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The Encantadas and Other Stories
Best known as the creator of Captain Ahab and the great white whale of Moby-Dick, Herman Melville (1819–91) found critical and popular success with his first novels, which he based on his adventures in the South Seas. His reputation was diminished by his preoccupation with metaphysical themes and allegorical techniques in later works; and by the time of his death, his books were long forgotten. Generations later, Melville's readers recognized his work as keenly satirical and rich in elements that prefigured the emergence of existentialism and Freudian psychology.Melville's critical fortunes temporarily rebounded in the early to mid-1850s, with the favorable reception of his contributions to Harper's and Putnam's—two of the era's leading monthly magazines. This collection features fourteen of his works of short fiction from that period—most prominently, "The Encantadas or Enchanted Isles." This series of descriptive sketches, a reminiscence from Melville's sailor days, reveals the ecologically pristine Galápagos Islands as both enchanting and horrifying. The other stories showcase the author's mastery of a diverse range of writing styles. "The Lightning-Rod Man" demonstrates his deftness at Dickensian comedy, and "The Piazza" anticipates his subsequent absorption with poetry. "The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids," with its incisive contrast of upper-class frivolity with the desperate lives of factory workers, offers a moving portrait of social inequality. These rediscovered tales by a writer who was ahead of his time provide a captivating blend of artistry and cultural commentary.
- GenresClassicsShort Stories
226 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 15, 2005
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About the author
Herman Melville
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Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Moby-Dick (1851); Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and Billy Budd, Sailor, a posthumously published novella. At the time of his death, Melville was no longer well known to the public, but the 1919 centennial of his birth was the starting point of a Melville revival. Moby-Dick eventually would be considered one of the great American novels.
Melville was born in New York City, the third child of a prosperous merchant whose death in 1832 left the family in dire financial straits. He took to sea in 1839 as a common sailor on a merchant ship and then on the whaler Acushnet, but he jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands. Typee, his first book, and its sequel, Omoo (1847), were travel-adventures based on his encounters with the peoples of the islands. Their success gave him the financial security to marry Elizabeth Shaw, the daughter of the Boston jurist Lemuel Shaw. Mardi (1849), a romance-adventure and his first book not based on his own experience, was not well received. Redburn (1849) and White-Jacket (1850), both tales based on his experience as a well-born young man at sea, were given respectable reviews, but did not sell well enough to support his expanding family.
Melville's growing literary ambition showed in Moby-Dick (1851), which took nearly a year and a half to write, but it did not find an audience, and critics scorned his psychological novel Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852). From 1853 to 1856, Melville published short fiction in magazines, including "Benito Cereno" and "Bartleby, the Scrivener". In 1857, he traveled to England, toured the Near East, and published his last work of prose, The Confidence-Man (1857). He moved to New York in 1863, eventually taking a position as a United States customs inspector.
From that point, Melville focused his creative powers on poetry. Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866) was his poetic reflection on the moral questions of the American Civil War. In 1867, his eldest child Malcolm died at home from a self-inflicted gunshot. Melville's metaphysical epic Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land was published in 1876. In 1886, his other son Stanwix died of apparent tuberculosis, and Melville retired. During his last years, he privately published two volumes of poetry, and left one volume unpublished. The novella Billy Budd was left unfinished at his death, but was published posthumously in 1924. Melville died from cardiovascular disease in 1891.
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Moby-Dick (1851); Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and Billy Budd, Sailor, a posthumously published novella. At the time of his death, Melville was no longer well known to the public, but the 1919 centennial of his birth was the starting point of a Melville revival. Moby-Dick eventually would be considered one of the great American novels.
Melville was born in New York City, the third child of a prosperous merchant whose death in 1832 left the family in dire financial straits. He took to sea in 1839 as a common sailor on a merchant ship and then on the whaler Acushnet, but he jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands. Typee, his first book, and its sequel, Omoo (1847), were travel-adventures based on his encounters with the peoples of the islands. Their success gave him the financial security to marry Elizabeth Shaw, the daughter of the Boston jurist Lemuel Shaw. Mardi (1849), a romance-adventure and his first book not based on his own experience, was not well received. Redburn (1849) and White-Jacket (1850), both tales based on his experience as a well-born young man at sea, were given respectable reviews, but did not sell well enough to support his expanding family.
