Clarel : A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land (The Writings of Herman Melville, Vol. 12)

Harrison, Hayford; MacDougall, Alma A.; Parker, Hershel; Tanselle, G. Thomas

ISBN 10: 0810109077 / ISBN 13: 9780810109070

Published by Northwestern University Press, 1991

About this Item

Moderate shelf wear with creases along front and back pages, otherwise an overall intact and unmarked copy.

Seller Inventory # ABE-1734368960798

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Clarel : A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land (The Writings of Herman Melville, Vol. 12)
• Publisher: Northwestern University Press
• Publication Date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0810109077
• ISBN 13: 9780810109070
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

Melville's long poem Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land (1876) was the last full-length book he published. Until the mid-twentieth century even the most partisan of Melville's advocates hesitated to endure a four-part poem of 150 cantos of almost 18,000 lines, about a naïve American named Clarel, on pilgrimage through the Palestinian ruins with a provocative cluster of companions.

But modern critics have found Clarel a much better poem than was ever realized. Robert Penn Warren called it a precursor of The Waste Land. It abounds with revelations of Melville's inner life. Most strikingly, it is argued that the character Vine is a portrait of Melville's friend Hawthorne. Based on the only edition published during Melville's lifetime, this scholarly edition adopts thirty-nine corrections from a copy marked by Melville and incorporates 154 emendations by the present editors, an also includes a section of related documents and extensive discussions.

This scholarly edition is an Approved Text of the Center for Editions of American Authors (Modern Language Association of America).

About the Author

HERMAN MELVILLE (1819–1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick. His first three books gained much contemporary attention (the first, Typee, becoming a bestseller), and after a fast-blooming literary success in the late 1840s, his popularity declined precipitously in the mid-1850s and never recovered during his lifetime. When he died in 1891, he was almost completely forgotten. It was not until the "Melville Revival" in the early 20th century that his work won recognition, especially Moby-Dick, which was hailed as one of the literary masterpieces of both American and world literature. He was the first writer to have his works collected and published by the Library of America.