Herman Melville
Herman Melville was an American novelist of the nineteenth century, best known for *Moby-Dick*, his epic tale of obsession and whaling.
The novel failed commercially in his lifetime but is now considered a masterpiece of American literature.
His other works include *Bartleby, the Scrivener* and *Billy Budd*.
We're reading Melville this semester.
Epic whaling novel
- PequodFictional whaling ship
- IshmaelCast-out firstborn son
- harpoonBarbed spear for whales
- leviathanEnormous creature or entity
Ahab · Queequeg · Starbuck · spermaceti · Nantucket · blubber · scrimshaw · flensing
Persistent, intrusive preoccupation
- fatePredetermined course of events
- allegorySymbolic tale with deeper meaning
- symbolismRepresenting concepts through images
- ambiguityOpenness to multiple interpretations
evil · isolation · madness · defiance · nature · morality · identity · masculinity
1850s literary-philosophical flourishing
- TranscendentalismIntuition-based American idealist movement
- 19th centuryThe eighteen hundreds
- antebellumBefore a war's start
- allegorySymbolic tale with deeper meaning
symbolism · literary criticism · manuscripts · publishing · revival · canonization · modernism · influence
Seafaring crew member
- seafaringTraveling by ocean vessel
- voyageJourney by sea
- shipSeagoing transport vessel
- oceanMassive saltwater body
forecastle · whaler · merchantman · Liverpool · United States · desertion · mutiny · flogging
Stadium or water brand
- New YorkNortheastern metropolis and state
- customs inspectorOfficer checking imports
- obscurityState of being unknown
- rediscoveryFinding something previously known
Nathaniel Hawthorne · Malcolm · depression · bankruptcy · lecture circuit · Albany
Moby-Dick
Epic whaling novel
Ahab · Queequeg · Starbuck · leviathan · spermaceti · Nantucket · blubber · scrimshaw · flensing · ambergris
Moby-Dick
Epic whaling novel
- Bartleby
- Billy Budd
- PierreFrench male name
obsession
Persistent, intrusive preoccupation
- fatePredetermined course of events
- allegorySymbolic tale with deeper meaning
- symbolismRepresenting concepts through images
ambiguity · evil · isolation · madness · defiance · nature · morality · identity · masculinity · colonialism
American Renaissance
1850s literary-philosophical flourishing
- TranscendentalismIntuition-based American idealist movement
- 19th centuryThe eighteen hundreds
- antebellumBefore a war's start
allegory · symbolism · literary criticism · manuscripts · publishing · revival · canonization · modernism · influence · Shakespeare
sailor
Seafaring crew member
ocean · forecastle · whaler · merchantman · Liverpool · United States · desertion · mutiny · flogging · impressment
Arrowhead
Stadium or water brand
- New YorkNortheastern metropolis and state
- customs inspectorOfficer checking imports
- obscurityState of being unknown
Nathaniel Hawthorne · rediscovery · Malcolm · depression · bankruptcy · lecture circuit · Albany
- Authors MToni Morrison, Cormac McCarthy, Margaret Mitchell, Henry Miller, Stephenie Meyer
- literaturebooks, book, fiction, poetry, stories
- AuthorsShakespeare, William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Literary AuthorsC.S. Lewis, Dostoevsky, J.R.R. Tolkien, Virginia Woolf, Oscar Wilde
- NovelistsStephen King, Agatha Christie, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen
- American ClassicsMoby-Dick, Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter, Walden, Leaves of Grass
Herman MelvilleCharles Dickens
Mark Twain · Harriet Beecher Stowe · Louisa May Alcott · Jane Austen · Horatio Alger
Herman MelvilleErnest Hemingway
Mark Twain · Jack London · John Steinbeck · Horatio Alger · O. Henry