Melville's growing literary ambition showed in Moby-Dick (1851), which took nearly a year and a half to write, but it did not find an audience, and critics scorned his psychological novel Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852). From 1853 to 1856, Melville published short fiction in magazines, including "Benito Cereno" and "Bartleby, the Scrivener". In 1857, he traveled to England, toured the Near East, and published his last work of prose, The Confidence-Man (1857). He moved to New York in 1863, eventually taking a position as a United States customs inspector.
From that point, Melville focused his creative powers on poetry. Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866) was his poetic reflection on the moral questions of the American Civil War. In 1867, his eldest child Malcolm died at home from a self-inflicted gunshot. Melville's metaphysical epic Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land was published in 1876. In 1886, his other son Stanwix died of apparent tuberculosis, and Melville retired. During his last years, he privately published two volumes of poetry, and left one volume unpublished. The novella Billy Budd was left unfinished at his death, but was published posthumously in 1924. Melville died from cardiovascular disease in 1891.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 6, 2022
The short collection of ten observations The Encantadas has some moments of great prose but the book really seems to be about Melville’s frustration about the commercial failure of Moby Dick. It’s about a visit he made 30 or so years prior and is full of a kind of negativity about the islands hardly justified in a visit; the islands and their wildlife are breathtakingly beautiful, if perhaps unusual. His negative comments about the incredible penguins have some comic value. He clearly fails to capture the real spirit of the place except maybe through the eyes of a 19th century sailor only looking for fresh water and tortoise meat and no appreciation of nature. Otherwise it seems clear he’s just being provocative. Not recommended at all as a guide to the islands but more as an example of Melville’s great writing (at times).
January 28, 2022
This collection contains an example of Melville's voice. From the serious, philosophical stories, to the more humorous ones, to the poetic ones.
The best quality of Melville's writings must be his descriptive talent, represented on each single story.
Just an aside here: it was interesting, as a Portuguese individual, to read "The 'Gees".
The best quality of Melville's writings must be his descriptive talent, represented on each single story.
Just an aside here: it was interesting, as a Portuguese individual, to read "The 'Gees".
August 9, 2016
These sketches of the Galapagos are bleak, beautiful and desolate at the same time. It's amazing to think that for all his mid and late period of great work, he basically didn't have a readership.
People don't recognise genius whilst these types of writers are still alive. Concerns and style are ahead of their times.
People don't recognise genius whilst these types of writers are still alive. Concerns and style are ahead of their times.
June 3, 2023
Melville is a thoughtful and observant writer.
“If some books are deemed most baneful and their sale forbid, how, then, with deadlier facts, not dreams of doting men? those whom books will hurt will not be proof against events. events, not books, should be forbid.” - Herman Melville, The Encantadas, The Piazza Tales
“If some books are deemed most baneful and their sale forbid, how, then, with deadlier facts, not dreams of doting men? those whom books will hurt will not be proof against events. events, not books, should be forbid.” - Herman Melville, The Encantadas, The Piazza Tales
August 15, 2019
Great listen after a Galapagos trip. Believe it would be quick background Melville for anyone.
September 17, 2023
Almost a century and a half before the Lonely Planet series made roaming outlandish locales a modern day norm and coming of age experience, Herman Melville, as a young man, signed on the whaling ship Acushnet in January 1841. This—of course—is well before a traveler could see the world with the security of a return ticket and a debit card that works in ATM’s worldwide. Melville’s voyage under a tyrannical captain led to his desertion on Polynesian islands. Later he found his way to Honolulu, then part of the Sandwich Islands, and back to the Eastern seaboard of the USA after signing on a Navy vessel as a deckhand.
