Piazza Tales and Other Prose Pieces, 1839--1860: Volume Nine, Scholarly Edition (Melville) - Hardcover

Melville

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810105500 ISBN 13: 9780810105508

Publisher: Northwestern University Press, 1987

Synopsis

In this new edition of The Piazza Tales, the editors of the acclaimed Northwestern-Newberry Edition of the Writings of Herman Melville have used the original magazine versions for five of the six stories in order to present the most accurate tests of these works. Here, in such famous stories as "Bartleby, the Scrivener" and "The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles," we find Melville's imagination and style at its best. Of the less well known tales, the humor in "The Piazza" and "The Lightning-Rod Man," and the gothic horror of "The Bell Tower," command attention as well. Whether in the exotic Galapagos or the more familiar climes of Wall Street or a Massachusetts farmhouse, Melville's power and imagination transport the reader into his unique worlds. This scholarly edition presents texts as close to the author's intentions as surviving evidence permits. Based on surviving manuscripts, on original newspaper and magazine printings, and on collations of magazine printings with the book of editions of The Piazza Tales, the text incorporates over 800 emendations by the editors and over 200 from later printings during Melville's lifetime. This edition is an Approved Text of the Center for Editions of American Authors (Modern Language Association of America).

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Edith Maud Eaton was born in 1865 to a Chinese mother and an English father. In an era of violent anti-Chinese sentiment and legally sanctioned discriminatory policies, she chose to assert her Chinese identity and battle in print for the voiceless Chinese underclass. As Sui Sin Far, she wrote for both adults and children, urging the necessity for a fully humanity, for an active moral commitment to empathic understanding. She published widely in many of the day's popular magazines. Mrs. Spring Fragrance, her only book, brings together thirty-seven of her stories. The literary ancestor to such contemporary storytellers as Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan, Sui Sin Far was the first person of Chinese descent in the United States to write and publish work about Chinese-American life.

About the Author:

Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 - September 28, 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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Northwestern University Press
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0810105500
• ISBN 13: 9780810105508
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 847