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“The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade” is the 1857 novel by Herman Melville, his ninth and final work. It tells the interlocking stories of a group of travelers aboard a steamboat on the Mississippi River making their way towards New Orleans. Emulating the style of Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales”, the novel centers on its title character, the Confidence-Man, a mysterious figure who sneaks aboard the steamboat and successively tests the confidence of the passengers. He adopts various disguises, such as a handicapped beggar, a sophisticated businessman, and a cosmopolitan gentleman, swindling his fellow passengers in many small ways. The story consists primarily of the reactions of the travelers to this schemer and in doing so the dishonesties and pretensions of the passengers are exposed and their true natures are revealed. Melville took a satirical approach to contemporary cultural figures in much of the novel and it is believed that many of the characters were based on popular authors, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allen Poe. “The Confidence-Man” is a rich exposition on the nature of human identity set against the vivid imagery of the Mississippi riverboat era. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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“Billy Budd” is the final work of American author Herman Melville which was discovered amongst his papers three decades after his death and first published in Raymond Weaver’s 1924 edition of “The Collected Works of Melville.” The emergence of that collection as well as Weaver’s 1921 biography, “Herman Melville: Man, Mariner and Mystic”, sparked a revival of interest in the forgotten writer. Despite the complex and incomplete nature of the manuscript excitement arose around this “new” Melville work when it was first discovered. The novel is concerned with its titular character, Billy Budd, a navy sailor accused of mutiny by a fellow officer, who immediately strikes his accuser dead, followed quickly by a trial, conviction and execution. The story stemmed from Melville’s interest in an 1888 article called “The Mutiny on the Somers,” concerning three sailors who in 1842 had been convicted of mutiny. Presented here in this volume is Weaver’s original 1924 edition, a first of many attempts to piece together and refine the sometimes illegible text, which included questionable additions and omissions made by Melville’s wife after his death. Also included in this collection are the following tales: “The Piazza”, “Bartleby: The Scrivener”, “Benito Cereno”, “The Lightning-Rod Man”, “The Encantadas”, “The Bell-Tower”, and “The Paradise of Bachelors and The Tartarus of Maids”. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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“Billy Budd” is the final work of American author Herman Melville which was discovered amongst his papers three decades after his death and first published in Raymond Weaver’s 1924 edition of “The Collected Works of Melville.” The emergence of that collection as well as Weaver’s 1921 biography, “Herman Melville: Man, Mariner and Mystic”, sparked a revival of interest in the forgotten writer. Despite the complex and incomplete nature of the manuscript excitement arose around this “new” Melville work when it was first discovered. The novel is concerned with its titular character, Billy Budd, a navy sailor accused of mutiny by a fellow officer, who immediately strikes his accuser dead, followed quickly by a trial, conviction and execution. The story stemmed from Melville’s interest in an 1888 article called “The Mutiny on the Somers,” concerning three sailors who in 1842 had been convicted of mutiny. Presented here in this volume is Weaver’s original 1924 edition, a first of many attempts to piece together and refine the sometimes illegible text, which included questionable additions and omissions made by Melville’s wife after his death. This edition includes the often omitted “Daniel Orme” chapter and a biographical afterword.

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In this collection readers will find two of Herman Melville’s most renowned shorter works, “Bartleby: The Scrivener”, and “Benito Cereno”. The first story, “Bartleby”, was first serialized in two issues of “Putnam’s Magazine” in November and December of 1853. It concerns the office of a Wall Street lawyer who due to an increase in business hires a third scrivener named Bartleby to copy legal documents by hand. At first Bartleby proves to be a very productive worker but one day begins acting rather strangely. When asked to proofread a document he replies “I would prefer not to”, an answer he begins repeating perpetually in regards to all the tasks put to him. What follows for Bartleby is a tragic decline into apathy. The second story, “Benito Cereno”, first appeared in “Putnam’s Monthly” over three installments in 1855. It is the story on Don Benito Cereno, the captain of a Spanish Slavery ship, and the revolt that happens aboard his ship. Together “Bartleby” and “Benito Cereno” are widely regarded as two of Melville’s finest compositions. This edition includes a biographical afterword.

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A renewed interest in “Moby-Dick” in the early 20th century would help to establish it as an outstanding work of Romanticism and the American Renaissance, firmly placing it amongst the greatest of all American novels. Based on the real life events depicted in the “Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex” and the legend of “Mocha Dick”, an albino sperm whale whose killing is described in the May 1839 issue of “The Knickerbocker” magazine, it is the story of a wandering sailor by the name of Ishmael and his voyage aboard the whaling ship the “Pequod.” Commanded by the monomaniacal Captain Ahab, a man who is obsessed with revenge against a white whale of enormous size and ferocity, the “Pequod” and its crew are tasked with the singular goal of the capture and killing of the whale, whatever the cost. “Moby-Dick” is a novel rich with symbolism, full of complex themes, whose composition defies convention. A commercial and critical failure during the author’s lifetime, this classic whaling adventure would ultimately secure the literary legacy of Herman Melville. This edition includes an introduction by William S. Ament, a biographical afterword, and is illustrated by Mead Schaeffer.

