The Second Edition features significantly expanded explanatory annotations, particularly of biblical allusions. "Contemporary Reviews" includes nineteen commentaries on The Confidence-Man, eight of them new to the Second Edition. Better understood today are the concerted attacks on Melville by, espe[...]
In this study of Melville's "Billy Budd, Sailor, " renowned Melville scholar Hershel Parker provides the fullest introduction to and analysis of this work to date. It is the first complete reading of "Billy Budd" to draw on the definitive but neglected Hayford-Sealts Genetic Text. For the first time[...]
Melville Biography: An Inside Narrative is Hershel Parker's history of the writing of Melville biographies, enriched by his intimate working relationships with great Melvilleans, dead and living. The first part is a mesmerizing autobiographical account of what went into creating his award-winning tw[...]