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the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

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Listings for Author:  

Herman Melville

 

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Herman Melville : Typee

"As a teenager ... [Holbrook Jackson] had been transported from Merseyside to the South Sea Islands. The vessel that bore him was imagination in the form of a 'musty copy' of Herman Melville's Typee (1846), bought for 3d. from a second-hand bookstall by the Liverpool docks."

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Holbrook Jackson      Print: Book

  

Herman Melville : Moby Dick

'"Reading for me then was haphazard, unguided, practically uncritical", recalled boilermaker's daughter Marjory Todd. "I slipped all too easily into those traps for the half-baked - books about books, the old 'John O' London's Weekly', chit-chat of one kind or another". Yet in a few years she had advanced to "Moby Dick", "Lord Jim", "Crime and Punishment", and "Wuthering Heights".'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Marjory Todd      Print: Book

  

Herman Melville : The Green Hand

'Herman Melville's "The Green Hand" he had read but it "was not much use to me" - a phrase which suggests that already he was reading as a writer reads, with a view to using the book for his own development. He read other works by Melville, and enjoyed parts of "Moby Dick"'.

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Herman Melville : Moby Dick

'Herman Melville's "The Green Hand" he had read but it "was not much use to me" - a phrase which suggests that already he was reading as a writer reads, with a view to using the book for his own development. He read other works by Melville, and enjoyed parts of "Moby Dick"'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield      Print: Book

  

Herman Melville : Omoo

'Wednesday, 10th February, Wrote to Mr Robinson and to Mr. D. Paterson re lecture dates. Read ?Omoo? (Melville)'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Gerald Moore      Print: Book

  

Herman Melville : Moby Dick

Tuesday 14 February 1922: 'I am reading [in convalescence, following week of illness] Moby Dick: Princesse de Cleves; Lord Salisbury; Old Mortality; Small Talk at Wreyland; with an occasional bite at the Life of Lord Tennyson, of Johnson; & anything else I find handy. But this is all dissipated & invalidish. I can only hope that like dead leaves they may fertilise my brain.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf      Print: Book

  

Herman Melville : Billy Budd

Among texts discussed and quoted from in 1926 Commonplace Book of E. M. Forster is Herman Melville, Billy Budd, with remarks including 'Billy Budd [...] has goodness, of the glowing aggressive sort which cannot exist unless it has evil to consume'.

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster      Print: Book

  

Herman Melville : Mardi

Passages transcribed in E. M. Forster's Commonplace Book (1935-6) include two quotations from Herman Melville, Mardi.

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster      Print: Book

  

Herman Melville : Letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne, ?1 June 1851

Passages transcribed in E. M. Forster's Commonplace Book (1935-6) include quotation from letter of Herman Melville to Nathaniel Hawthorne: ' "I stand for the heart. To the dogs with the head! The reason the mass of men fear God and at bottom dislike him, is because they rather distrust His heart, and fancy him all brain like a watch' ".

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster      Print: Book

  

Herman Melville : Moby Dick or The Whale

Years ago I looked into "Typee" and "Omoo" but as I didn't find there what I am looking for when I open a book I did go no further. Lately I had in my hand "Moby Dick". It struck me as a rather strained rhapsody with whaling for a subject and not a single sincere line in the 3 vols of it.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad      Print: Book

  

Herman Melville : Moby Dick

'Moby Dick'. The present vogue of Hermann Melville is mainly due to two English novelists, Frank Swinnerton and myself. We both of us have great opportunities for publicity and 8 or 10 years ago, in the Reform Club, we decided to convince the world that 'Moby Dick' was the greatest of all sea-novels. And we did! There is a lot more of Melville that you ought to read, if you have not already read it. Some of the ‘Piazza Tales’ are wonderful. And the novel 'Pierre', though while mad and very strange and overstrained, is really original and remarkable. Some of the still stranger books I have not yet read or tried to read. The trouble is that the esoteric books can only be obtained in the complete edition of the works. Happily I possess it. I believe that the original editions of 'Typee' and 'Omoo' are much better than the current editions, which have been expurgated. Please note that I think 'Evan Harrington' is better than 'Beauchamp’s Career' and 'The Woodlanders' better than the 'Mayor of Casterbridge'.

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett      Print: Book

  

Herman Melville : The Piazza Tales

'Moby Dick'. The present vogue of Hermann Melville is mainly due to two English novelists, Frank Swinnerton and myself. We both of us have great opportunities for publicity and 8 or 10 years ago, in the Reform Club, we decided to convince the world that 'Moby Dick' was the greatest of all sea-novels. And we did! There is a lot more of Melville that you ought to read, if you have not already read it. Some of the ‘Piazza Tales’ are wonderful. And the novel 'Pierre', though while mad and very strange and overstrained, is really original and remarkable. Some of the still stranger books I have not yet read or tried to read. The trouble is that the esoteric books can only be obtained in the complete edition of the works. Happily I possess it. I believe that the original editions of 'Typee' and 'Omoo' are much better than the current editions, which have been expurgated. Please note that I think 'Evan Harrington' is better than 'Beauchamp’s Career' and 'The Woodlanders' better than the 'Mayor of Casterbridge'.

