Melville: His World and Work. By Andrew Delbanco. London: Picador, 2005, xxx + 415 pp. £25.00 (£9.99 pbk)/30.00 (16.00 pbk)
Ifgenerations of writers and critics have found substance for their own time in the work of Melville, his thought seems not only more relevant today, but portable: his reflections on obsessive quests, national destinies and religious ambition can be hoisted, aimed and thrown at political targets as...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Review |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2006
|
| In: |
Literature and theology
Year: 2006, Volume: 20, Issue: 3, Pages: 335-338 |
| Further subjects: | B
Book review
|
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Ifgenerations of writers and critics have found substance for their own time in the work of Melville, his thought seems not only more relevant today, but portable: his reflections on obsessive quests, national destinies and religious ambition can be hoisted, aimed and thrown at political targets as readily as any whaling harpoon. A sampling of such thrusts, ranging from early comments on Melville and Moby-Dick to recent observations on the Ahab-like crusades of the Bush administration, serves to open Andrew Delbanco's biography of Melville. It is a literary biography, so the manner in which Melville employed his words and ideas—and the ways his words have been employed since his death—are of paramount importance. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1477-4623 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Literature and theology
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/litthe/frl036 |