Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Redburn, His First Voyage: Being the Sailorboy Confessions and Reminiscences of the Son-Of-A-Gentleman in the Merchant Service (Penguin English Library) by Herman Melville, Harold Beaver ISBN: 0140431055 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 1977 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.67
Rating: 5
Summary: A deep look at Melville's heart
Comment: There are those who read Moby-Dick and say they love it because they're supposed to, because it's marked as a classic American novel; and then there are those who love Moby-Dick because its miraculous prose, its Shakespearean characters and its spirit truly get inside them. Redburn is for the second group: any real fan of Melville's unique philosophy and thorough mastery of style will love this book. Redburn is, to be sure, no Moby-Dick -- it has none of the epic quality of that crowning jewel. But all of Melville's trademarks are here, in a plot which transcends its simple outline -- a boy from a formerly rich, now bankrupt family joins the crew of a merchant ship sailing to Liverpool and comes of age -- to reach the realm of genius. The poetically beautiful imagery and sparkling wit juxtaposed with profound melancholy jump out at the reader. But even more importantly, Redburn opens up a unique window on Herman Melville's soul. Elizabeth Hardwick, in her recent biography of Melville (which I also highly recommend), calls this his most personal work, and she's right -- where later works like Moby-Dick and Billy Budd hid Melville's real experiences behind an obscuring (if brilliant) curtain of fiction and the earliest novels like Typee and Omoo lacked depth in their rollickingly faithful accounts of Melville's sojourns among the Polynesians, Redburn has just the right balance of fact and fiction. It is in many ways a meditation on the author's once-illustrious father -- Allan Melville, who, just like Walter Redburn (the narrator's father) lost all his money and respect -- but it is equally a series of revelations about his youthful mind as he mulls over issues of time, the generational gap and social change. Read Redburn for a real glimpse of the man who would be the greatest American novelist.
Rating: 1
Summary: A Literary HORROR
Comment: Let's get real here folks. This book is a literary disaster. Does the reviewer above want to argue that with me? Well, than he or she can talk to Melville himself. Melville wrote this book for money. It doesn't have the literary charm that comes with Melville's books. Moby Dick was a literary masterpiece. Redburn is garbage. It is simply a journal of his travels to Liverpool and back. If journals interest you, than by all means this is an excellent book. But this book was not written by Melville, rather by his quest for money while he was in poverty. I would give it negative stars, but Amazon.com doesn't give that as an option.
Rating: 5
Summary: His First Voyage
Comment: "Redburn" is a fantastic story. It is complex, funny and mysterious. Using Wellingborough Redburn as his persona and narrator, Melville writes of his first voyage overseas, when as a young man of 19 he signs on as a common seaman on board the "Highlander", a merchant ship bount for Liverpool, England. In the first few chapters Redburn seems to be mocking himself, using a tongue-in-cheek tone as he describes his romantic notions of sailing to distant lands and his ineptitude as a sailor during his first weeks at sea. The crew mocks him because he is such a poor seaman; they humiliate and tease him. As the story evolves, Redburn becomes more objective and contemplative. He becomes an acute observer in recording the harshness of a sailor's life and in describing the individual characteristics of the Highlander's crew, especially one Jackson, a malignant and powerful sailor who dominates the crew with his relentless venom.
In Liverpool, Redburn meets Harry Bolton, a young man who attracts and fascinates him. Harry is obviously a gentleman, and although he is muscular and well built, he exudes a feminine charm. Harry is evasive about his past. Harry intrigues Redburn. Redburn admires Harry although he suspects him of an indefinable evil. Despite his misgivings about Harry, Redburn helps him get a job on the Highlander which, with 500 immigrants who board the ship in Liverpool embarks for America. Melville, through his alter ego, Redburn, tells of the harrowing problems on board the Highlander on the voyage back to America. He describes his strange, ongoing friendship with Harry who proves to be a terrible sailor. And he describes in penetrating detail the awful, slow death of Jackson and its effect on the crew.
Some Melville aficionados have implied that Melville reveals homosexual longings in describing Harry Bolton and his attraction to him. But I feel that Melville, like the poet he is, transcends gender when he focuses on the sensuous nature of form, whether ugly or beautiful. "Redburn" is an exalting story of a young man's first voyage. It involves the reader both physically and spiritually.
 |
Title: White-Jacket: Or the World in a Man-Of-War (Oxford World's Classics) by Herman Melville ISBN: 0192838016 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 2000 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
 |
Title: Pierre, Or, the Ambiguities (Penguin Classics) by Herman Melville, William C. Spengemann ISBN: 0140434844 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 1996 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
 |
Title: Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life (Penguin Classics) by Herman Melville, John Bryant ISBN: 0140434887 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 1996 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
 |
Title: Omoo by Herman Melville ISBN: 0486408736 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 2000 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
 |
Title: The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade (Penguin Classics) by Herman Melville, Stephen Matterson ISBN: 0140445471 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 1991 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
