At the beginning, direction and placement of the piazza is a major issue for the narrator to decide upon because it will dictate his sense of belonging and pleasure with the natural scenes around him. By placing himself in the most aesthetically pleasing direction, the narrator is purposefully choosing his perception of the world. Similarly, the spirituality of an individual is strengthened based upon the efficiency of practice in one’s faith. William E. Channing discussed spirituality and the spiritually free individual in his work, “Spiritual Freedom” (1848), which contextualizes Melville’s narrator and his desire to live ideally in a picturesque setting. The narrator is constantly in the process of regenerating his spirituality and reaffirming his faith; especially through his perception of the natural, picturesque world. Relocation to the country is a gesture to distance himself from the chaotic material world and reclaim a more spiritual existence fueled by the picturesque. Channing writes, “we are in the midst of influences, which menace the intellect and heart; and to be free, is to withstand and conquer these” (71). Isolation of oneself for spiritual and intellectual cleansing, according to Channing, allows the individual to be free from the material world and exist in a more meaningful way. For Melville, this existence outside of society in the countryside takes a different path when the narrator overly fantasizes an ideal reality. Melvilles writes, “And beauty is like piety -- you cannot run and read it; tranquillity and constancy, with, nowadays, an easy chair, are needed… yet, in these times of failing faith and feeble knees, we have the piazza and the pew” (1). The failed faith in religion where hypocrisy abounds can be healed through the properties of nature.That is until material reality interrupts his peace of mind. -Christina V.

Herman Melville’s "The Piazza" has many mythological and theological referrals scattered throughout its pages. Greek mythologogical terms such as Elysium, Orion, and Damocles are intertwined with biblical references of Abraham, Lazarus, and the Kaaba (Holy Stone), among many others. These parabled sources spoke to the readers of his era in descriptors that would be easily recognizable and understandable. Melville’s conscious mixing of the two religious forms, showing more than one ideological opinion, is reminiscent of another author he was known to look to for inspiration, Plutarch (as spoken about in several commentary excerpts found in Melville’s Marginalia). Greek by birth, Plutarch integrated into Roman society in the middle part of his life, even changing his name to Lucius Plutarchus, and was witness to Roman acceptance of multiple forms of religion. Although Christianity was not accepted in Rome for another three and a half centuries, the well-rounded structure of the Roman society of Plutarch’s time was no doubt an influence on his work, and subsequently, on Melville. It is quite possible that some of the conscious or unconscious blending of these biblical and mythical concepts also came from Melville’s reading of Dante, translated by Rev. Henry Francis Cary, one of many books found in the Melville collection on the “Melville’s Marginalia” website.

Memnon was of course a hero of the Battle of Troy, but Memnon was also the name of a clipper ship which sailed out of Massachusetts in 1848, the same year given by the narrator in The Piazza. The Memnon was also the first ship to arrive in San Francisco at the beginning of the Gold Rush. Additionally, the contact person listed in newspaper advertisements for passage on the Memnon was none other than Frederick A. Delano (Commercial). Anyone familiar with Melville’s writing will recognize the name Delano, and Amasa Delano, Captain of the Bachelor’s Delight, who was fictionalized by Melville in “Benito Cereno,” was Franklin A. Delano’s great uncle (Roosevelt).

Justin Brown

Arisaema Triphyllum, also known as "Jacks-in-the-Pulpit" are rare flowers with an enclosed shape and a small center wrapped within the enclosure. The name of Jack in the Pulpit comes from the how the flower looks like a preacher in a Baptist pulpit. Melville's reference to nature in the following sentence, "preaching in the wilderness" might be a satirical remark regarding a romantic view of nature and religion. Much like the center of the Jack-in-the-Puplit is wrapped and shaded by the enclosure of the flower petals, the romantic is sheltered from reality and blinded by his romantic ideals. -Destiny Campa Meza

In the Old Testament of the Bible, verse 1 of the book of Samuel, passage 22, the Cave of Adullam is a stronghold named after the town of Adullam. King David fled to the cave in search of refuge from violent King Saul. During this time, David passed up several opportunities to kill Saul and be rid of him; God honored David's integrity and rewarded him with fame and power throughout Israel. -Destiny Campa Meza

This article gives one a better understanding of women issues at the time. A preacher of the time, Theodore Parker, classified women into three categories—domestic drudges, domestic dolls, and domestic women. The first is only good at housekeeping. The second is only good to look at. The third is both good housekeeping and nice to look at. The third type is “wholly taken up with their function as housekeeper, wife, and mother,” and according to the article, is the best type of woman. The article speaks of women, not as individuals who have worth, but as objects that have a function (1). Rating Marianna according to the above standards, she fails in each category. If the ultimate “function” of a woman is to be a housekeeper, wife, and mother, what is to be said of the woman who is unmarried and has no children? Should she aspire to be a good housekeeper while she waits to be wed? (Elizabeth Finch)

