Showing results by author "Herman Melville" in All Categories

Do men need poems? Is the gender of brawn and ‘can-do’ really a candidate for honeyed verse? Obviously yes. Through the centuries men seem to dominate the writing of poetry. From books of epics to quatrains of love poetry it seemed to be a man’s world. His domain. A volume purely for men, to show other facets of their personalities and characters seems to be an obvious choice. One verse fits all is, in fact, far removed from the truth. Men needs words. They need support, understanding as well as goals, ambition and structure. They need purpose, desire; the need to love and be loved.

Herman Melville: "Bartleby", Edgar Allan Poe: "Das Manuskript in der Flasche", Nathaniel Hawthorne: "Rappaccinis Tochter", Mark Twain: "Die Eine-Million-Pfund-Note", Edgar Allan Poe: "Hopp-Frosch" und F. Scott Fitzgerald: "Der Gast in Zimmer Neunzehn". In der Weltliteratur haben amerikanische Autoren und ihre Werke schon immer einen besonderen Rang eingenommen. Berühmte Namen wie Melville, Fitzgerald, Twain, Poe - sie alle beeinflussten die Literaturgeschichte und wurden so zu den großen Legenden in der fantastischen Welt der Bücher.

"Moby-Dick oder Der Wal" (englisch "Moby-Dick or The Whale") ist ein 1851 in London und New York erschienener Roman des amerikanischen Schriftstellers Herman Melville (1819–1891). Das erzählerische Rückgrat des Romans ist die schicksalhafte Fahrt des Walfangschiffes Pequod. Unter dem finsteren Kapitän Ahab kreuzt eine gemischte Mannschaft rauer Walfänger auf ihrem unheimlichen Schiff über die vier Weltmeere. Sie jagen den weißen Wal, den die Seeleute Moby Dick nennen. Moby Dick hat dem Kapitän ein Bein vom Körper gerissen, und nun verfolgt dieser den weißen Wal mit tödlichem Hass.

"It is the horrible texture of a fabric that should be woven of ships' cables and hawsers. A Polar wind blows through it, and birds of prey hover over it." So Melville wrote of his masterpiece, one of the greatest works of imagination in literary history. In part, Moby-Dick is the story of an eerily compelling madman pursuing an unholy war against a creature as vast and dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself. But more than just a novel of adventure, more than an encyclopaedia of whaling lore and legend, the book can be seen as part of its author's lifelong meditation on America.

Ahab is the captain of a whaling ship named the Pequod. His great obsession with the giant whale, Moby Dick, makes him embark on a dangerous voyage. Some years before, the captain lost his leg because of the whale and now Ahab’s main desire is to take his revenge on the whale by killing it. He is so obsessed, that Ahab is ready to sacrifice everything he has, including the Pequod and all the members of his crew, and even his own life.

La lettura di Daniele Fior è un flusso di coscienza dirompente, ironico, intimo e burrascoso; un fiume inafferrabile e inarrestabile, a cui il delicato e matematico pianoforte di Alessandro Scolz fa da contrappunto. Questo romanzo non è un'allegoria (come Melville sottolineava ardentemente), quanto invece lo specchio di quello che riconosciamo come allegoria in esso; Moby Dick è così carico di vita e frutto di una così pregna esperienza reale profonda, che sono la nostra vita e i significati che le attribuiamo a trovare una corrispondenza in esso.

Herman Melville August 1, 1819 - September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are "Moby-Dick" (1851); "Typee" (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and "Billy Budd", Sailor, a posthumously published novella. Although his reputation was not high at the time of his death, the 1919 centennial of his birth was the starting point of a Melville revival, and Moby-Dick grew to be considered one of the great American novels.

The wilderness--forest, desert, glacier, jungle--has been the scene of the past century's most exciting stories, inspiring many of its greatest writers, including Jack London, Norman Maclean, Evelyn Waugh, Redmond O'Hanlon, Sir Wilfred Thesiger, H.M. Tomlinson and Algernon Blackwood. Selections from these authors' most gripping works are delivered by equally compelling narration producing an audiobook experience ideal for people who are fascinated by the beauty, insight and danger that awaits us all in the wild!

A sailor called Ishmael narrates the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaler Pequod, for revenge on Moby Dick, a white whale which on a previous voyage destroyed Ahab’s ship and severed his leg at the knee. Although the novel was a commercial failure and out of print at the time of the author’s death in 1891, its reputation as a Great American Novel grew during the 20th century.

"Omoo" è il secondo romanzo di Melville; è un libro pieno di umorismo, ma anche una favola allegorica sull'incontro e lo scontro fra la civiltà e il mondo incantato delle isole polinesiane. Racconta di una baleniera sgangherata comandata da un capitano incapace, di una ciurma di personaggi squinternati, di ammutinamenti, incarcerazioni, incontri, amicizie e battibecchi con isolani e missionari di ogni genere. Sullo sfondo, la vita di bianchi e indigeni nei Mari del Sud.

Es ist die Geschichte einer absoluten Verweigerung. In der Wall Street-Anwaltskanzlei von Mr. Tucker arbeiten zwei Schreiber und ein Lehrling. Jeder von ihnen hat seine schrulligen Eigenheiten, aber man hat sich aneinander gewöhnt. Da erscheint ein blasser junger Mann: Bartleby. Er wird als Kopist eingestellt und beginnt seine Tätigkeit mit stillem Fleiß und einsiedlerischer Ausdauer. Seine Handschrift ist sauber, er selbst sehr arbeitsam. Aber die Stille, die ihn umgibt, seine Eigenschaftslosigkeit, wird zunehmend immer seltsamer.

Zwei meisterhafte Erzählungen aus dem Amerika des 19. Jahrhunderts, die sich mit dem merkwürdigsten Lebewesen von allen beschäftigen: dem Menschen. "Bartleby": Der Kopist der Anwaltskanzlei Bartleby gibt seinem Chef Rätsel auf. Zuerst glänzt er durch hervorragende Arbeit, dann jedoch beginnt er sich zurückzuziehen und reagiert auf jede Arbeitsanweisung mit dem rätselhaften Satz: "Ich möchte lieber nicht." Herman Melvilles Werk aus dem Jahre 1853 wird als frühe Kapitalismuskritik verstanden und fasziniert noch heute.