The complete online text of Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War by Herman Melville.

Herman Melville drew upon his adventurous travels on sea and land for the primary materials of his greatest fiction and poetry. Out of his experiences in the merchant service (1839), the whaling industry (1841- 1843), and the United States Navy (1843-184...

Herman Melville, who died almost forgotten although he had once been a popular author and had left behind ten notable books of prose fiction and four of verse, has gathered increasing fame, especially for his metaphysical whaling novel, Moby-Dick (1851)....

Herman Melville, who died almost forgotten although he had once been a popular author and had left behind ten notable books of prose fiction and four of verse, has gathered increasing fame, especially for his metaphysical whaling novel, Moby-Dick. Like m...

From Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War The Stone Fleet (b) an old sailor's lament (DECEMBER, 1861) I HAVE a feeling for those ships, Each worn and ancient one, With great bluff bows, and broad in the beam: Ay, it was unkindly done....

Herman Melville's agonized internal dialogues in Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866) recall Mikhail Bakhtin's notion of the "relativizing of linguistic consciousness"--the play of multiple voices within a single text. (1) Especially remarkable is the way that Melville's collection refuses to capitulate...