
An Artist in the Rigging
The Early Work of Herman Melville
William B. Dillingham(Author)
University of Georgia Press
Published on 1. August 2008
Book
Paperback/Softback
172 pages
978-0-8203-3260-4 (ISBN)
Description
An Artist in the Rigging is a study of Herman Melville's early novels--Typee, Omoo, Mardi, Redburn, and White-Jacket. The author considers these fictions from the standpoint of thematic relationship rather than of chronological development. He shows that while the five hero-narrators are separate and distinct entities, they have much in common and can be seen as representing different facets of an emergent composite hero-from the sensitive and restless young man who leaves home to search hungrily for experience, to the wanderer immersed in a deep probing of himself and his world. The hero's thirst for psychological independence--what comes to be his overriding ambition--is never satisfied, and destruction becomes inevitable, culminating in a paradoxical "apotheosis" in which the narrator-hero achieves this independence, but only at the expense of his humanity.
Dillingham persuasively demonstrates the interrelated qualities of these five novels, and in so doing he shows that the young Melville was a far greater literary artist than he gave himself credit for being. This fiction constitutes a powerful achievement in richness of texture, range of effect, and depth of characterization, as An Artist in the Rigging makes clear.
Dillingham persuasively demonstrates the interrelated qualities of these five novels, and in so doing he shows that the young Melville was a far greater literary artist than he gave himself credit for being. This fiction constitutes a powerful achievement in richness of texture, range of effect, and depth of characterization, as An Artist in the Rigging makes clear.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Georgia
United States
Target group
Adult education
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 10 mm
Weight
231 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8203-3260-4 (9780820332604)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
WILLIAM B. DILLINGHAM is Charles Howard Candler Professor of American Literature at Emory University. His books include An Artist in the Rigging: The Early Work of Herman Melville and Melville's Short Fiction, 1853-1856 (both Georgia).