The Schenectady Cabinet. 3 Oct. 1854, p. 1. (article in right column)

This article specifies what a good wife is like by comparing and contrasting her to things. She is like a snail because she should stay within her house, but she is unlike a snail because she doesn’t carry her house; she is like an echo because she speaks when spoken to, but she should refrain from having the last word as an echo does; she should be like a town clock because she should keep time and regularity, but she should be unlike a clock that must be heard all over town (1). Marianna fulfils these criteria, yet she is miserable, and the narrator never considers her fit to be a good wife. There is an understanding that Marianna is expected to be docile and fulfil her domestic role as a homemaker, yet the standards of society make her unfit to thrive. (Elizabeth Finch)

The Schenectady Cabinet. 3 Oct. 1854, p. 1. (article in right column)

“Petticoat Parliament.” The Plaindealer. 29 Oct. 1852. p. 1.

This article covers the Women’s Rights Convention in Syracuse. The author comments that the women at the convention lacked beauty, but they did have some good speeches whereby they asserted their “alleged rights.” The author saw no harm in women engaging in these conventions as long as they did not neglect their duties at home. Because women must have recreation of some sort, conventions serve as harmless, inexpensive outlets for women. If they ever got too ambitious, certain measures could be implemented to restrain them (1). In “The Piazza,” Marianna does not assert her rights or question why a man might want to enter her cottage. Without knowing the context of the story, her “lack” of critical thinking is attributed to her. Knowing the debates about women’s rights, however, makes one question who is to be blamed for her lack and who is responsible to satiate her want. (Elizabeth Finch)

Canute the Great was a powerful, widely accepted, and respected Danish King of England (1016-35,) King of Denmark (1019-35), and King of Norway (1028-35.) He married a noblewoman from Northumbria named Aelfgifu with whom he fathered two children. She was murdered in 1006 while sailing. Melville's reference here likely connects to Canute's painful memories of the sea and his deceased wife. Note his use of "lonesome." -Destiny Campa Meza

“Women’s Rights Convention.” The Yates County Whig. 8 Dec. 1853. p. 1.

This article records speeches made by men and women at the convention. Mrs. Rose is recorded as arguing that a woman gives up her rights when she marries. She becomes one with her husband and all that is hers becomes his.  When she commits a wrong, however, her individuality is returned to her long enough for her to receive the penalty for her actions. In contrast to this exception, she is even deprived the right to be guardian of her children. If the husband dies, leaving the wife money without specifying who is the new guardian, the law takes the responsibility of the children and the money. There is an exception to this rule; however, if the husband leaves no money, the woman is assumed to be the natural guardian of her children (1). This article coupled with “The Piazza” makes one wonder what caused Marianna to be orphaned. Does she truly have no parents, or was her mother given “natural” rights to her and her brother without any means to take care of them. Melville does not tell why the children are orphaned, so the readers would naturally assume that their parents are dead. This article makes one consider the possibility of an underlining reason for the great number of “orphans.” This article also makes one wonder if Marianna would truly be better off if she were to marry the narrator. (Elizabeth Finch)

“Women’s Rights Convention—The Bloomers in Council, Dreadful Conspiracy Against the Rights of Man.” The Plaindealer. 12 Dec. 1851. p. 1.

This article details the convention from the perspective of a man of the time. The author speaks of the convention as laughably and ridiculous, saying the women are seeking to destroy society in all its parts—civil, political, and religious, as they seek the right to do “whatever they please.” The author refers to the platforms of the convention as startling (1). The author equates supporting the rights of women to desiring the destruction of society. Using this article as a lens to look at Marianna gives one a glimpse into the depth of her despair. She has no man to give her worth, and she has no means to obtain worth on her own without being deemed a seditious traitor to society. (Elizabeth Finch)

