Best known as the creator of Captain Ahab and the great white whaleof Moby-Dick, Herman Melville (1819-91) found critical and popularsuccess with his first novels, which he based on his adventures in theSouth Seas. His reputation was diminished by his preoccupation withmetaphysical themes and allegorical techniques in later works; andby the time of his death, his books were long forgotten. Generationslater, Melville's readers recognized his work as keenly satirical andrich in elements that prefigured the emergence of existentialism andFreudian psychology.

Cock-A-Doodle-Doo! or The Crowing of the Noble Cock Beneventano

The Encantadas or Enchanted Isles 

The Two Temples

Poor Man's Pudding and Rich Man's Crumbs

The Happy Failure: A Story of the River Hudson

The Lightning-Rod Man

The Fiddler

The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids

The Bell-Tower 

Jimmy Rose 

I and My CbSmney

The 'Gees

The Apple-Tree Table or Original Spiritual Manifestations

The Piazza