Herman Melville's fictional autobiography, 'Redburn', was an attempt to explore the way that the interaction between capitalism and democracy shapes middle-class male identity. The novel undermines the optimism always associated with the American way of life, where individualism is the norm. The novel shows...

Chapter 46 of Redburn, "A Mysterious Night in London," has long remained a sticking point in a number of critical evaluations of the novel. The story of young Redburn's traumatic overnight experience with his new friend Harry Bolton at Aladdin's Palace, a fashionable...

In the following excerpt, Gilman examines the parallels between Melville's early years and that of his fictional character, Wellingborough Redburn.

In the following excerpt, Robillard discusses Melville's linking of landscape and seascape descriptions with works of art through his character/narrator Wellingborough Redburn, who envisions the entire world as a work of art.

In the following essay, Sten suggests that Melville's Wellingborough Redburn undergoes not a simple initiation over the course of the novel, but rather the far more complicated and lengthy process of identity formation.