This artifact depicts the perceptions of many of those in society in the 19th century surrounding the problem of orphaned children. For instance, the image depicts a timeline of orphaned children, beginning with their life living on the streets, barefoot and sinister, followed by the picturesque notion of them heading out west on the orphan trains, and finally as upstanding young citizens, working for the farming families that had adopted them. This image is highly relevant to Herman Melville’s, “The Piazza,” in that Melville criticized the emigration program founded by Charles Loring Brace in 1855, with his characters Marianna and her brother, who he defines in “The Piazza,” as orphan children. Additionally, like Melville’s story revolving around Marianna and her brother, the picture paints idealistic notions about Brace’s emigration program, despite the reality that many of these children were not merely rescued orphans, but should be seen instead, as indentured servants. Both Melville and this image broach this subject, albeit in different forms. For instance, the image shows an orphaned boy plowing a field with the caption, “The Young Farmer.” Here, the idea of indentured servitude is depicted as an honorable and positive alternative to the life the orphans lived before being “placed-out” by Brace’s institution. In opposition to this, Melville portrays the lives of young orphan boys in a different light. For example, in “The Piazza,” Melville writes that Marianna’s brother, “seven months back … only seventeen, had come hither, a long way from the other side, to cut wood and burn coal” and that one “evening, fagged out, he did come home, he soon left his bench, poor fellow, for his bed, just as one, at last, wearily quits that, too, for still deeper rest. The bench, the bed, the grave” (Melville). Additionally, Melville portrays the life of Marianna as one much different than images such as this one. For example, Melville writes that, Marianna wishes she “could rest like [him]; but [hers] is mostly but dull woman’s work- - sitting, sitting, restless sitting” (Melville). One can see the stark contrast between the different depictions of the orphaned children in the image and that of Melville’s. Despite Brace’s attempts to suggest his emigration program was beneficial to orphaned children, and the image’s attempt to glorify it as well, it’s clear that when one knows the truth, as Melville surely did, many of the adopted children who were sent out west, did not end up being strong, happy young men and women, but instead were merely indentured servants, forced to work for the families who took them in.

Beneath the façade of Charles Loring Brace's supposedly virtuous emigration program, was the immoral and unethical nature of child labor, as well as the fact that such immense poverty existed for many families at the time. Brace’s ideal that this emigration process was not only good for the children, but also for society, caught on quickly and was embraced by many. For instance, according to the New York Times article, “The Friendless Children of the City—What Can Be Done for Them” written in 1854, there were “ten thousand” orphaned children in the city that were “trained systematically by their parents to vagrancy, beggary and crime” who eventually turned into an “army of thieves and murderers” (NYT, 1854) Max Mendieta

Melville filled the pages of "The Piazza" with allusions, many of which can be lost on the modern reader. One such reference this contemporary reader may not readily connect to is Abraham. For Melville, this citation is most likely drawn from The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: Translated out of the Original Greek, and The Book of Psalms: Translated out of the Original Hebrew, published by the American Bible Society, New York, 1844, Book of John, pg. 171. A book found in Melville’s personal collection. The Piazza quote where we first find mention of Abraham “And then, in the cool elysium of my northern bower, I, Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, cast down the hill a pitying glance on poor old Dives, tormented in the purgatory of his piazza to the south” (2), is a striking reference to the biblical ideal mixing of Greek Mythology and the Jewish faith. This entire idiom can be quite puzzling to the unknowing reviewer of Melville’s work. The belief is that Abraham is the father of all Jews, with all faithful Jews being called the sons and daughters of Abraham. They are promised that Abraham will be there to meet them when they pass away. The first part of the quote “I, Lazarus in Abraham's bosom,” is a reference to the story of Lazarus found in the Book of John 11, where Lazarus comes down with an illness and passes away (resting in the bosom of Abraham), until the fourth day of his passing, when Jesus visits his tomb and Lazarus is resurrected. (Jeff S. Aho)

The acknowledgment of “poor old Dives” is yet another harkening to the story of Lazarus. The biblical man, nicknamed Dives, was a rich man who did not offer any assistance to the hungry and sick Lazarus, and upon both men’s passing (which were close in interval to one another), Dives looked up from his sweltering confines in Hades (later renamed by the Catholic faith as purgatory) to see Lazarus in comfort at the side of Abraham, in Elysium. (Jeff S. Aho)

Elysium is a common Greek citation alluded to in describing a heavenly destination for those who were heroes or lived virtuous and courageous lives. In Greek mythology, interestingly, the term refers to two ideally similar, yet geographically different, locales. The first of the two backdrops is an island paradise (Island of the Blessed), surrounded by a river, reigned over by Kronos, the son of Zeus. The second location was found in the underworld kingdom of Haides (or Hades), where it’s pleasing meadows were separated from Hell, also by a river. The river itself has held several names throughout the many reincarnations of the ancient concept, being known as Okeanos, or Lethe, but is best recognized and remembered as the river Styx. This place, Elysium, is the piazza Melville refers to where his narrator (Melville’s version of Lazarus) looks down from his heavenly perch upon the supposedly rich person of the town, left to suffer his poor views from his self-imposed hell. (Jeff S. Aho)

His perception of reality is restored by day where he can cast his eyes upon the splendor and beauty of his scenery; however, when the light fades and darkness falls, his perceptions are faintly haunted by the memory of his encounter with the sublime. Safely situated back on his piazza, the narrator can proceed with his idealized view of his surroundings. -Christina V.

Melville utilizes the journey motif to illustrate man’s quest for faith and sense of belonging within a picturesque world to show how perceptions can be blurred between the ideal and real. To begin the story, Melville’s narrator details his new farmhouse and its surrounding as a “very paradise of painters” (1). From his quaint farmhouse to his grandiose scenery, the narrator’s new home is like a scene from a picture gallery where his spirit is lifted by the sight of such beauty. -Christina V.

