April Meeting: Herman Melville Short Stories
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Recommended Stories:
- Bartleby, the Scrivener [online]
- The Encantadas // Enchanted Isles [online]
- The Lightning-Rod Man [online]
These were originally published in "The Piazza Tales" but are now widely available online and in various collections -- should be easy to find in used bookstores. I'm looking forward to talking about Melville with everyone and seeing how these 170-year-old stories hold up under a modern lens! -Ben
For First-Timers: We recommend reading at least one story, but feel free to read as little or as much as you'd like! Discussion is open, informal, and we try to focus on the recommended stories listed above.
About Melville:
Herman Melville was a 19th-century American novelist and poet who transitioned from a best-selling author of South Sea adventures into a misunderstood philosophical giant. His magnum opus, Moby Dick, was a commercial failure that nearly sank his career, leading him to spend his later years as a New York City customs inspector while crafting dense, brilliant short fiction like The Piazza Tales. It wasn't until the "Melville Revival" of the 1920s that he was finally recognized as a master of psychological depth and existential nuance, securing his place as one of the most visionary voices in literature.