The Piazza Tales

(Paperback)

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Description

This volume, first published in 1856, collects three of Melvilles most important pieces of prose fiction. In Bartleby, the Scrivener, a Wall Street lawyer hires a melancholy young clerk called Bartleby, whose sudden and mysterious refusal to work plunges the firm into disarray. Benito Cereno is a historical account of a mutiny on a slave ship, which has been seen as a critique of slavery and contemporary attitudes towards race. The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles is a series of travel sketches about the Galpagos Islands which was a huge success with the reading public and contains some of Melvilles most celebrated prose. Also included in this volume are The Lightning-Rod Man, The Bell Tower and a story written especially for the collection, The Piazza. Taken together, these tales, in their masterful use of irony and concision, show the author of Moby Dick in a different light.

Reviews

It is Melville who establishes the benchmark for what the short story can attain and allows us to set the standards by which all the other great writers of the form can be measured. -- William Boyd

Author Bio

Now considered one of Americas greatest and most influential authors, Herman Melville (18191891) wrote novels, travel books and novellas inspired by his experiences in the merchant navy with Moby Dick and Billy Budd generally regarded as his masterpieces.