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- story loses itself in a mystical allegory.
‘Redburn,’ already mentioned, succeeded ‘Mardi’ in the same year, and
was a partial return to the author’s earlier style. In ‘White-Jacket;
or, the World in a Man-of-War’ (1850), Melville almost regained it. This
book has no equal as a picture of life aboard a sailing man-of-war, the
lights and shadows of naval existence being well contrasted.
With ‘Moby Dick; or, the Whale’ (1851), Melville reached the topmost
notch of his fame. The book represents, to a certain extent, the
conflict between the author’s earlier and later methods of composition,
but the gigantic conception of the ‘White Whale,’ as Hawthorne expressed
it, permeates the whole work, and lifts it bodily into the highest
domain of romance. ‘Moby Dick’ contains an immense amount of information
concerning the habits of the whale and the methods of its capture, but
this is characteristically introduced in a way not to interfere with
the narrative. The chapter entitled ‘Stubb Kills a Whale’ ranks with the
choicest examples of descriptive literature.
‘Moby Dick’ appeared, and Melville enjoyed to the full the enhanced
reputation it brought him. He did not, however, take warning from
‘Mardi,’ but allowed himself to plunge more deeply into the sea of
philosophy and fantasy.
‘Pierre; or, the Ambiguities’ (1852) was published, and there ensued
a long series of hostile criticisms, ending with a severe, though
impartial, article by Fitz-James O’Brien in Putnam’s Monthly. About the
same time the whole stock of the author’s books was destroyed by fire,
keeping them out of print at a critical moment; and public interest,
which until then had been on the increase, gradually began to diminish.
After this Mr. Melville contributed several short stories to Putnam’s
Monthly and Harper’s Magazine. Those in the former periodical were
collected in a volume as Piazza Tales (1856); and of these ‘Benito
Cereno’ and ‘The Bell Tower’ are equal to his best previous efforts.
‘Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile’ (1855), first printed as a
serial in Putnam’s, is an historical romance of the American Revolution,
based on the hero’s own account of his adventures, as given in a little
volume picked up by Mr. Melville at a book-stall. The story is well
told, but the book is hardly worthy of the author of ‘Typee.’ ‘The
Confidence Man’ (1857), his last serious effort in prose fiction, does
not seem to require criticism.
Mr. Melville’s pen had rested for nearly ten years, when it was again
taken up to celebrate the events of the Civil War. ‘Battle Pieces and
Aspects of the War’ appeared in 1866. Most of these poems originated,
according to the author, in an impulse imparted by the fall of Richmond;
but they have as subjects all the chief incidents of the struggle. The
best of them are ‘The Stone Fleet,’ ‘In the Prison Pen,’ ‘The College
Colonel,’ ‘The March to the Sea,’ ‘Running the Batteries,’ and ‘Sheridan
at Cedar Creek.’ Some of these had a wide circulation in the press, and
were preserved in various anthologies. ‘Clarel, a Poem and Pilgrimage
in the Holy Land’ (1876), is a long mystical poem requiring, as some one
has said, a dictionary, a cyclopaedia, and a copy of the Bible for its
elucidation. In the two privately printed volumes, the arrangement of
which occupied Mr. Melville during his last illness, there are several
fine lyrics. The titles of these books are, ‘John Marr and Other
Sailors’ (1888), and ‘Timoleon’ (1891).
There is no question that Mr. Melville’s absorption in philosophical
studies was quite as responsible as the failure of his later books for
his cessation from literary productiveness. That he sometimes realised
the situation will be seen by a passage in ‘Moby Dick’:--
‘Didn’t I tell you so?’ said Flask. ‘Yes, you’ll soon see this right
whale’s head hoisted up opposite that parmacetti’s.’
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