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett      Print: Book

  

Herman Melville : Pierre: or the Ambiguities

'Moby Dick'. The present vogue of Hermann Melville is mainly due to two English novelists, Frank Swinnerton and myself. We both of us have great opportunities for publicity and 8 or 10 years ago, in the Reform Club, we decided to convince the world that 'Moby Dick' was the greatest of all sea-novels. And we did! There is a lot more of Melville that you ought to read, if you have not already read it. Some of the ‘Piazza Tales’ are wonderful. And the novel 'Pierre', though while mad and very strange and overstrained, is really original and remarkable. Some of the still stranger books I have not yet read or tried to read. The trouble is that the esoteric books can only be obtained in the complete edition of the works. Happily I possess it. I believe that the original editions of 'Typee' and 'Omoo' are much better than the current editions, which have been expurgated. Please note that I think 'Evan Harrington' is better than 'Beauchamp’s Career' and 'The Woodlanders' better than the 'Mayor of Casterbridge'.

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett      Print: Book

  

Herman Melville : Typee

'Moby Dick'. The present vogue of Hermann Melville is mainly due to two English novelists, Frank Swinnerton and myself. We both of us have great opportunities for publicity and 8 or 10 years ago, in the Reform Club, we decided to convince the world that 'Moby Dick' was the greatest of all sea-novels. And we did! There is a lot more of Melville that you ought to read, if you have not already read it. Some of the ‘Piazza Tales’ are wonderful. And the novel 'Pierre', though while mad and very strange and overstrained, is really original and remarkable. Some of the still stranger books I have not yet read or tried to read. The trouble is that the esoteric books can only be obtained in the complete edition of the works. Happily I possess it. I believe that the original editions of 'Typee' and 'Omoo' are much better than the current editions, which have been expurgated. Please note that I think 'Evan Harrington' is better than 'Beauchamp’s Career' and 'The Woodlanders' better than the 'Mayor of Casterbridge'.

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett      Print: Book

  

Herman Melville : Omoo

'Moby Dick'. The present vogue of Hermann Melville is mainly due to two English novelists, Frank Swinnerton and myself. We both of us have great opportunities for publicity and 8 or 10 years ago, in the Reform Club, we decided to convince the world that 'Moby Dick' was the greatest of all sea-novels. And we did! There is a lot more of Melville that you ought to read, if you have not already read it. Some of the ‘Piazza Tales’ are wonderful. And the novel 'Pierre', though while mad and very strange and overstrained, is really original and remarkable. Some of the still stranger books I have not yet read or tried to read. The trouble is that the esoteric books can only be obtained in the complete edition of the works. Happily I possess it. I believe that the original editions of 'Typee' and 'Omoo' are much better than the current editions, which have been expurgated. Please note that I think 'Evan Harrington' is better than 'Beauchamp’s Career' and 'The Woodlanders' better than the 'Mayor of Casterbridge'.

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett      Print: Book

  

Herman Melville : Typee

'The subject for the evening Herman Melville was then proceeded with & R.H. Robson gave a short account of his life following which Mrs Robson read two passages from Typee. After supper R.B. Graham C.I. Evans K.S. Evans Geo Burrow & H.R. Smith gave readings from Moby Dick giving us glimpses of the power & wonder of this work of genius.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Robson      Print: Book

  

Herman Melville : Moby Dick

'The subject for the evening Herman Melville was then proceeded with & R.H. Robson gave a short account of his life following which Mrs Robson read two passages from Typee. After supper R.B. Graham C.I. Evans K.S. Evans Geo Burrow & H.R. Smith gave readings from Moby Dick giving us glimpses of the power & wonder of this work of genius.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: R.B. Graham      Print: Book

  

Herman Melville : Moby Dick

'The subject for the evening Herman Melville was then proceeded with & R.H. Robson gave a short account of his life following which Mrs Robson read two passages from Typee. After supper R.B. Graham C.I. Evans K.S. Evans Geo Burrow & H.R. Smith gave readings from Moby Dick giving us glimpses of the power & wonder of this work of genius.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Evans      Print: Book

  

Herman Melville : Moby Dick

'The subject for the evening Herman Melville was then proceeded with & R.H. Robson gave a short account of his life following which Mrs Robson read two passages from Typee. After supper R.B. Graham C.I. Evans K.S. Evans Geo Burrow & H.R. Smith gave readings from Moby Dick giving us glimpses of the power & wonder of this work of genius.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Katherine Evans      Print: Book

  

Herman Melville : Moby Dick

'The subject for the evening Herman Melville was then proceeded with & R.H. Robson gave a short account of his life following which Mrs Robson read two passages from Typee. After supper R.B. Graham C.I. Evans K.S. Evans Geo Burrow & H.R. Smith gave readings from Moby Dick giving us glimpses of the power & wonder of this work of genius.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: George Burrow      Print: Book

  

Herman Melville : Moby Dick

'The subject for the evening Herman Melville was then proceeded with & R.H. Robson gave a short account of his life following which Mrs Robson read two passages from Typee. After supper R.B. Graham C.I. Evans K.S. Evans Geo Burrow & H.R. Smith gave readings from Moby Dick giving us glimpses of the power & wonder of this work of genius.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Howard R. Smith      Print: Book

 

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