«"To the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee."» (from Moby-Dick, Chapter 135: The Chase - Third Day) ~ «Call me Ishmael.» (from Moby-Dick, Chapter 1: Loomings) ~ #HappyBirthday to #HermanMelville (1819-1891), American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. A representative of American Romanticism, Melville is best known for his novels of the sea, especially for his masterpiece, Moby-Dick, a story full of symbolism, about a whaleboat and a captain, obsessed with catching one particular white whale, reflecting mankind's search for meaning. The novel was given due recognition 30 years after the death of its author. However, during his lifetime, Melville became popular for his fictional travel narrative, Typee. Today, he is considered one of the most influental American writers of all time and modern criticism has secured his reputation with that of the great American writers. ~ Best-known works: • Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life (1846, novel) • Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (1851, novel) • Bartleby, the Scrivener (1853, novella) • Benito Cereno (1855, novella) • The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade (1857, novel) • Billy Budd, Sailor (posthumously in 1924, novel) ~ «Nothing so aggravates an earnest person as a passive resistance. If the individual so resisted be of a not inhumane temper, and the resisting one perfectly harmless in his passivity; then, in the better moods of the former, he will endeavor charitably to construe to his imagination what proves impossible to be solved by his judgment.» (from Bartleby, the Scrivener) ~ #MobyDick #MobyDickOrTheWhale #BartlebyTheScrivener #Typee #BenitoCereno #TheConfidenceMan #BillyBuddSailor #BillyBudd #book #books #bookstagram #bibliophile #reading #read #love #bookoftheday #instabook #literature #bookclub #booklion #bookworm #booklove #booktube #novel #story #classic #classics https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl7b1S_HAtk/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=otebno2y063i
