brucefarrar's review
3.0
A short, impressionistic survey of the author’s biography, works, and criticism about them. Hardwick confesses in her afterword to more emphasis on Melville’s most popular prose, Moby-Dick, Billy Budd and “Bartleby the Scrivener," admitting that “critics have found much of interest in,” what she terms, “the forbidding texts:” Mardi, Pierre, and Clarel.
“In the matter of biography, I have given space to the obsessive relation with Hawthorne and to the ‘homoerotic’ refrain throughout the books. This recurrent musical theme has not done Melville’s reputation any harm in the present landscape.”
This makes the book is a pleasantly idiosyncratic read.
“In the matter of biography, I have given space to the obsessive relation with Hawthorne and to the ‘homoerotic’ refrain throughout the books. This recurrent musical theme has not done Melville’s reputation any harm in the present landscape.”
This makes the book is a pleasantly idiosyncratic read.
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