About the author

Herman Melville was a nineteenth-century American novelist, and the library holds thirteen of his works, commonly classified under foreign literature. Most of these are English-language editions, including multiple volumes of Typee and multiple volumes of Redburn. Their subjects involve seafaring, islands, and exotic encounters, with a strong flavor of adventure narrative. Because public information is limited, details of his life are not elaborated here; yet the works in the library show a preference for extended narrative and sea-going experience, combining a documentary feel with literary imagination. Melville occupies an important place in American literary history, and his works have had a lasting influence on later maritime and adventure fiction; readers can appreciate his distinctive narrative style through these English editions.

Written (13)