Redburn by Herman Melville - ISBN: 9780140431056
Paperback
A boy’s sea dream crashes against the rocks of harsh reality.

Redburn

His First Voyage, Being the Sailor-Boy, Confessions and Reminiscences of the Son-of-a-Gentleman, in the Merchant Service

$39.89

  • Paperback

    448 pages

  • Release Date

    26 August 1976

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Summary

Harold Beaver’s introduction considers Melville’s own time as a young sailor in the early nineteenth century.

Wellington Redburn is a fifteen-year-old from the state of New York, with only one dream - to run away to sea. However, when he does fulfil this long-held fantasy, he quickly finds that reality as a cabin boy is far harsher than he ever imagined. Mocked by the crew on board the Highlander for his weakness and bullied by the vicious and merciless sailor Jackson, Wellington must…

Book Details

ISBN-13:9780140431056
ISBN-10:0140431055
Author:Herman Melville, Harold Beaver
Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint:Penguin Classics
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:448
Release Date:26 August 1976
Weight:326g
Dimensions:198mm x 129mm x 25mm
Series:Penguin English Library
What They're Saying

Critics Review

“Redburn, recalling the cruel memories of [Melville’s] youth, was the first bitter cry of his maturity… . The book has the wry humour of the grown man… . Redburn was a victory.” –Lewis Mumford

About The Author

Herman Melville

Herman Melville (1819-91) became in his late twenties a highly successful author of exotic novels based on his experiences as a sailor - writing in quick succession Typee, Omoo, Redburn and White-Jacket. However, his masterpiece Moby-Dick was met with incomprehension and the other later works which are now the basis of his reputation, such as Bartleby, the Scrivener and The Confidence-Man, were failures. Melville stopped writing fiction and the rest of his long life was spent first as a lecturer and then, for nineteen years, as a customs official in New York City. He was also the author of the immensely long poem Clarel, which was similarly dismissed. At the end of his life he wrote Billy Budd, Sailor which was published posthumously in 1924.

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