Product Details

• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Kultur Video
• DVD Release Date: June 26, 2007
• Run Time: 30 minutes
• ASIN: B000P6R6LK
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #59,663 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

"Drawing on old maps, contemporary drawings and paintings, portraits and other archive material, the excellent Famous Authors series not only presents a factual outline of the writers’ lives, but also conveys a clear visual picture of the social and historical background to their writing. Recommended for all ages." —THE GOOD BOOK GUIDE

Born to a once-prominent New York family, Herman Melville grew up in an atmosphere of financial instability. He tried several jobs to help the family including work as a bank clerk, a teacher, and a merchant marine. The latter became the background for many of his greater works including Redburn and Moby Dick.

Melville, who had only been sporadically educated, improved his repertoire as an author throughout his career, increasing use of symbolic levels of meaning in his novels, short stories, and poems. Correspondingly, more cynicism became evident in his writing as his career progressed. The underlying pessimism which characterized much of his work was regarded as a flaw until years after his death in the 1920’s when the literary public began to recognize him as one of the great American writers.

MAJOR WORKS:
Typee (1846)
Omoo (1847)
Mardi (1849)
Redburn (1849)
White-Jacket (1850)
Moby Dick (1851)
Pierre (1852)The Piazza Tales (1856)
The Confidence-Man (1857)
.Battle-Pieces (1866)
Clarel (1876)
Billy Budd (1889)