Herman Melville was a genius

A lovely Biography of this very great Author, I love its gentle pace, a joy to watch, Thank you!

A pioneer of American literature and a personal hero of mine.

Great bio, and the reader is excellent.

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 the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me. There now is your insular city of the Manhattoes, belted round by wharves as Indian isles by coral reefs--commerce surrounds it with her surf. Right and left, the streets take you waterward. Its extreme downtown is the battery, where that noble mole is washed by waves, and cooled by breezes, which a few hours previous were out of sight of land. Look at the crowds of water-gazers there. Circumambulate the city of a dreamy Sabbath afternoon. Go from Corlears Hook to Coenties Slip, and from thence, by Whitehall, northward. What do you see? Posted like silent sentinels all around the town, stand thousands upon thousands of mortal men fixed in ocean reveries. Some leaning against the spiles; some seated upon the pier-heads; some looking over the bulwarks of ships from China; some high aloft in the rigging, as if striving to get a still better seaward peep. But these are all landsmen; of week days pent up in lath and plaster--tied to counters, nailed to benches, clinched to desks. How then is this? Are the green fields gone? What do they here? But look! here come more crowds, pacing straight for the water, and seemingly bound for a dive. Strange! Nothing will content them but the extremest limit of the land; loitering under the shady lee of yonder warehouses will not suffice. No. They must get just as nigh the water as they possibly can without falling in. And there they stand--miles of them--leagues. Inlanders all, they come from lanes and alleys, streets and avenues--north, east, south, and west. Yet here they all unite. Tell me, does the magnetic virtue of the needles of the compasses of all those ships attract them thither? Once more. Say you are in the country; in some high land of lakes. Take almost any path you please, and ten to one it carries you down in a dale, and leaves you there by a pool in the stream. There is magic in it. Let the most absent-minded of men be plunged in his deepest reveries--stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region. Should you ever be athirst in the great American desert, try this experiment, if your caravan happen to be supplied with a metaphysical professor. Yes, as every one knows, meditation and water are wedded for ever. ― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, or, the Whale

I recommend two books by Nathaniel Philbrick, both very readable and informative about the whaling industry in America: "In the Heart of the Sea" and "Why Read Moby Dick?" Highly recommended. Mr. Philbrick is an expert on these subjects and a very talented writer.

Moby Dick.. Is perhaps my favorite American novel, of all time.. !!!!

I'm very lucky my Father maybe has read the story of HERMAN MELVILLE. He name his Second Son MELVILLE. My name is Melville Janog Acain, now 72 years old born January 27, 1950.

A lot of useful information here although his brilliant short story 'Bartleby' isn't mentioned specifically as part of the Piazza tales.

This reminds me of some of the films I slept through in high school English.

This man deserved to be honoured for Moby Dick. Strange that this story destroyed so much for him when it should have done the opposite. How crazy that he has written things before Moby Dick that gave him acknowledgement and then with this story which he put so much work into, he fell in disgrace. So much that his lost his entire audience. Man that must have been hard. He must have lived in the wrong century.

Must've been awful to have to sell Arrowhead and uproot his happy home. Son blows his brains out. Family disintegrates. Downward spiral. Melville dies broke and alone and unknown. He had to have wondered, "What was it all for?" "What could I have done differently?"

Thanks!

thank you.

GREAT MAN !!!

