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1、Herman Melville 麦尔维尔 (18191891) Herman Melville 1. Three important things in his life: Going out to sea His experiences and adventures on the sea furnished him with abundant material for his fiction writings, especially his masterpiece Moby Dick 2) His marriage In the history of American literature
2、there were two authors had similar marriages. Melville and Scott Fitzgerald, both married above them and had to do hackwork（纯粹为糊口而写的东西，庸俗 作品） for the money they needed to keep their wives in their extravagant style.3)His friendship with Hawthorne During the summer of 1890 Melville and Hawthorne met
3、and became good friends. They shared similar ideas and opinions on most kinds of fields. Especially against the background of Transcendental optimism, Melville agrees with Hawthorne s Blackness - the evil at the core of life. Evil in life and the human soul help make life and man better T o scale gr
4、eat heights, we must come out of the lowest depths. The way to heaven is through hell. We need fiery baptism in the fierce flame of our bosoms. 凤凰涅槃浴火重生 ?The original design of Moby Dick was just a text on the whale fishery. When Melville met Hawthorne, he had completed one third of Moby Dick. Witho
5、ut Hawthorne, Melville would have just written it about whaling hunting. With the influence of Hawthorne, Melville rewrote it into a world classic with a mixture of: 游记、航海故事、寓言、捕鲸传说、有关鲸鱼与捕鲸业的百科全书、美国史诗、莎士比亚式 的悲剧、抒情散文长诗、塞万提斯式的浪漫体小说 In Token of my admiration for his genius, this book is inscribed to NA
6、THANIEL HAWTHORNE. 2. Melville s Major Works 1) Novels (1)Polynsie Trilogy 波里尼西亚三部曲from his adventures among the people of the South Pacific islands Typee 1846?泰皮 ? Omoo1847?欧穆 ? Mardi1849?玛地 ? (2) Redburn 1849?雷得本 ?an account of his voyage to England (3) White Jacket 1850 ?白外衣 ?his life on a United
7、 States man-of-war 军舰 (4) Pierre皮埃尔(1852): A darkly allegorical exploration of the nature of evil, which is psychologically complex and elaborate. (5) Israel Potter 伊斯雷尔 波特(1855): A historical romance (6) The Confidence Man 骗子的化装表演(1857):Satirizes the selfishness and commercialism of Melville s time
8、.(7) Billy Budd比利 ? 巴德 (1891) A novella about a young sailor, personifying innocence, doomed by the malevolent hatred of a ship s officer, personifying evil.2) Short stories The Piazza Tales 广场故事(1856): Contains some of Melvilles finest shorter works (1) Bartleby, the Scrivener 书记员巴特尔比 The story of
9、Bartleby is simply about a man losing his will to live. Subtitled, “A Story of Wall Street , it is set in the business world of 19th-century New Y ork. Bartleby, a scrivener was good at the copying part of his job, but when asked to proofread aloud one day he simply replied, “I prefer not to.“ From
10、that moment forward, he used the phrase “I prefer not to“ for every task requested of him, eventually “preferring not to“ do any work whatsoever. Bartleby chose to rebel and become an anti-hero. It is intended to show the reader a dark side in all of us when the meaning of our existence is allowed t
11、o be challenged. “Bartleby, the Scrivener“ reflects Melvilles own pessimism at the time. (2) Benito Cereno 贝尼托 塞莱诺 The story centers on a slave rebellion on board a Spanish merchant ship in 1799. Earlier critics regarded Benito Cereno as a tale that primarily explores human depravity . It is regarde
12、d by many as Melvilles finest short story . 3) Poetry: (1) Battle-Pieces and the Aspects of War 战事集 (1866) (2) Clarel 克拉瑞尔(1876) Melville s MasterpieceMoby-Dick?白鲸 ?， ?莫比 ? 狄克 ? an encyclopedia of everything: history, philosophy, religion, the whaling industry a Shakespearean tragedy of man fighting
13、 against fates in an indifferent and hostile world. Moby-Dick- the worlds greatest sea novel, compound of search, pursuit, conflict, and catastrophe. 1. Plot The novel s plot is built on one conflict- Ahab vs. the Whale It is essentially the story of Ahab and his quest to defeat Moby Dick, for this
14、white whale took Ahab s leg.?Ishmael 伊什梅尔 , feeling depressed, seeks escape by going out to sea on the whaling ship, Peqoud 裴廓德号. ?The captain is Ahab亚哈, the man with one leg. ?Moby Dick, the white whale, had sheared off Ahab s leg on a previous voyage, and Ahab resolves to hunt him. ?The ship makes
15、 a good catch of whales but Ahab refuses to turn back until he has killed his enemy. ?Eventually, the whale appears, and the Peqoud begins its doomed fight with it. ?On the third day, the whale carries the Peqoud along with it to its doom. ?All on board the whaler get drowned, except one, Ishmael,wh
16、o survives to tell the tale. 2. Characters ?Ishmael 伊什梅尔 /以实玛利 ?The narrator of the story ?Name: the first son of Abraham (from The Bible) symbol of orphans, exiles,wanderers and social outcasts,etc. starts out feeling bad hopes to find an ideal life comes to see the folly of Ahab seeking to conquer nature feels the significance of love and companionship learns to accept,an attitude whic
