
What Happened to the Book Herman Melville Wrote After ‘Moby-Dick’? - lermontov
https://www.thedailybeast.com/whatever-happened-to-the-book-herman-melville-wrote-after-moby-dick
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tjwds
If you're looking to read Melville without tackling the lengthy Moby-Dick, I
highly recommend the short story Benito Cereno:

[http://www.esp.org/books/melville/piazza/contents/cereno.htm...](http://www.esp.org/books/melville/piazza/contents/cereno.html)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Cereno](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Cereno)

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jhbadger
And there's always the great short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener", perhaps
the first commentary on the meaninglessness of office life.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartleby,_the_Scrivener](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartleby,_the_Scrivener)

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oh_sigh
I would prefer not to.

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freeloop10
ok

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srean
Moby Dick is considered the great American novel. As someone who is not well
read on American culture, could anyone help me with the surrounding context --
what made it the great American novel. I know I am asking for a lot here.

Thanks folks all those who responded. Now I am better armed. I did have a go
at it about an year back. Read around 4~5 chapters and then realized I need
more context to fully appreciate what makes it special. I sensed there's a lot
of symbolism being used, but couldn't quite put a finger to what exactly. Was
quite surprised by the homo-eroticism in some of the chapters, did not expect
that. I assumed literature from such times would reflect more 'victorian'
values. I presume that might have created a stir then, or may be not, I am not
that well versed in American culture, especially from that era.

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egl2019
The U.S. was the dominant whaling country at the time of Moby Dick, but there
is little in the book that assumes a knowledge of American history, culture,
or literature. It's a candidate for "the great American novel" only because it
was written by an American. I've read it more than once, and it strikes me as
something completely original, not tied to the conventions or themes of
literature of its time or country of origin. You may or may not like it, but
"Americanness" won't be the reason.

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8bitsrule
Another amusing example of mundane publishers interested in great profits, but
disinterested in (or unable to discern) great literature. That Melville was
well-received in Britain is interesting. Serialization soon after became the
route to success for many author's novels (those of H.G. Wells, Dickens,
Doyle, and Verne among them).

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hoodwink
I never knew Moby-Dick was spelled with a hyphen. Fascinating.

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sparky_z
This is a little out of left field, but my favorite unexpected literary hyphen
is in the title of "Lassie Come-Home" [0]. In the original book, the title was
not imploring a missing dog to return. It referred to the untrue accusation
that Lassie was a "come-home" dog, trained by scam artists to escape from an
unsuspecting buyer and return to be sold to the next sucker over and over
again.

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lassie_Come-
Home](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lassie_Come-Home)

