Herman Melville Summary
Thomas More

Herman Melville - (1819 - 1891) American novelist, short story writer, and poet. Melville, a major American literary figure of the nineteenth century, is best known as the author of Moby-Dick; or, The... Read more

Biography EssayHerman 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 f... Read more

"Call me Ishmael. Some years ago--never mind how long precisely--having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see th... Read more

"You must have plenty of sea-room to tell the truth in," wrote Herman Melville in Hawthorne the pseudonymous, two part review of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Mosses from an Old Manse (1846) that he publish... Read more

The life of the English humanist and statesman Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) exemplifies the political and spiritual upheaval of the Reformation. The author of "Utopia," he was beheaded for opposing the... Read more

Sir Thomas More's place in the history of rhetoric and logic is secure for two reasons. First, he enacted the "new learning" of the studia humanitatis, translating and transforming ancient literature ... Read more

In the following excerpt, Fiedler discusses the idea of despair in Melville's works, asserting that Melville's style changed from gothic to sentimental as his career progressed. Melvi... Read more

In the following essay, Schwendinger studies the similarities between Melville's language and the language of nineteenth-century sea shanties—songs with a swinging, or lilting rhythm, of... Read more