Herman Melville
Books by Herman Melville
“This volume of short fiction includes three of Melville’s most widely-read works…The short fiction features more narrative economy and unity without sacrificing Melville’s still-dazzlingly ornate prose. What I especially love about these stories is how tricksy and untrustworthy the narrators are” Read more...
Hester Blum, Literary Scholar
“Pierre is so bananas that a contemporary reviewer’s headline read HERMAN MELVILLE CRAZY…But I could not love the novel more: it’s so densely, perversely strange, so elaborately, bombastically contrarian.” Read more...
Hester Blum, Literary Scholar
“It’s a clear classic … it stands on its own as simply a classic piece of literature about the war between duty and morality.” Read more...
Scott Turow, Thriller and Crime Writer
“Moby-Dick, Melville’s epic whaling narrative, was fully appreciated only posthumously…In recent decades, many scholars have been committed to reexamining declarations of literary and historical greatness, primacy, or supremacy, recognizing that notions of transcendence have always been rooted in subjective and structural biases. To call a work timeless may be a shorthand for elitist judgments, but it can also suggest how each time period brings a fresh perspective to the text. This is what makes reading Moby-Dick exciting now, whenever your now is.” Read more...
Hester Blum, Literary Scholar
Interviews where books by Herman Melville were recommended
Best Herman Melville Books, recommended by Hester Blum
Today it is celebrated as one of America’s great novels, but when it came out, Moby-Dick was received with little acclaim and none of the commercial success of Herman Melville’s first book, Typee. Here, Hester Blum, Professor of English at Penn State, introduces the 19th century American novelist and recommends which books to read by and about him.
Best Philosophical Novels, recommended by Rebecca Goldstein
The skills of a philosopher and those of a novelist are often in tension, but they have much to learn from each other, says novelist and philosopher, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein. She chooses her favourite philosophical novels.
The best books on The Sea, recommended by Philip Marsden
The travel writer casts his net over books about the sea and comes up with a haul including Moby Dick and a naval history of Britain.
The best books on Saving the World, recommended by Jonathon Porritt
Co-founder of Forum For The Future and one of the leading experts on climate change hammers home the need to encourage sustainable development technologies across the globe
The best books on Evil, recommended by Adam Haslett
Bestselling author, Adam Haslett, defines the existential origin of evil as the refusal to acknowledge and confront our own mortality. He picks the best books on evil.
The Best Legal Novels, recommended by Scott Turow
The bestselling author of legal thriller Presumed Innocent tells us about his own favourite legal novels.
