Last week was Moby-Dick week, a week of devotions to a pretty seriously weird book. And while it wasn’t as weird as Mardi, most people weren’t ready for it when it was published in 1851. What else was going on around the same time?
In 1850, Melville himself published White-Jacket, a greater commercial success than Moby-Dick. It’s definitely more accessible, but to a faithful reader of Melville, not that far off. That same year Dickens was publishing David Copperfield, Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter, and Turgenev A Month in the Country. Wordsworth, Balzac, and Bastiat died; Stevenson and de Maupassant were born.
In 1851, Hawthorne came out with The House of the Seven Gables, and Mrs. Gaskell published Cranford (serially). Kate Chopin was born, while Mary Shelley and James Fenimore Cooper died.
The next year, Hawthorne was hard at work yet again, with The Blithedale Romance and The Snow-Image, and other twice-told tales. Tolstoy gave us Childhood and Turgenev A Sportsman’s Sketches. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published, and Théophile Gautier’s Emaux et camées. Marx published The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon, and Gogol died. And more Melville again; this time, Pierre.
Rarely do I pause like this to see what’s happening in more than just the immediate vicinity of my chosen reading, and I wonder if it’s another exercise in seeking meaning where there may be none, or very little. Of course, one problem is my own ignorance: of all the titles listed here, I’ve only read one in addition to the novels by Melville (though I’ve read other works by most of the authors mentioned). I’ll have to wait for Amateur Weeder’s apology for literary history, I suppose, as I continue to stumble my way through.
In the meantime, I can put at least my work through Melville in context:
- 1846:
Typee - 1847:
Omoo - 1849:
Mardi;Redburn - 1850:
White-Jacket - 1851:
Moby-Dick - 1852: Pierre
- 1855: Israel Potter
- 1856: The Piazza Tales
- 1857: The Confidence-Man
- 1876: Clarel
- 1886 (begun): Billy Budd
That’s six down, six to go, and I’m already under way with Pierre, and The Piazza Tales will be a re-read. Summer seems to be going by faster than I’d expected, somehow, but I’d really like to finish up this project by the end of it—so I can move on to the next one, of course!
Great job on all the Melville posts, Nicole! I think the other big publications of the time are always interesting to look at, whatever “context” they provide (or don’t) for a particular work in question. Will try and get to The Piazza Tales myself before the end of the year, but I feel time slipping by already what with my other future reading plans and whatnot. Cheers!
I’ve trained myself to always do this, always. I don’t do the deaths and births thing, actually, but I’m typically aware of the approximate age of a writer at any given point. I know where a book fits in the writer’s career, and I know what’s going on around it. Pretty much always. It’s behind everything I write. I think it’s pretty dang valuable!
For example, I want to direct your attention to my The Raven and the Whale posts – here and here, which are directly relevant to Pierre. If nothing else, they will illuminate the “Young America” chapter. Prof. Myers has a good review, too, to which I link.
Going for Clarel this round? Excellent.
Hawthorne wasn’t working quite as hard as you suggest, since The Snow-image consists almost entirely of previously published stories. Melville, though – I mean, you just put his books in order like that and it jumps right out, how hard he was working, just a massive amount of writing and reading and original thinking.
Richard—Thank you! And I encourage you to make space for The Piazza Tales. I love Melville in long form, but everything in that collection is wonderful (if not equally so). I’m looking forward to reading it again myself.
AR—Yes, The Raven and the Whale—I was re-reading some of those posts the other day. But that’s sort of where I typically get stuck. I know my knowledge of “Young America” is slim enough; expanding the general sphere of consciousness further than the country in question is usually more than I manage. It shouldn’t be.
But yes, I’m sort of excited and sort of nervous about Clarel. The consumption partner asked me if I was going to attempt any of Melville’s poetry. He’s huge into Melville but couldn’t manage it himself. And one of my big questions about it is what happens in all that downtime…and I do mean down. So busy, like you say, and then…the floor finally drops out I guess. We shall see.
Echoing Richard’s comment, I have really enjoyed the Melville posts. I think that with Melville I would favor aligning the context of his work with his personal life and development as a writer. In the context of other authors or period, he was a bit of a lone wolf by the 1850s, his work at the time fitting neatly in neither romanticism behind him or realism in front of him. You know, the whole crazy man thing you brought out before. :) I have not read Pierre or The Piazza Tales from this list so of course now I am itching to read them of course. Hmm.
Mind if I share my Pierre story since you’re reading it now (and it has absolutely nothing to do with anything)?
Mid-1980s and I’m living in Dallas, working construction while looking for a job. One day I’m in a place called Suds, a combination laundromat/restaurant, sitting at the bar while waiting for my clothes to dry. The bartender had a Talking Heads’ song playing and David Byrne walks into the place. He sits down a few chairs down from me, cocks his head, and tells the bartender “needs more bass.” While the bartender is fiddling with the mix, Byrne sees I’m reading Pierre from the Library of America edition. He arches an eyebrow and says “Melville…in here?” All I could think to say was “It’s strangely fitting.”
Frances—I definitely have Melville’s biography in mind a lot when reading him. Too much for my own comfort, really. But I think you can also tell that a large part of that personal life and development has to do with what he was reading, which wasn’t necessarily contemporary stuff. You can tell when he gets all into the Shakespeare, for example. Anyway, I’m not 100% sure yet whether I’d recommend Pierre, but The Piazza Tales, definitely!
Dwight—Um, mind? That is a great story! I would be telling it all over the place if I were you.
You know: I should start putting the older books I read in context too! I read and loved Moby Dick last December, so it’s fun seeing what his contemporaries were up too.
I love how you put the authors and their titles in perspective; it’s a thing I should do more often to understand the context and the literary times. Love, love, love Turgenev and Dickens, Tolstoy and Hawthorne. Yet, like you, there are so many more to discover!