LIFE

MAJOR WORKS

BY 陈佩

BY 黄亚利

Early life

Voyage on sea

Friendship with Hawthorne

Remarks on him

Early life born in New York City on

August 1, 1819.

a descendent of English

and Dutch colonial

families

Father died at his age of 13, dropped out of school to do a lot of odd jobs to support the family

travelled on sea

1847 married Elizabeth

Shaw

1891 Herman Melville

died at his home in

New York City. He was

buried in Woodlawn

Cemetery in the Bronx.

Voyage on sea in 1839 Melville

worked as a crew member of a merchant ship called the St. Lawrence

scheduled to travel from New York City to Liverpool.

his first sea voyage— prove valuable to his later literary work: Bedburn

Saw life from the bottom as Mark Twain did

Spending most of his young manhood on sea to different places stood him in rich stead and furnished him with abundant material for fiction

Friendship with Hawthrone

Met during the summer of 1850

deeply impresssed by Hawthrone's books- brought about a great change in his outlook on life and the world

both of them were against the background of New England Transcendentalist Optimism concerning man and his world for he was always able to see the cruelty and beauty in nature, fascinated by Hawthrone's understanding of evil- blackness of vision

Hawthorne &Melville

Remarks

Hawthorne: Herman Melville,I

think, will never rest until he gets hold of a definite belief. It is strange how he persists -- and has persisted ever since I knew him, and probably long before.

Melville was not financially successful as a writer, having earned just over $10,000 for his writing during his lifetime.He is an important novelist in the 19th century, a remarkable philosopher and a poet and he receives recognition until the 20th century

Remarks

Major works of Melville

• Typee 《泰比》 1846 (the experience of his stay among the Polynesians)

• Omoo 《欧穆》 1847 (adventures on Tahiti and other islands)

• Bedburn 《雷德本》 1849 (first voyage to England)

• White-Jacket 《白外衣》 1850

Major works of MelvilleMoby-Dick, 《白鲸》又译《莫比 . 迪

克》 (1851) (steeped in symbolism)

Pierre 《皮埃尔》 (1852) Israel Potter , 《伊斯雷尔 ·波特》

(1855) Piazza Tales , 《广场的故事》 (1856)

—— 中短篇小说集 The Confidence-Man , 《骗子》 (1857)

Major works of Melville

• Battle Pieces : Civil War poems, 《南北战争诗集》又译《战事集 》 (1866 )

• Clarel 《克拉瑞尔》 (1876) —— 长诗 • John Marr and Other Sailors, 《约翰 ·

玛尔和其他水手》 (1888) — 诗集 • Timoleon 《梯摩里昂》 (1891) —— 诗集 • Billy Budd, 《水手比利 ·巴德》 (1924)

[ 于作者去世后出版 ]

Moby Dick

A tremendous chronicle of a whaling voyage in pursuit of a seemingly supernatural white whale.

The outline of Moby Dick

• The opening line, "Call me Ishmael," is one of the most recognizable opening lines in Western literature. Ishmael then narrates the voyage of the whaleship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab. Ahab has one purpose: revenge on Moby Dick, a ferocious, enigmatic white whale which on a previous voyage destroyed Ahab's ship and severed his leg at the knee.

Writing features

• Romanticism

• Realism

• Symbolism

Symbolism in Moby Dick

• 1 .The white whale: gliding great demon of the seas life (evil with great power); purity, innocence, and youth.

• 2. The Pequod: the ship of American soul.• 3.The endeavor of the crew: the maniacal

fanaticism of the white mental consciousness

The conclusion

The detailed and realistic descriptions of whale hunting and the process of extracting whale oil, as well as life aboard ship among culturally diverse crew, are mixed with exploration of class and social status, good and evil, and the existence of God.

Thank you