Melville recalled and embellished his adventures in early novels, establishing himself as the proto-Beat or Ur-Beat voice of American literature. However, it was not until Moby-Dick that his prose style revealed a Modernist master craftsman. Unfortunately, the literary establishment was not ready to acknowledge Melville’s creation; he was reduced to writing short stories for periodicals, mostly Putnam’s, for a pittance; these works, later collected in his The Piazza Tales (1856), contain three stunning eternal literary masterpieces: Bartleby, The Scrivener, Benito Cereno, and—to a slightly lesser extent--The Encantadas remain enduring classics that have the essential elements of both modern and Modernist literature. Although now eclipsed by the majesty of Moby-Dick, The Encantadas could easily be viewed as a prose diversion that could well have functioned as chapters within his greatest achievement.
The Encantadas upon publication in Putnam’s, was genre undefinable. Travel literature before the age of travel, back when the original derivation of the word, from the French Travail still had held more meaning than jetting off somewhere for two weeks and complaining about the weather and tourists. It is also a scholarly work that uses other written accounts of those who had seen some of the Galapagos Islands firsthand. However, first and foremost, it is a short work that allows Melville to show off his reverence for Shakespearean prose. Do not be fooled, The Encantadas is a prose masterpiece, to be read—perhaps aloud—for the author’s love and his unique, experimental use of the English language.
The Encantadas or Galapagos Islands were, in Melville’s era, a remote, inhospitable outpost for renegades, deserters, hermits and other unfortunates. Whaling vessels made stop there to hunt turtles. While the savagery of the “hunt” and slaughter is not depicted, unlike Melville’s detailed depictions of whalers slaughtering the earth’s most majestic mammals, one gets the feeling that humans on these islands are mere interlopers and that the turtle population would eventually be endangered. The Encantadas or, Enchanted islands represents America’s greatest novelist at the absolute top of his game, both stylistically and thematically.
Melville recalled and embellished his adventures in early novels, establishing himself as the proto-Beat or Ur-Beat voice of American literature. However, it was not until Moby-Dick that his prose style revealed a Modernist master craftsman. Unfortunately, the literary establishment was not ready to acknowledge Melville’s creation; he was reduced to writing short stories for periodicals, mostly Putnam’s, for a pittance; these works, later collected in his The Piazza Tales (1856), contain three stunning eternal literary masterpieces: Bartleby, The Scrivener, Benito Cereno, and—to a slightly lesser extent--The Encantadas remain enduring classics that have the essential elements of both modern and Modernist literature. Although now eclipsed by the majesty of Moby-Dick, The Encantadas could easily be viewed as a prose diversion that could well have functioned as chapters within his greatest achievement.
The Encantadas upon publication in Putnam’s, was genre undefinable. Travel literature before the age of travel, back when the original derivation of the word, from the French Travail still had held more meaning than jetting off somewhere for two weeks and complaining about the weather and tourists. It is also a scholarly work that uses other written accounts of those who had seen some of the Galapagos Islands firsthand. However, first and foremost, it is a short work that allows Melville to show off his reverence for Shakespearean prose. Do not be fooled, The Encantadas is a prose masterpiece, to be read—perhaps aloud—for the author’s love and his unique, experimental use of the English language.
The Encantadas or Galapagos Islands were, in Melville’s era, a remote, inhospitable outpost for renegades, deserters, hermits and other unfortunates. Whaling vessels made stop there to hunt turtles. While the savagery of the “hunt” and slaughter is not depicted, unlike Melville’s detailed depictions of whalers slaughtering the earth’s most majestic mammals, one gets the feeling that humans on these islands are mere interlopers and that the turtle population would eventually be endangered. The Encantadas or, Enchanted islands represents America’s greatest novelist at the absolute top of his game, both stylistically and thematically.
January 28, 2015
I read only The Encantadas, because one day we'd like to visit the Galapagos Islands. It's interesting to read Melville's take on these islands, but I found the writing to be scratchy, bloated, and harsh.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews