The Passages of H.M.: A Novel of Herman Melville

ISBN: 0307386198

Author: Parini, Jay

Condition: New

With the same masterly touch that made The Last Station so powerful, Jay Parini penetrates the mind and soul of another literary titan.Through the eyes of his long-suffering wife, Lizzie, we are introduced to an aging, angry, and drunken Herman Melville. He is decades past his flourishing career as a writer of bestselling tales of seagoing adventures. His epic but ungainly Moby-Dick was meant to make him immortal, but critics scoffed and readers fled. He spends his days trudging the docks of New York as a customs inspector and contemplating his malign literary fate. But within him is stirring, perhaps, one great work yet. . . . In a narrative that shifts seamlessly between Lizzies personal account and evocative snapshots of Melvilles crowded life, Parini manages to humanize a giant of letters, while illuminating the source of his matchless creativity.