Preface
Abbreviations
Chapter 1 Life
Chapter 2 Contexts
The existential context
The historical context
The urban context
The visual context
The psychological context
The American context
The context of labor
The context of slavery
The world context
The imaginative context
Chapter 3 Writings
The faces of Typee
Omoo: the rover as flaneur
Becoming a great writer: Mardi, Redburn,White-Jacket
Confronting Moby-Dick
Pierre. the making of a tragic hero
Private letters
Rewriting history: Israel Potter and “Benito Cereno”
Modern man: “The Lightning-Rod Man,” The Confidence-Man, “Bartleby, the Scrivener”
Contents
Battle-Pieces: the voices of war
Clarel, an American epic
The return to prose: Burgundy Club sketches,John Marr
Billy Budd: visions and revisions
Chapter 4 Reception
Notes
Guide to further reading
Index
