The Passages of Herman Melville
- 19 Jan 2012
- 9781847679802
- £9.99
- 464 pp
- 129×198mm
- 6 Jan 2011
- 9780857860392
- £7.99
- 464 pp
In a few words
The story of an American literary giant’s extraordinary life from the author of The Last Station
In a few words
The story of an american literary giant’s extraordinary life from the author of The Last Station
This novel powerfully conveys the allure of the sea, and of the ships that do battle with its creatures. And Parini's evocation of Melville's relationships is moving... In his dealings with his wife, his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the young men who people his story, he becomes a tragic figure, finally rendered heroic by his capacity to feel.
Parini's eminently readable narrative convincingly fills in hitherto dark places. [This novel] will not replace the standard biographies; it will, however, add flesh to their bones.
John Sutherland
Financial TimesWho would have thought it would have taken until now, the twenty-first century, to get a clear view of America's most mysterious novelist, Herman Melville? We have it now, through the magic of Jay Parini's superior novel
Gore Vidal
There is much to admire. The novel powerfully conveys the allure of the sea, and of the ships that do battle with its creatures. And Parini's evocation of Melville's relationships is moving... In his dealings with his wife, his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the young men who people his story, he becomes a tragic figure, finally rendered heroic by his capacity to feel.
More about
the book
Herman had often walked these streets, eyeing the forest of tall ships, their blackened strakes handsomely curved, masts like crosses, empty of sails . . .
1841. A young Herman Melville is yet to write Moby Dick. He sets out on a voyage aboard a whaling ship. What happens on that trip will give him enough material for a lifetime of writing.
But what of the dark things Melville encounters on his journey, and the illicit relationships he embarks upon that are to torment him once he returns home to his wife Lizzie? All is revealed as Jay Parini lifts the lid on one of the greatest writers of the nineteenth century . . .
More about
the book
‘Deep, deep, and still deep and deeper must we go, if we would find out the heart of a man . . .’ Herman Melville
Descend into the dark waters of one of the greatest writers America has ever produced. In this stirring novel Jay Parini recreates the adventure-filled life and ignominious death of Herman Melville. Partly told from the perspective of his wife, Lizzie, the story opens with an aging, angry and drunken Melville wreaking domestic havoc in his unhappy New York home. From there it takes in the full span of a life that produced Moby-Dick and Billy Budd: shipping off to sea on a merchant vessel as an impoverished young aristocrat, a fateful voyage on a whaling ship, desertion in the Marquesas Islands and a sojourn with cannibals, instant fame as a novelist and the disappointments of his twilight years trudging the docks as a Customs Inspector. Along the way Parini navigates the torrid personal relationships and barely suppressed desires that defined Melville’s life. Jay Parini creates a Melville who is at once sympathetic and maddening. His novel pays tributes to the great works of the nineteenth century, and delivers a gripping historical drama.
[A] compelling novel...What is most rewarding about this richly detailed book is Parini's ability to frame a story of heroic faiure with the knowedge that its subject will one day triumph.
Stephen Amidon
Sunday TimesParini's novel is a bravura and often engrossing attempt to blend the disparate strands of Melville's art and life in two perspectives.
Philip Hoare
GuardianA thrilling tale... [Parini] has the knack for finding just the right phrase. ... There is much to admire in this novel.
Who would have thought it would have taken until now, the twenty-first century, to get a clear view of America's most mysterious novelist, Herman Melville? We have it now, through the magic of Jay Parini's superior novel.
Gore Vidal
A thrilling tale... [Parini] has the knack for finding just the right phrase. ... There is much to admire in this novel
Parini, a poet, biographer and literary critic as well as a novelist, can write with admirable lyric intensity
In fiction and biography, Jay Parini has brought to life Tolstoy, Frost, Faulkner, Benjamin, and Steinbeck. Now he has added Herman Melville to that remarkable pantheon, and the tale is surprising, insightful, and deeply moving. Melville has never seemed more alive to me - and more human.
Chris Bohjalian, Author Of Secrets Of Eden, The Double Bind, And Midwives
Once again Jay Parini has taken us in literary imagination, cultural history, and biography through his ingenious fiction. In elegant and moving prose, Parini opens up Melville..... A novel of startling and inventive journeys, and no reader will come away from it seeing Melville the same.
Peter Balakian, Author Of Black Dog Of Fate
