Herman Melville (1819 – 1891). Moby-Dick

Learning the biography of Herman Melville, who after the publication of Moby Dick, was seeing positive reviews of his works in England and America, because readers captivated by his authentic story telling of exotic adventures and he wrote other works.

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Herman Melville (1819 - 1891). Moby-Dick

Herman Melville was born into an eminent (именитый, знатный) family claiming war heroes and wealthy merchants on 1 August 1819 in New York City, New York State, son of Maria Gansevoort (1791-1872) and Allan Melville (1782-1832).

As a successful import merchant, Allan afforded all the necessary comforts and more to his large family of eight sons and daughters. He loved to tell his children sea-faring tales of terror and adventure, and of places far away. After his death at the age of forty, his wife and children moved to the village of Lansingburg, on the banks of the Hudson River.

In 1835 Melville attended the Albany Classical School for a year, then moved to Pittsfield, Massachusetts to work at the farm of his uncle, gentleman farmer Thomas Melville. It was not long however that Melville travelled back to New York and secured his place as cabin boy (юнга) on a ship bound for Liverpool, England. moby dick melville

Upon return to New York he held various unsatisfying jobs until he next set sail on the whaling ship Acushnet in 1841. His stay in the Marquesas Islands (now French Polynesia) with his friend Richard Tobias Greene would provide much fodder (пища, исходный материал) for his future novels.

First published in England, Typee and Omoo (1847) are based on Melville's sea-faring adventures and stays in Polynesia and Tahiti. His next novel Mardi: and A Voyage Thither (туда) (two volumes, 1849) is 'a romance of Polynesian adventure', again reflecting much of Melville's own life on ships and the South Seas. Another semi-autobiographical novel Redburn: His First Voyage was published in 1849.

On 4 August 1847 Melville married Elizabeth Shaw, with whom he would have four children: Malcolm (b.1849), Stanwix (b.1851), Elizabeth (b.1853), and Frances (b.1855). In 1850 the Melvilles moved to what would be their home for the next thirteen years, 'Arrowhead' (now designated a National Historic Landmark (архитектурный памятник, достопримечательность)) in Pittsfield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts.

It was here that Melville made the acquaintance of fellow New Englander Nathaniel Hawthorne who became a great friend to Melville, and to whom he dedicated Moby Dick. It was the beginning of a prolific period of writing for Melville. He wrote sketches for such journals as Putnam's Monthly including "The Piazza" and "I and My Chimney", and started on his masterpiece Moby Dick. The surrounding Berkshire Hills provided the necessary peace and quiet.

After the publication of Moby Dick in October of 1851, Melville was seeing positive reviews of his works in England and America, readers captivated (очаровывать, увлечь) by his authentic (подлинный, достоверный) story telling of exotic adventures.

While he wrote many other works including White Jacket (1850), The Encantadas; or, Enchanted Isles (novella, 1854), Israel Potter (1855), Piazza Tales (1856), and The Confidence Man (1857), it was with Moby Dick that Melville had reached his peak as writer and observer of human nature in all its strengths and weaknesses. Many of his works are steeped (пропитывать, окутывать) in metaphor and allegory, at times cynical, others satirical. In previous years he had travelled throughout Europe and the Holy Land; in 1857 he launched into a three year lecture tour of major North American cities where he spoke of his writings and travels.

In 1863 the Melvilles gave up country life and moved to New York City and the home of Herman's brother Allan. Melville soon obtained a position with the New York Custom House where he remained for the next twenty years. Almost ten years since his last published novel, Melville was now writing poetry; Battle Pieces (1866) was well-received. Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land (1876) was followed by his collection John Marr and Other Poems (1888), and Timoleon (1891).

While they are appreciated now, by the time of Herman Melville's death he had slipped into obscurity (кануть в безвестность) as a writer. He died at his home on East 26th Street on 28 September 1891 and now rests beside his wife Elizabeth in Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, New York.

Moby-Dick By Herman Melville (Book Summary)

"Call me Ishmael," Moby-Dick begins, in one of the most recognizable opening lines in Western literature. The narrator, an observant young man setting out from Manhattan, has experience in the merchant marine but has recently decided his next voyage will be on a whaling ship.

On a cold, gloomy night in December, he arrives at the Spouter-Inn in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and agrees to share a bed with a stranger. When his bunk (кровать) mate, a heavily tattooed Polynesian harpooner named Queequeg, returns very late and discovers Ishmael beneath his covers, both men are alarmed, but the two quickly become close friends and decide to sail together from Nantucket, Massachusetts on a whaling voyage.

In Nantucket, the pair signs on with the Pequod, a whaling ship that is soon to leave port. The ship's captain, Ahab, is nowhere to be seen; nevertheless, they are told of him -- a "grand, ungodly, godlike man," who has "been in colleges as well as 'mong the cannibals," according to one of the owners.

