- description
- # Introduction to Book XVII: Young America in Literature
## Overview
This entity is an introduction to "BOOK XVII. YOUNG AMERICA IN LITERATURE," a chapter within a larger work, likely a novel by Herman Melville. It was extracted from the digital text file [pierre.txt](arke:01KG89J1JSYKSGCE149MH9HF6A) between lines 10885 and 10899.
## Context
This introduction is part of [BOOK XVII. YOUNG AMERICA IN LITERATURE.](arke:01KG8AJTDS7QVEBPBBPFH4CADT), which is itself a component of the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. It serves as the opening segment of the chapter, immediately preceding the first [subsection titled "I."](arke:01KG8AKTMJF02D9WP2E5W9CEW1).
## Contents
The introduction discusses the author's approach to writing history, distinguishing between setting down contemporaneous events contemporaneously and setting them down as the narrative dictates. The author explicitly states a disregard for either method, asserting, "I write precisely as I please." This statement sets a tone of authorial independence and perhaps a non-linear or unconventional narrative style for the subsequent text.
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- 2026-01-30T20:50:17.842Z
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- Introduction to Book XVII: Young America in Literature
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- 2026-01-30T20:48:07.471Z
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- BOOK XVII.
YOUNG AMERICA IN LITERATURE.
I.
Among the various conflicting modes of writing history, there would seem
to be two grand practical distinctions, under which all the rest must
subordinately range. By the one mode, all contemporaneous circumstances,
facts, and events must be set down contemporaneously; by the other, they
are only to be set down as the general stream of the narrative shall
dictate; for matters which are kindred in time, may be very irrelative
in themselves. I elect neither of these; I am careless of either; both
are well enough in their way; I write precisely as I please.
- title
- Introduction