Showing results by author "Herman Melville" in All Categories

The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade was the last major novel by Herman Melville, the American writer and author of Moby-Dick. The novel portrays a Canterbury Tales-style group of steamboat passengers whose interlocking stories are told as they travel down the Mississippi River toward New Orleans. The novel's title refers to its central character, an ambiguous figure who sneaks aboard a Mississippi steamboat on April Fool's Day.

The life of a Scrivener can be a dull one. After all, your entire occupation has to do with the handwritten copying of law documents. But when Bartleby arrives, he turns the office upside down with the enigmatic phrase: “I prefer not to.”

Sjömannen Ismael mönstrar på valfångstfartyget Pequod som leds av den excentriske kaptenen Ahab. För många år sedan förlorade Ahab sitt ben under ett möte med den vita valen Moby Dick, och har sedan den dagen drömt om hämnd. Driven av galenskap ger han sig ut på jakt efter havsodjuret och får med Ismael och resten av besättningen på äventyret. Ahabs besatthet sätter inte bara hans eget liv på spel utan även alla andras ombord på fartyget. Kaptenen har förklarat krig mot ett av havets mäktigaste odjur och är beredd att offra allt för att få sin revansch.

Billy Budd, a handsome sailor working on a British naval ship in the eighteenth century, is falsely accused of mutiny against the ship’s captain by the master-at-arms, John Claggart. Billy, who unfortunately obtains a speech impediment, is overcome by the accusation and unable to verbally defend himself against Claggart’s unfounded hate for him. Instead, he lashes out at Claggart, much to his own demise. An instant classic once published, Billy Budd is a tragic tale that has been adapted into film, plays and even an opera. This audiobook edition is narrated by the talented Christopher Ragland.

A man sits at his hearth as thunder shakes the mountains. Then—a knock. A stranger steps in, soaked and shivering, armed not with warmth or need, but with polished copper and an urgent offer. He doesn't sell comfort. He sells protection—against the very sky. The Lightning-Rod Man is Herman Melville at his most compact and cunning. This sharply drawn tale uses one room, one storm, and two voices to stage a quiet war between reason and fear, independence and submission, belief and the glittering promise of safety. It's a sales pitch wrapped in a sermon, disguised as a fable.

An adapted and illustrated edition of Herman Melville's Moby Dick - at an easy-to-read level for all ages! Ishmael is looking for work at sea and joins Captain Ahab and his crew aboard the magnificent ship, the Pequod. Here Ishmael hears stories of the dangerous white whale - Moby Dick.

Timeless Herman Melville Stories offers a curated collection of his most compelling narratives, filled with adventure, symbolism, and psychological depth.

The Herman Melville Works Collection compiles his complete works, offering listeners an immersive journey into his epic tales and philosophical explorations.

The Herman Melville Classics Podcast presents a powerful selection of his most thought-provoking works, bringing his masterful storytelling to life.

The American literary tradition has, in a far shorter span of time than others throughout history, achieved a glowing and glittering reputation. From its transatlantic roots it has absorbed the sons and daughters of other cultures, other lands and made them part of her own. Within this melting pot of styles, genres and wordplay one fact stands out: In the American short story, Literary tradition has a strong, vibrant and almost inclusive history, if you know where to look.

Set sail on grand adventures with Herman Melville Audiobooks, a collection of captivating tales exploring themes of obsession, the sea, and human nature.

Billy Budd is Herman Melville’s final work, a tragic tale of innocence and injustice in the British navy. When the naive sailor Billy Budd is falsely accused of mutiny, the rigid laws of military discipline lead to a heartbreaking conclusion. A profound exploration of morality, duty, and fate.

In this series we listen to short stories that are NOT by perhaps the most well-known author of this type. But the many other rich talents in the volume may have treated the subject matter a little differently, or were perhaps just overlooked in the stampede to applaud the winner, but these authors are of equal merit.

