Description
Book SynopsisOriginally published in 1968. Professor Dryden sees Melville's novels both as metaphysical processes and as technical forms. The novelist is not a reporter but a creator, and what he creates from his experience is his vision of truth. Herman Melville saw the function of the novelist in terms of his ability to expose the reader to truth while simultaneously protecting him from it or, in other words, to enable the reader to experience reality indirectly and, therefore, safely. In Melville's own writing, however, this function became more difficult as his nihilism deepened. He became increasingly sensitive to his own involvement in the world of lies, and when he could no longer protect himself from the truth, he could no longer transform it into fiction. Melville's struggle to maintain the distinction between art and truth was reflected in the changing forms of his novels. Dryden traces Melville's evolving metaphysical views and studies their impact on the craftsmanship of this acutely
Table of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgements
A Note on Texts
Chapter 1. Metaphysics and the Art of the Novel
Chapter 2. Portraits of the Artist as a Young Man: Narrative Form in Melville's Early Novels
Chapter 3. Ishmael as Teller: Self-Conscious Form in Moby-Dick
Chapter 4. The Failure of the Author-Hero: Narrative Form in Pierre and Israel Potter
Chapter 5. The Novelist as Impostor: Subversive Form in The Confidence-Man
Epilogue
Index
