâ€™s last published novel, is in many ways a forerunner of modernist American fiction. An extended meditation on faith, hope, and charity as these are manifested on board a Mississippi riverboat one April Foolsâ€™ Day, it presents a menagerie of Americans buying and selling, borrowing and lending, believing and mistrusting, as they are carried toward the auction blocks of New Orleans.

Many pieces never before collected are also included: the â€œAuthentic Anecdotes of Old Zackâ€ (burlesque sketches of Zachary Taylorâ€™s Mexican campaign), â€œFragments from a Writing-Deskâ€ (Melvilleâ€™s earliest surviving prose), reviews of Hawthorne, Parkman, and Cooper, and all the tales Melville published in magazines during the 1850s.

Finally, there is the posthumously published masterpieceÂ Billy Budd, Sailor, the haunting story of a beautiful, innocent sailor who is pressed into naval service, slandered, provoked to murder, and sacrificed to military justice. While encouraging questions for which there are no answers, it invites us to meditate on the conflicts central to all Melvilleâ€™s work: between freedom and fate, innocence and civilized corruption.

LIBRARY OF AMERICAÂ is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nationâ€™s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, Americaâ€™s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.
Country USA
Brand Library of America
Manufacturer Library of America
Binding Hardcover
ItemPartNumber 9780940450240
Color Black
ReleaseDate 1985-04-01
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780940450240

Country	USA
Brand	Library of America
Manufacturer	Library of America
Binding	Hardcover
ItemPartNumber	9780940450240
Color	Black
ReleaseDate	1985-04-01
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780940450240

Herman Melville : Pierre, Israel Potter, The Piazza Tales, The Confidence-Man, Tales, Billy Budd (Library of America)

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