Bartleby, The Scrivener by Herman Melville is a profound and haunting tale that explores themes of isolation, free will, and the dehumanizing effects of modern work. The story is narrated by a Wall Street lawyer who hires a quiet and enigmatic scrivener named Bartleby. Initially diligent, Bartleby soon begins to refuse his tasks with the simple yet unsettling phrase, “I would prefer not to.” As his passive resistance escalates, his employer struggles to understand the man’s mysterious behavior, leading to a meditation on society’s treatment of those who refuse to conform.

എന്നെ ഇസ്മായേല്‍ എന്നു വിളിച്ചുകൊള്ളൂ: മൊബിഡിക്കിന്റെ ആദ്യാദ്ധ്യായത്തിലെ ഈ വാക്യം ഇംഗ്ലീഷ് ഭാഷാ സാഹിത്യത്തിലെ ഏറ്റവും അറിയപ്പെടുന്ന ആരംഭവാക്യങ്ങളില്‍ ഒന്നാണ്. കച്ചവടക്കപ്പലുകളില്‍ പ്രവൃത്തിപരിചയത്തിനു ശേഷം തിമിംഗിലക്കപ്പലുകളില്‍ ഭാഗ്യം പരീക്ഷിക്കാന്‍ നിശ്ചയിച്ച നിരീക്ഷണകുതുകിയായ ഒരു യുവാവായിരുന്നു ഇസ്മായേല്‍. ന്യൂയോര്‍ക്കിലെ മാന്‍ഹാട്ടന്‍ ദ്വീപില്‍ നിന്നു യാത്ര തിരിച്ച്, തണുത്തു വിഷാദം നിറഞ്ഞ ഒരു രാത്രിയില്‍ മാസ്സച്യൂസെറ്റ്‌സിലെ ബെഡ്‌ഫോര്‍ഡില്‍ എത്തിച്ചേര്‍ന്ന അയാള്‍ക്ക് സത്രത്തില്‍, കിടക്ക പങ്കിടേണ്ടി വന്നത്, അയാള്‍ ചെല്ലുമ്പോള്‍ അവിടെയില്ലാതിരുന്ന ഒരു അപരിചിതനുമായായിരുന്നു.

A quiet unassuming scrivener is hired by a successful Wall Street law firm, but his strange demeanor is an unwelcome presence.

Mardi, Vol. 1 is an ambitious allegorical novel that blends adventure, philosophy, and social satire. What begins as a Polynesian sea voyage transforms into a metaphysical exploration of human nature, politics, and existence. Melville’s experimental style makes this a fascinating, if challenging, literary journey.

White Jacket, or The World in a Man-of-War by Herman Melville is a semi-autobiographical novel that explores life aboard a U.S. Navy frigate during the 19th century. The story follows a sailor known as White Jacket, who narrates his experiences and observations of ship life, from the harsh discipline to the camaraderie among the crew. Melville vividly depicts the physical and moral challenges faced by sailors, critiquing naval practices such as flogging and the oppressive hierarchy aboard the ship. Through White Jacket's journey, the novel reflects broader themes of individuality, freedom, and...

Moby-Dick, or The Whale by Herman Melville is a classic novel following Ishmael, a sailor who joins the whaling ship Pequod. The ship is captained by Ahab, an obsessive and vengeful man seeking to kill Moby Dick, a massive white whale that previously maimed him. As the voyage progresses, Ahab’s relentless pursuit leads the crew into peril. The novel explores themes of fate, obsession, and humanity’s struggle against nature. With rich symbolism, philosophical depth, and detailed depictions of whaling life, Moby-Dick is a profound meditation on existence, culminating in a tragic and ...

Few things, even in literature, can really be said to be unique — but Moby Dick is truly unlike anything written before or since. The novel is nominally about the obsessive hunt by the crazed Captain Ahab of the book’s eponymous white whale. But interspersed in that story are digressions, paradoxes, philosophical riffs on whaling and life, and a display of techniques so advanced for its time that some have referred to the 1851 Moby Dick as the first “modern” novel.(Summary by Stewart Wills)