Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile, Volume Eight, Scholarly Edition

Front Cover
Northwestern University Press, Jan 1, 1982 - Fiction - 413 pages
Unique among Melville's works, Israel Potter was the author's only historical novel, presuming to offer the life history of Revolutionary War figure Israel Potter--based on Potter's own obscure narrative Life and Remarkable Adventures of Israel R. Potter--and featuring characters such as Benjamin Franklin and Ethan Allen. In offering the manuscript to his publisher, Melville assured him, "I engage that the story shall contain nothing of any sort to shock the fastidious. There will be very little reflective writing in it; nothing weighty. It is adventure." This came as a relief, for his previous novel, Pierre, had shocked readers and brought down universal castigation.

This edition is an Approved Text of the Center for Editions of American Authors (Modern Language Association of America).

From inside the book

 

Contents

The Birthplace of Israel
3
Israel Goes to the Wars and Reaching Bunker Hill in Time
12
Further Wanderings of the Refugee with Some Account
22
Copyright

15 other sections not shown

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Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile, Volume Eight, Scholarly Edition
Herman Melville
No preview available - 1982
Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile, Volume Eight, Scholarly Edition
Herman Melville
No preview available - 1982
Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile, Volume Eight, Scholarly Edition
Herman Melville
No preview available - 1982
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Common terms and phrases

ADVENTURES Allen American appeared arrived Berkshire boat book edition Boston Brentford British Bunker Hill Captain Paul Chapter Confidence-Man copy copy-text deck Doctor Franklin editors emendations England English escape garden gentleman half hand Herman Melville honest friend Horne Tooke hyphenated installment Israel Potter John Paul Jones king lady land letter London look magazine manuscript March master-at-arms miles Moby-Dick morning narrative narrator never Newberry Library night Northwestern-Newberry o'clock officer Omoo once Paris passage passed Paul Jones Pont Neuf poor Israel port present printed prisoner prisoner of war Putnam Putnam's Monthly Putnam's Monthly Magazine reading received sage sail seemed Serapis ship Sir John soldiers soon sort Squire Woodcock stood story stranger streets Thomas Tanselle thought tion Trumbull Trumbull's turned variants vessels walk White Waltham Whitehaven words Yankee York

References to this book

About the author (1982)

HERMAN MELVILLE (1819–1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick. His first three books gained much contemporary attention (the first, Typee, becoming a bestseller), and after a fast-blooming literary success in the late 1840s, his popularity declined precipitously in the mid-1850s and never recovered during his lifetime. When he died in 1891, he was almost completely forgotten. It was not until the "Melville Revival" in the early 20th century that his work won recognition, especially Moby-Dick, which was hailed as one of the literary masterpieces of both American and world literature. He was the first writer to have his works collected and published by the Library of America.

Bibliographic information

TitleIsrael Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile, Volume Eight, Scholarly Edition
AuthorHerman Melville
EditorsG. Thomas Tanselle, Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker
Editionillustrated
PublisherNorthwestern University Press, 1982
Original fromthe University of California
Digitized29 May 2008
ISBN0810105535, 9780810105539
Length413 pages
Subjects › 

Fiction / Classics
Fiction / General
  
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