Redburn

"Redburn - His First Voyage" is a 1849 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The story follows a fifteen-year-old boy from the state of New York called Wellington Redburn, who dreams only of running away to sea. When he finally manages to realise his goal, however, he finds that the reality of a life at sea is far less romantic than he envisioned. Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 - September 28, 1891) was an American short story writer, novelist, and poet belonging to the American Renaissance period. His is most famous for his works: "Typee" (1846) and "Moby-Dick" (1851). Other notable works by this author include: "Mardi: And a Voyage Thither" (1849), "Pierre: or, The Ambiguities" (1852), and "'Benito Cereno'" (1855). Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in a modern, high-quality edition complete with the original text and artwork.

Drawn from Melville's own adolescent experience aboard a merchant ship, Redburn tells the story of Wellingborough Redburn, whose innocence is transformed into disenchantment at the hands of bullying and brutal shipmates and the squalid conditions in Liverpool. Taken from the authoritative first American edition, this Modern Library Paperback Classic includes newly commissioned notes. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

HOW WELLINGBOROUGH REDBURN'S TASTE FOR THE SEA WAS BORN AND BRED IN HIM "Wellingborough, as you are going to sea, suppose you take this shooting-jacket of mine along; it's just the thing—take it, it will savethe expense of another. You see, it's quite warm; fine long skirts, stout horn buttons, and plenty of pockets." Out of the goodness and simplicity of his heart, thus spoke my elder brother to me, upon the eve of my departure for the seaport. "And, Wellingborough," he added, "since we are both short of money, and you want an outfit, and I Have none to give, you may as well take my fowling-piece along, and sell it in New York for what you can get.—Nay, take it; it's of no use to me now; I can't find it in powder any more." I was then but a boy. Some time previous my mother had removed from New York to a pleasant village on the Hudson River, where we lived in a small house, in a quiet way. Sad disappointments in several plans which I had sketched for my future life; the necessity of doing something for myself, united to a naturally roving disposition, had now conspired within me, to send me to sea as a sailor. For months previous I had been poring over old New York papers, delightedly perusing the long columns of ship advertisements, all of which possessed a strange, romantic charm to me. Over and over again I devoured such announcements as the following: FOR BREMEN. The coppered and copper-fastened brig Leda, having nearly completed her cargo, will sail for the above port on Tuesday the twentieth of May. For freight or passage apply on board at Coenties Slip. To my young inland imagination every word in an advertisement like this, suggested volumes of thought. A brig! The very word summoned up the idea of a black, sea-worn craft, with high, cozy bulwarks, and rakish masts and yards.Coppered and copper-fastened! That fairly smelt of the salt water! How different such vessels must be from the wooden, one-masted, green-and-white-painted sloops, that glided up and down the river before our house on the bank. Nearly completed her cargo!

Herman Melville is one of the greatest American novelists, short story writer and a poet. His writing draws on his experience at sea as a common sailor, exploration of literature and philosophy, and engagement in the contradictions of American society in a period of rapid change. Redburn: His First Voyage details the adventures of a refined young man among coarse and brutal sailors and the seedier areas of Liverpool. Unable to find employment at home, young Wellingborough Redburn signs on the Highlander, a merchantman out of New York City bound for Liverpool, England. The tale is autobiographical and recounts author’s early experiences on a merchant cargo ship. Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life describes the narrator’s four month stay on the island Nuku Hiva in the South Pacific Marquesas Islands. It is a story of capture, escape and romance with lovely nymph Fayaway. The narrative is based on the author's actual experiences in the South Pacific. Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas is a sequel to the Sea narrative Typee. After leaving the island of Nuku Hiva, the narrator ships aboard a whaling vessel that makes its way to Tahiti, after which there is a mutiny and the majority of the crew are imprisoned on Tahiti. Omoo is also based on the author's experiences in the South Pacific. White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War is a memoir of a year spent on a U.S. man-of-war, the 54-gun frigate USS “Neversink” in a voyage from Chile to Norfolk. The story is based on the author's fourteen months service in the United States Navy.

This book concerns a young British sailor and his first experiences at sea.

Well over a century after its publication, Moby-Dick still stands as an indisputable literary classic. It is the story of an eerily compelling madman pursuing an unholy war against a creature as vast and dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself. But more than just a novel of adventure, more than an encyclopedia of whaling lore and legend, Moby-Dick is a haunting, mesmerizing, and important social commentary populated with several of the most unforgettable and enduring characters in literature. Written with wonderfully redemptive humor, Moby-Dick is a profound and timeless inquiry into character, faith, and the nature of perception. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

This book makes several claims which ought to be stated at the outset: that Herman Melville is a recorder and interpreter of American society whose work is comparable to that of the great nineteenth-century European realists; that there was crisis of bourgeois society at midcentury on both continents, but that in America it entered politics by way of slavery and race rather than class; that the crisis called into question the ideal realm of liberal political freedom, and also that Melville was particularly sensitive to the American crisis because of the political importance of his clan and the political history of his family