Bibliograph

Melville, a novel, by Jean Giono ; introduction by Edmund White ; translated by Paul Eprile

Type

Label

Melville, a novel, by Jean Giono ; introduction by Edmund White ; translated by Paul Eprile

Language

eng

Index

no index present

Literary Form

fiction

Main title

Melville

Nature of contents

dictionaries

Oclc number

973733299

Responsibility statement

by Jean Giono ; introduction by Edmund White ; translated by Paul Eprile

Series statement

New York Review Books Classics

Sub title

a novel

Summary

In the fall of 1849, Herman Melville traveled to London to deliver his novel White-Jacket to his publisher. On his return to America, Melville would write Moby-Dick. Melville: A Novel imagines what happened in between: the adventurous writer fleeing London for the country, wrestling with an angel, falling in love with an Irish nationalist, and, finally, meeting the angel's challenge'to express man's fate by writing the novel that would become his masterpiece. Eighty years after it appeared in English, Moby-Dick was translated into French for the first time by the Provencal novelist Jean Giono and his friend Lucien Jacques. The publisher persuaded Giono to write a preface, granting him unusual latitude. The result was this literary essai, Melville: A Novel'part biography, part philosophical rumination, part romance, part unfettered fantasy. Paul Eprile's expressive translation of this intimate homage brings the exchange full circle

Classification

Contributor

Creator