Bartleby acted by crispin Glover was a story by Melville a classics writer. The movie in 2001 was released when I had been jailed for no crime in the USA except to have caught thieves high and low as an auditor and investigator . Years later I ended up in a former HUD subdivision reclaimed after a dump was reclaimed and made into a toxic park with seepage to the sea and the young on the fields Of capstoned garbage. The property is expensive for the moment. I was led there and in the end wondered about Mongol horde warfare I endured and the Attila the hum horde far away destroying my native peace Bartleby reminds me of the Albert Camus play No Exit. After my 3 18 year comas I was mid 50s. War after war after war after war it is time for a dirt nap. Nearing 60 I recalled all of it and welcomed eternal death for all living things for all eternity. If life is a delusion why feign caring if you welcome eternal death. Never work in military if it’s not our war. Never work in finance That was father’s advice. I am older. I take the warning a step further. Never trust another human being on face value due to hidden identity in war and the animals in mankind. Never trust government if it’s not your government. Even if it is yours beware of sock strategy warfare. You may be deluded. As a survivor from a murder attempt at birth and my mother or her alias urging me to suicide after being attacked by my fellow man I have no remorse about death . But I am not sadistic. The hordes of men prefer sadism in the pleasure of maiming. I see delight in death with mercy. The eternal doomed flight of all living things ends that way regardless . Kurt Brown saintrambone Mobile Audit Club

Mardi, his longest novel gets one sentence-- but I get it. Thank you for this post. Really no other American author at the level of Melville.

I recommend two books, by Nathaniel Philbrick, about "Moby Dick" and the whaling industry in America: "Why Read Moby Dick?" and "In the Heart of the Sea." Mr. Philbrick is an expert on these subjects and a talented writer, and both books are very readable.

It’s amazing Mark Twain’s great Huckleberry Finn was recognized right off and he made a lot of money. Melville’s Moby Dick didn’t get recognized for its greatness until after his death. Both masterpieces, but recognition & financial rewards were completely different.

Superb documentary. What’s the source?

Strangely, they don’t even mention his strange last novel “Pierre”

Yes... the Sea!

Watching this feels just like those Penguin Reader's books for learners of English

I exhibit the art of ignorance, Boarn and raised in Pittsfield (now an Octogenarian) I grew up hearing the Melville name hundreds of times, walked down Melville street a thousand times heard the name and the book Moby Dick, thousands of times and yet had not read the book at all. but was a frequent visitor to the library (the Old Athenaeum and had been in the "Melville room many times with no conception to its value) But like many young souls of ignorance eventually I read Moby Dick and became acquainted with Herman Melville at last. As the old saying goes. "Better late, than never" and I humbly submit to society's wrath or plume of fate. ECF

Clarel 600 lines? Wrong! It has 6 *million* of them!

whhhaling ships! whhhale blubber! whhhaling history!

She didn't write the opening chapters.

Lot of Melville fans here and I only want to plug the excellent eight hour lecture by Hubert Dreyfus on Moby Dick: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/m9dlf6eEv6rWYnk.html

Boston forever!!!

Yeah let's have a beatbox theme and a 17 yr old girl rapping the voice over. Entertainment Vs Education

Billy Budd. 🍀🎵

Strangely, they don't even mention his strange last novel, "Pierre."

2018 Version of The Raven for our oppressed minority students can enjoy it too...... "It came up on my ass one midnight drug deal clear....I herd the sound of the 9mill go Bang Bang Bang at my do......I askes....What be dat?....The Ho on my side said....NEVER MO....."

メルヴィル山地は日本ではほとんどの人が知らない。

today Union

Hhwhaling

true freaky hold having s********

Postive take on a most disgusting trade and horrendous crimes against wildlife.

what do ye do when ye see a whale men?

"In the opinion of most literate people (Moby Dick) is the greatest American novel of the 19th century." I know plenty of literate people, Hemingway for example, who would vote for "Huckleberry Finn," and plenty more who find much of "Moby Dick" to be virtually unreadable.

hermen was a swwonderful man he created queequeg the indiann hopefully the future seeing stones that he rolled are eniogmatic with todsays world iwill roll these stones and predict the outcome of vthe ukraine war............thus 20/8 /23 signals the end and beginning of natos disaster as putin launched tactical nukes aagainst natoo fortunately the retort failed and nATO WAS DISSOLVED FOR BEING THE NUCLEAR DISASTER UNDER JBIDEN THE END.