The Cambridge Companion to Herman Melville

The Cambridge Companion to Herman Melville is intended to provide a critical introduction to Melville’s work. The essays have been specially commissioned for this volume, and provide a comprehensive overview of Melville’s career. All of Melville’s key works, including Moby-Dick, Typee, White Jacket, The Tambourine in Glory and The Confidence Man, are examined, as well as most of his poetry and short fiction. Written at a level both challenging and accessible, the volume provides fresh perspectives on one of the most significant writers of nineteenth-century America whose work continues to fascinate readers and stimulate new study.

• All essays newly commissioned for this volume • Comprehensive coverage of his career as novelist, short-story writer, and poet • Provides thorough, up-to-date bibliography • Applies a range of modern theories to one of the most important American writers of the nineteenth century

Chronology; 1. Introduction Robert S. Levine; 2. ‘Race’ in Typee and White-Jacket Samuel Otter; 3. The tambourine in glory: African culture and Melville’s art Sterling Stuckey; 4. Moby-Dick as revolution John Bryant; 5. Pierre’s Domestic Ambiguities Wyn Kelley; 6. ‘A- !’: unreadability in The Confidence Man Elizabeth Renker; 7. Melville the poet Lawrence Buell; 8. Melville’s travelling God Jenny Franchot; 9. Melville and sexuality Robert K. Martin; 10. Melville, labor, and the discourses of reception Cindy Weinstein; 11. ‘Bewildering Intertanglement’: Melville’s engagement with British culture Paul Giles; 12. Afterword Andrew Delbanco.

‘Recommended for all libraries collecting materials on the seminal writers of nineteenth-century America.’ Reference Reviews