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A masterpiece of storytelling, this epic saga pits Ahab, a brooding and fantastical sea captain, against the great white whale that crippled him. In telling the tale of Ahab's passion for revenge and the fateful voyage that ensued, Melville produced far more than the narrative of a hair-raising journey; Moby-Dick is a tale for the ages that sounds the deepest depths of the human soul. Interspersed with graphic sketches of life aboard a whaling vessel, and a wealth of information on whales and 19th-century whaling, Melville's greatest work presents an imaginative and thrilling picture of life at sea, as well as a portrait of heroic determination. The author's keen powers of observation and firsthand knowledge of shipboard life (he served aboard a whaler himself) were key ingredients in crafting a maritime story that dramatically examines the conflict between man and nature. «A valuable addition to the literature of the day,» said American journalist Horace Greeley on the publication of Moby-Dick in 1851 — a classic piece of understatement about a literary classic now considered by many as «the great American novel.» Read and pondered by generations, the novel remains an unsurpassed account of the ultimate human struggle against the indifference of nature and the awful power of fate. Much of Moby Dick was inspired by the 1821 work Narratives of the Wreck of the Whale-Ship Essex, which in turn inspired the 2015 movie In the Heart of the Sea, directed by Ron Howard and starring Chris Hemsworth.

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Best known as the creator of Captain Ahab and the great white whale of Moby-Dick, Herman Melville (1819–91) found critical and popular success with his first novels, which he based on his adventures in the South Seas. His reputation was diminished by his preoccupation with metaphysical themes and allegorical techniques in later works; and by the time of his death, his books were long forgotten. Generations later, Melville's readers recognized his work as keenly satirical and rich in elements that prefigured the emergence of existentialism and Freudian psychology.Melville's critical fortunes temporarily rebounded in the early to mid-1850s, with the favorable reception of his contributions to Harper's and Putnam's—two of the era's leading monthly magazines. This collection features fourteen of his works of short fiction from that period—most prominently, «The Encantadas or Enchanted Isles.» This series of descriptive sketches, a reminiscence from Melville's sailor days, reveals the ecologically pristine Galápagos Islands as both enchanting and horrifying. The other stories showcase the author's mastery of a diverse range of writing styles. «The Lightning-Rod Man» demonstrates his deftness at Dickensian comedy, and «The Piazza» anticipates his subsequent absorption with poetry. «The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids,» with its incisive contrast of upper-class frivolity with the desperate lives of factory workers, offers a moving portrait of social inequality. These rediscovered tales by a writer who was ahead of his time provide a captivating blend of artistry and cultural commentary.

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Herman Melville towers among American writers not only for his powerful novels, but also for the stirring novellas and short stories that flowed from his pen. Two of the most admired of these — «Bartleby» and «Benito Cereno» — first appeared as magazine pieces and were then published in 1856 as part of a collection of short stories entitled The Piazza Tales."Bartleby" (also known as «Bartleby the Scrivener») is an intriguing moral allegory set in the business world of mid-19th-century New York. A strange, enigmatic man employed as a clerk in a legal office, Bartleby forces his employer to come to grips with the most basic questions of human responsibility, and haunts the latter's conscience, even after Bartleby's dismissal."Benito Cereno," considered one of Melville's best short stories, deals with a bloody slave revolt on a Spanish vessel. A splendid parable of man's struggle against the forces of evil, the carefully developed and mysteriously guarded plot builds to a dramatic climax while revealing the horror and depravity of which man is capable.Reprinted here from standard texts in a finely made, yet inexpensive new edition, these stories offer the general reader and students of Melville and American literature sterling examples of a literary giant at his story-telling best.

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It's true. It's all true for Moby-Dick. He's a killer, he's a fury, he's an angel of hell. Why if the white whale could talk he'd talk like Ahab.' Nantucket. 1851. Centre of a whaling industry that transformed blubber into the oils and candles that lit the world. It's there that a schoolmaster called Ishmael arrives to ship on a whale-boat. He enrols under Ahab, Captain of the Pequod a man bent on destroying the white whale that lost him his leg. Certain the destruction of his nemesis will slake his thirst; Ahab's single-minded pursuit of Moby-Dick consumes Ishmael, the crew and the Pequod itself. The spirit and atmosphere of Herman Melville's masterpiece romantic, ambiguous, characterful and rich with allegory is captured on stage by simple8 with 'a treasure chest of talented actors, impressive musicians and intelligent scripting and directing' – New Statesman.

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Known best for his avant-garde and modernistic style, Herman Melville's stories come together in the compilation «Billy Budd and Other Stories.» In «Billy Budd, Foretopman,» Melville returns to the sea life and describes the tale of a well-liked sailor who is wrongly convicted of trying to enact mutiny against the ship's master at arms. Billy Budd accidentally kills his superior during a fight, and he is sentenced to death and hung in front of the whole crew. It is a story about good and evil, with Billy Budd representing the right, while his antagonist is frequently described as a snake, like the serpent in the Bible. The story is also about justice and how justice isn't always served in certain cases. In his other works, Melville leads his audience on journeys to uncover the identity of America; many of America's citizens were suffering an identity crisis due to the shifting social and political climate of the 1800's, and Melville personified these feelings in his shorter works. Melville had a difficult time finding an audience during his life, though, so many of his works went unnoticed and undiscovered until the 20th century during a «Melville Revival.» It is because of this revival that works like «The Piazza» and «The Bell Tower» have found their place in the great canon of American literature.

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