1. Introduction: Genre, Ideology, and Melville's Narratives 2. Typee: Perception and Preconception in Polynesia 3. Omoo: Comparative Mythology of the Religious Elite 4. Redburn: The Romance of Laissez-Faire 5. White-jacket: The Cloak of the Millennium in the Ark of State 6. Israel Potter: Revolutionary American Narrative Metanarrative Conclusion: Nature, Narrative, and Billy Budd, Sailor Works Cited Index
John Samson is Associate Professor of English at Texas Tech University.
"This is an illuminating examination of a group of novels that Melville tried to market as nonfiction narratives. John Samson shows these texts to be more of a piece with the thematically rich and complex, ideologically conflicted romances-Mardi, Moby-Dick, Pierre, The Confidence-Man-than even some of Melville's best informed readers have thought them to be. Samson has read widely and intelligently in Melville's sources, he is an alert and informed intertextual critic, and he makes extensive and intelligent use of his knowledge of European and American history, often with eye-opening effect."-American Literature "Samson's Melville is an attractive figure who stands no nonsense, despises and ridicules all forms of arrogance, and subverts the authority of enlightened scientist and Christian missionary alike. He is a deconstructive figure from a deconstructive pen, clearly drawn, elegantly presented. This is a useful and enjoyable book, which ones almost with relief that a book on Melville is not wholly overshadowed by the magniloquent presence of Moby-Dick."-Yearbook of English Studies
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