| Call Me Ishmael Contributor(s): Olson, Charles (Author), Sealts, Merton M., Jr. (Foreword by) |
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ISBN: 0801857317 ISBN-13: 9780801857317 Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press OUR PRICE: $31.35 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: November 1997 Annotation: First published in 1947, this acknowledged classic of American literary criticism explores the influences--especially Shakespearean ones--on Herman Melville's writing of "Moby-Dick". Olson examines the influence of "King Lear" on Melville's work. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Semiotics & Theory - Literary Criticism | English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh |
| Dewey: 813.3 |
| LCCN: 97015748 |
| Physical Information: 0.41" H x 6.02" W x 8.38" (0.52 lbs) 164 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 19th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: First published in 1947, this acknowledged classic of American literary criticism explores the influences--especially Shakespearean ones--on Melville's writing of Moby-Dick. One of the first Melvilleans to advance what has since become known as the "theory of the two Moby-Dicks," Olson argues that there were two versions of Moby-Dick, and that Melville's reading King Lear for the first time in between the first and second versions of the book had a profound impact on his conception of the saga: "the first book did not contain Ahab," writes Olson, and "it may not, except incidentally, have contained Moby-Dick." If literary critics and reviewers at the time responded with varying degrees of skepticism to the "theory of the two Moby-Dicks," it was the experimental style and organization of the book that generated the most controversy. |