Discover new books on Goodreads

See if your friends have read any of Herman Melville's books

Herman Melville’s Followers (4,923)

Herman Melville

Born

in New York City, The United States

August 01, 1819

Died

September 28, 1891

Genre

Fiction, Poetry, Short Stories

Influences

Thomas Browne, Nathaniel Hawthorne, John Milton, Edgar Allan Poe, Will ...more

edit data

There is more than one author with this name

Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Moby-Dick (1851); Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and Billy Budd, Sailor, a posthumously published novella. At the time of his death, Melville was no longer well known to the public, but the 1919 centennial of his birth was the starting point of a Melville revival. Moby-Dick eventually would be considered one of the great American novels.
Melville was born in New York City, the third child of a prosperous merchant whose death in 1832 left the family in dire financial straits. He took to sea in 1839 as a common sailor on a mer There is more than one author with this name

Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Moby-Dick (1851); Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and Billy Budd, Sailor, a posthumously published novella. At the time of his death, Melville was no longer well known to the public, but the 1919 centennial of his birth was the starting point of a Melville revival. Moby-Dick eventually would be considered one of the great American novels.
Melville was born in New York City, the third child of a prosperous merchant whose death in 1832 left the family in dire financial straits. He took to sea in 1839 as a common sailor on a merchant ship and then on the whaler Acushnet, but he jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands. Typee, his first book, and its sequel, Omoo (1847), were travel-adventures based on his encounters with the peoples of the islands. Their success gave him the financial security to marry Elizabeth Shaw, the daughter of the Boston jurist Lemuel Shaw. Mardi (1849), a romance-adventure and his first book not based on his own experience, was not well received. Redburn (1849) and White-Jacket (1850), both tales based on his experience as a well-born young man at sea, were given respectable reviews, but did not sell well enough to support his expanding family.
Melville's growing literary ambition showed in Moby-Dick (1851), which took nearly a year and a half to write, but it did not find an audience, and critics scorned his psychological novel Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852). From 1853 to 1856, Melville published short fiction in magazines, including "Benito Cereno" and "Bartleby, the Scrivener". In 1857, he traveled to England, toured the Near East, and published his last work of prose, The Confidence-Man (1857). He moved to New York in 1863, eventually taking a position as a United States customs inspector.
From that point, Melville focused his creative powers on poetry. Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866) was his poetic reflection on the moral questions of the American Civil War. In 1867, his eldest child Malcolm died at home from a self-inflicted gunshot. Melville's metaphysical epic Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land was published in 1876. In 1886, his other son Stanwix died of apparent tuberculosis, and Melville retired. During his last years, he privately published two volumes of poetry, and left one volume unpublished. The novella Billy Budd was left unfinished at his death, but was published posthumously in 1924. Melville died from cardiovascular disease in 1891. ...more

Combine Editions
Herman Melville’s books

Average rating: 3.61 · 819,906 ratings · 47,772 reviews · 3,238 distinct works • Similar authors

	Moby-Dick or, The Whale 3.58 avg rating — 638,287 ratings — published 1851 — 6837 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bartleby the Scrivener 3.93 avg rating — 80,615 ratings — published 1853 — 64 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Billy Budd, Sailor 3.20 avg rating — 20,343 ratings — published 1924 — 32 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Benito Cereno 3.53 avg rating — 10,412 ratings — published 1855 — 35 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life 3.57 avg rating — 6,270 ratings — published 1846 — 1920 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Billy Budd and Other Stories by Herman Melville, Frederick Busch (Introduction) 3.56 avg rating — 4,935 ratings — published 1782 — 71 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Confidence-Man by Herman Melville, John Dugdale (Editor), Tony Tanner (Introduction) 3.62 avg rating — 3,687 ratings — published 1857 — 598 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bartleby and Benito Cereno by Herman Melville, Stanley Appelbaum (Editor) 3.77 avg rating — 2,917 ratings — 37 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Pierre; or, The Ambiguities by Herman Melville, Maurice Sendak (Illustrator), Hershel Parker (Editor) 3.66 avg rating — 1,525 ratings — published 1852 — 303 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Herman Melville: Redburn, White-Jacket, Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, G. Thomas Tanselle (Editor) 4.20 avg rating — 1,104 ratings — published 1851 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Herman Melville…

At the beginning of each calendar month, Goodreads’ editorial team assembles a list of the hottest and most popular new books hitting shelves,...

Polls

Voting for 2019 Quarterly Reads

Cryptonomicon Neal Stephenson

5 votes, 17.9%

Memory of Fire Eduardo Galeano

5 votes, 17.9%

A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry

4 votes, 14.3%

1Q84 - Haruki Murakami

4 votes, 14.3%

Testament of Youth -Vera Brittain

2 votes, 7.1%

The Portrait of a Lady Henry James

2 votes, 7.1%

Parade's End - Ford Madox Ford

1 vote, 3.6%

Of Human Bondage W. Somerset Maugham

1 vote, 3.6%

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami

1 vote, 3.6%

The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll - Álvaro Mutis

1 vote, 3.6%

Fortunata y Jacinta - Benito Pérez Galdós

1 vote, 3.6%

The Goldfinch Donna Tartt

1 vote, 3.6%

Our Mutual Friend - Charles Dickens

0 votes, 0.0%

Daniel Deronda -George Eliot

0 votes, 0.0%

Celestial Harmonies - Péter Esterházy

0 votes, 0.0%

The Betrothed - Alessandro Manzoni

0 votes, 0.0%

Moby-Dick or, The Whale Herman Melville

0 votes, 0.0%

The Discovery of Heaven Harry Mulisch 1Q84

0 votes, 0.0%

Gravity's Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon

0 votes, 0.0%

The Red and the Black Stendhal

0 votes, 0.0%

The Magic Mountain Thomas Mann

0 votes, 0.0%

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman Laurence Sterne

0 votes, 0.0%

Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

0 votes, 0.0%

Berlin Alexanderplatz Alfred Döblin

0 votes, 0.0%

The Golden Notebook Doris Lessing

0 votes, 0.0%

Lost Illusions Honoré de Balzac

0 votes, 0.0%

The Sorrow of Belgium Hugo Claus

0 votes, 0.0%

28 total votes

20 comments

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Book Challenge: Meghan's Other 2009 Challenges	11	267	Nov 01, 2009 01:58AM
College Students! : Fall/Winter Challenge: Official Record of Points	44	759	Dec 15, 2009 02:25AM
Romance Readers R...: Jane in France's Reading List	128	366	May 11, 2010 03:38AM
Readers and Reading: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY......	43	64	Aug 04, 2010 01:00AM
Peace, Love, and....: Author Game	180	116	Oct 26, 2010 08:36AM
The Book Challenge: Rachel Renee's 2011 Book Challenge	3	32	Nov 20, 2010 06:25AM
The Seasonal Read...: 50.1 Emily ID's task: Semper Fi	94	147	Nov 29, 2010 12:54PM
The Seasonal Read...: Fall Challenge 2010 Completed Tasks (do NOT delete any posts in this thread)	2785	1217	Dec 01, 2010 02:03PM

More…

Herman Melville’s Followers (4,923)

Herman Melville

Combine EditionsHerman Melville’s books

Related News

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Combine Editions
Herman Melville’s books