The two friends encounter a mysterious man named Elijah on the dock after they sign their papers and he hints at troubles to come with Ahab. The mystery grows on Christmas morning when Ishmael spots dark figures in the mist, apparently boarding the Pequod shortly before it sets sail that day.

The ship's officers direct the early voyage while Ahab stays in his cabin. The chief mate is Starbuck, a serious, sincere Quaker and fine leader; second mate is Stubb, happy-go-lucky and cheerful and always smoking his pipe; the third mate is Flask, short and stout (крепкий, плотный) but thoroughly reliable.

Each mate is responsible for a whaling boat, and each whaling boat of the Pequod has its own harpooner (гарпунщик) assigned to it. Some time after sailing, Ahab finally appears on the quarter-deck one morning, an imposing, frightening figure whose haunted visage sends shivers over the narrator. One of his legs is missing from the knee down and has been replaced by a prosthesis fashioned from a jawbone of a sperm whale (кашалот).

Soon gathering the crewmen together, with a rousing speech Ahab secures their support for his single, secret purpose for this voyage: hunting down and killing Moby Dick, an old, very large whale, with a snow-white hump (горб) and mottled (пятнистый) skin, that crippled (покалечить) Ahab on his last whaling voyage.

Only Starbuck shows any sign of resistance to the charismatic but monomaniacal (маниакальный) captain. The first mate argues repeatedly that the ship's purpose should be to hunt whales for their oil, with luck returning home profitably, safely, and quickly, but not to seek out and kill Moby Dick in particular -- and especially not for revenge. Eventually even Starbuck acquiesces (уступать, поддаться) to Ahab's will, though harboring misgivings.

The mystery of the dark figures seen before the Pequod set sail is explained during the voyage's first lowering for whales. Ahab has secretly brought along his own boat crew, including a mysterious harpooneer named Fedallah (also referred to as 'the Parsee'), an inscrutable (загадочный) figure with a sinister (дурной, пагубный) influence over Ahab. Later, while watching one night over a captured whale carcass, Fedallah gives dark prophecies to Ahab regarding their twin deaths.

The novel describes numerous "gams," social meetings of two ships on the open sea. Crews normally visit each other during a gam, captains on one vessel and chief mates on the other. Mail may be exchanged and the men talk of whale sightings or other news.

For Ahab, however, there is but one relevant question to ask of another ship: “Hast seen the White Whale?” After meeting several other whaling ships, which have their own peculiar stories, the Pequod enters the Pacific Ocean. Queequeg becomes deathly ill and requests that a coffin be built for him by the ship's carpenter. Just as everyone has given up hope, Queequeg changes his mind, deciding to live after all, and recovers quickly. His coffin becomes his sea chest, and is later caulked (канапатить, смолить) and pitched to replace the Pequod's life buoy (спасательный круг).

Soon word is heard from other whalers of Moby Dick. The jolly Captain Boomer of the Samuel Enderby has lost an arm to the whale, and is stunned (ошеломить, потрясти) at Ahab's burning need for revenge. Next they meet the Rachel, which has seen Moby Dick very recently. As a result of the encounter, one of its boats is missing; the captain's youngest son had been aboard.

The Rachel's captain begs Ahab to aid in the search for the missing boat, but Ahab is resolute (решительный, непоколебимый); the Pequod is very near the White Whale now and will not stop to help. Finally the Delight is met, even as its captain buries a sailor who had been killed by Moby Dick. Starbuck begs Ahab one final time to reconsider his thirst for vengeance (жажда мести), but to no avail (бесполезно).

The next day, the Pequod meets Moby Dick. For two days, the Pequod's crew pursues the whale, which wreaks widespread destruction, including the disappearance of Fedallah. On the third day, Moby Dick rises up to reveal Fedallah tied to him by harpoon ropes, clearly dead. Even after the initial battle on the third day, it is clear that while Ahab is a vengeful whale-hunter, Moby Dick, while dangerous and fearless, is not motivated to hunt humans.

As he swims away from the Pequod, Starbuck exhorts (призывать, убеждать) Ahab one last time to desist (прекратить, отказаться), observing that: "Moby Dick seeks thee not. It is thou, thou, that madly seekest him!". (--Moby-Dick,Ch. 135.) Ahab ignores this voice of reason and continues with his ill-fated chase (злополучная погоня).

As the three boats sail out to hunt him, Moby Dick damages two of them, forcing them to go back to the ship and leaving only Ahab's ship intact (неповрежденный, работоспособный). Ahab harpoons the whale, but the harpoon-line breaks. Moby Dick then rams (таранить, ударять) the Pequod itself, which begins to sink.

As Ahab harpoons the whale again, the unfolding harpoon-line catches him around his neck and he is dragged into the depths of the sea by the diving Moby Dick. The boat is caught up in the whirlpool of the sinking ship, which takes almost all the crew to their deaths. Only Ishmael survives, clinging to Queequeg's coffin-turned-life buoy for an entire day and night before the Rachel rescues him.

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