The terms “Romanticism” and “Romantic” should not be confused with the popular meaning, as pertaining to love. “Romanticism” derives from the genre of the medieval romance, a heroic narrative emphasizing the importance of chivalry and valor in battle. Many Romantic… Read More ›
Herman Melville’s two-part ironic sketch “The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids” provides in a highly condensed form the same sly insinuation and subversive conceptual punning that characterize his better-known longer works, Moby-Dick, Pierre, and The Confidence Man…. Read More ›
After the critical and commercial failure of Moby Dick and Pierre, Herman Melville, who was then supporting his wife and children, his mother, and his four sisters, was desperate for money. So when he received an invitation from Putnam’s Monthly… Read More ›
Herman Melville’s (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) career as a novelist breaks down, somewhat too neatly, into a three-part voyage of frustration and disappointment. The first part of his career is characterized by the heady successes of Typee… Read More ›
The French Revolution of 1789 marked a watershed for the future of Europe, a fact keenly discerned by writers on both sides of the Atlantic, such as Irving Babbitt and Matthew Arnold. Not only did that Revolution initiate the political… Read More ›
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