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Herman Melville in Context will help readers of Melville better understand and appreciate his life, works, and legacy.
List of contents
Part I. Geographical Contexts: 1. New York Kevin J. Hayes; 2. The Berkshires Peter Bergman; 3. The American West Nathaniel Lewis; 4. The Pacific Alex Calder; 5. London Jonathan A. Cook; 6. Europe David Watson; 7. The Holy Land Brian Yothers; Part II. Social Contexts: 8. Men and women and men David Greven; 9. Islanders and missionaries Sean Brawley and Chris Dixon; 10. Literary circles David O. Dowling; 11. Slaves, masters, and abolitionists Susan M. Ryan; 12. Dons and Cholos Rodrigo Lazo; 13. Bachelors and gentlemen Maura M. D'Amore; 14. Officers and men Martin Griffin; Part III. Cultural Contexts: 15. Opera Kevin J. Hayes; 16. Panoramas Susan Tenneriello; 17. Natural history Jennifer Schell; 18. Technology Klaus Benesch; 19. The lyceum movement Tom F. Wright; 20. Painting and prints Colin Dewey; Part IV. Literary Contexts: 21. The Bible Dawn Coleman; 22. Seventeenth-century English prose Robin Grey; 23. The picaresque novel Kelly Richardson; 24. Travel writing Tim Youngs; 25. German metaphysics Kim C. Sturgess; 26. Gothicism Jonathan Crimmins; 27. British romanticism Shawn Thomson; Part V. The Contexts of Literary Reception: 28. Make-or-break reviews Hershel Parker; 29. The Melville revival Eric Aronoff; 30. Modernism David M. Ball; 31. Postmodernism Timothy Parrish; 32. Translations Rute Beirante; 33. Biographies Ian Maloney; 34. The cinema John Parris Springer.
About the author
Kevin J. Hayes, Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Central Oklahoma, now lives and writes in Toledo, Ohio. He is the author of several books, including The Library of William Byrd of Westover (1997), for which he received the Virginia Library History Award presented by the Library of Virginia and the Virginia Center for the Book; Melville's Folk Roots (1999); An American Cycling Odyssey, 1887 (2002); The Cambridge Introduction to Herman Melville (Cambridge, 2007); The Mind of a Patriot: Patrick Henry and the World of Ideas (2008); The Road to Monticello: The Life and Mind of Thomas Jefferson (2008); and two volumes in Reaktion's Critical Lives, Edgar Allan Poe (2009) and Herman Melville (2017). His works have been translated into Greek, Italian, Persian, Spanish, and Turkish.
Summary
Herman Melville in Context provides the fullest introduction in one volume to the multifaceted life and times of Herman Melville, a towering figure in American and world literature, grounding the study of Melville's writings to the world that influenced their composition, publication and recognition.
