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Herman Melville: The Contemporary Reviews reprints virtually all the known contemporary reviews of his writings from the 1840s until his death in 1891. Many of the reviews are reprinted from hard-to-locate contemporary newspapers and periodicals. These materials document the response of the reviewers to specific works and show the course of Melville's nineteenth century reputation as travel writer, romancer, short-story writer, and poet.
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AMERICAN CRITICAL ARCHIVES 6 Herman Melville: The Contemporary Reviews The American Critical Archives GENERAL E D I T O R : M. Thomas Inge, Randolph-Macon College 1. Emerson and Thoreau: The Contemporary Reviews, edited by Joel Myerson 2. Edith Wharton: The Contemporary Reviews, edited by James W. Tuttleton, Kristin O. Lauer, and Margaret P. Murray 3. Ellen Glasgow: The Contemporary Reviews, edited by Dorothy M. Scura 4. Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Contemporary Reviews, edited by John L. Idol, Jr., and Buford Jones 5. William Faulkner: The Contemporary Reviews, edited by M. Thomas Inge Herman Melville The Contemporary Reviews Edited by Brian Higgins University of Illinois at Chicago Hershel Parker University of Delaware CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo, Delhi Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521121156 © Cambridge University Press 1995 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1995 This digitally printed version 2009 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Herman Melville: the contemporary reviews / edited by Brian Higgins, Hershel Parker, p. cm. — (American critical archives) Includes index. ISBN 0-521-41423-7 1. Melville, Herman, 1819—1891—Criticism and interpretation. 2. American fiction—19th century—Book reviews. I. Higgins, Brian, 1943- . II. Parker, Hershel. III. Series. PS2387.H434 1995 813'.3—dc20 94-24175 CIP Title pages of Melville's books reproduced courtesy The Newberry Library. ISBN 978-0-521-41423-4 hardback ISBN 978-0-521-12115-6 paperback Contents Series Editor's Preface Introduction Typee(1846) Omoo (1847) Mardi (1849) Redburn(1849) White-Jacket (1850) Moby-Dick (1851) Pierre (1852) Israel Potter (1855) The Piazza Tales (1856) The Confidence-Man (1857) Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866) Clarel(1876) John Marr and Other Sailors with Some Sea-Pieces (1888) Billy Budd (posthumous) Index Page vii ix 1 83 191 253 293 351 417 453 467 485 507 529 543 547 553 Series Editor's Preface The American Critical Archives series documents a part of a writer's career that is usually difficult to examine, that is, the immediate response to each work as it was made public on the part of reviewers in contemporary newspapers and journals. Although it would not be feasible to reprint every review, each volume in the series reprints a selection of reviews designed to provide the reader with a proportionate sense of the critical response, whether it was positive, negative, or mixed. Checklists of other known reviews are also included to complete the documentary record and allow access for those who wish to do further reading and research. The editor of each volume has provided an introduction that surveys the career of the author in the context of the contemporary critical response. Ideally, the introduction will inform the r