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Redburn is a fictional narrative of a boy's first voyage, based loosely on Melville's own first voyage to and from Liverpool in 1839. Hastily composed and little esteemed by its author,
Redburn was more highly thought of by his critics, who saw it regaining the ground of popular sea stories like
Typee and
Omoo. Melville so disliked the novel that he submitted it to his publisher without polishing it. This scholarly edition corrects a number of errors that have persisted in subsequent editions. Based on collations of the editions published during his lifetime, it incorporates corrections made in the English edition and emendations made by the present editors.
As with all the books in the Northwestern-Newberry series, this edition of
Redburn is an Approved Text of the Center for Editions of American Authors (Modern Language Association of America).
Über den Autor / die Autorin
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.
Zusammenfassung
From his own experiences as a 'boy' on a packet ship sailing between New York and Liverpool, Melville wove the story of Wellingborough Redburn: a tale of pastoral innocence transformed into disenchantment and disillusionment.