The fruition of reality has come full circle when the narrator realizes that the cottage is no palace to Marianna; it is her prison. Rather than rescue her from her entrapment and desolation, the narrator steals away back to his farmhouse. Distance maintained the illusion of a fantasy realm by allowing the narrator to exist comfortably with the pleasure and satisfaction of the picturesque. Only when he removes the distance between him and the glistening, gilded roof top does the narrator find himself confronted with the sublime. Once he is returned to the security of his farmhouse, the visions of Marianna and the sublimity of the mountain become a mere haunting. -Christina V.

The realm of Marianna is not ruled by a benign sun or forgiving natural elements; rather, it is dominated by a scorching sun and elements that rot and decompose the life around it. The utterance “The bench, the bed, the grave” is a blatant sign of the sublimity of nature (Melville, 7). While the narrator sees in nature healing properties, Marianna’s reality is that of a nature that deteriorates the mind and the body just as it had done her brother. Sublimity “relates to the imagery of vastness and power. Its experience, insofar as it is truly that, will always in its first phase crushingly overreach the physical or imaginative faculties of man” (Poenicke, 270). Having finally been confronted with a sublime experience, the narrator now finds himself at the threshold of reality. His ability to move forward from the disillusionment of fairyland and the picturesque now hinges on his experience with the sublime. -Christina V.

Charles Loring Brace, the founder of The Children’s Aid Society, in 1855, claimed that he was “develop[ing] the children’s character, breaking a chain of hereditary pauperism, and transforming the city’s potentially dangerous classes into productive citizens” while at the same time painting a picturesque façade for the public including the “virtues of domesticity” and romantic notions about the frontier” (Gish 122). Max Mendieta

Beneath the façade of Charles Loring Brace's supposedly virtuous emigration program, was the immoral and unethical nature of child labor, as well as the fact that such immense poverty existed for many families at the time. Brace’s ideal that this emigration process was not only good for the children, but also for society, caught on quickly and was embraced by many. For instance, according to the New York Times article, “The Friendless Children of the City—What Can Be Done for Them” written in 1854, there were “ten thousand” orphaned children in the city that were “trained systematically by their parents to vagrancy, beggary and crime” who eventually turned into an “army of thieves and murderers” (NYT, 1854) Max Mendieta

The journey up the mountain is painted in a romantic light in which luminous colors and piloting birds guide the travelers path. The beauty of nature begins to take on a darker role as the images of a barren mountainside precede a sublimity of nature the narrator is unable to fathom. Having reached cottage hidden by the mountain the narrator remarks, “No fence was seen, no inclosure. Near by -- ferns, ferns, ferns; further -- woods, woods, woods; beyond -- mountains, mountains, mountains; then -- sky, sky, sky…Nature, and but nature, house and all” as if invoking the spirit of nature to come forth and rejuvenate his soul (Melville, 6). The narrator’s pleasure in the beauty of nature blinds his ability to perceive the elements of his environment. “It is the splendor of the rainbow which casts a spell over the mind of the narrator when he first discovers the house on the mountain” (Poenicke, 269). The pursuit of the visual ideal enslaves his mind to the point where it cannot perceive or grasp any other reality than the one it has created. -Christina V.

Edmond, in The Journals of Captain James Cook on his Voyages of Discovery, says that Cook is emblematic of our own period’s difficult relation to the Enlightenment. On the one hand we recognize in the Enlightenment the roots of our own modernity, including a theoretical belief in the universal brotherhood of humankind. (. . .) On the other hand . . . we are all too aware of the ease with which Enlightenment ideas could provide a justification for actions that often violently contradicted its principles. (366) (Elizabeth Finch)

Gananath Obeyesekere, in The Apotheosis of Captain Cook: European Mythmaking in the Pacific, shows a different side of Cook that counters the idea that he actually believed himself equal with the natives. A controversy ensued when Cook’s men, needing firewood, cut down trees without getting permission from the natives. Upon seeing this, the Tongan natives stoned the woodcutters. Hearing of the incident, Captain Cook captured the responsible parties and punished them with three to six dozen lashes. Obeyesekere says, “After this a strange punishment was inflicted on the Man [sic] which received Six [sic] dozen as Captain Cooke [sic] said that he might be known hereafter, as well as to deter the rest from theft or using us ill when on Shore [sic]—this was by scoring both his arms with a common knife by one of our Seamen [sic], Longitudinally [sic] and transversely, into the Bone [sic]” (31). Cook rarely mentioned these punishments in his own journals. He may not have wanted to present the natives as sexual savages, but he also wanted to represent himself in the most affable light. Cook was kind to the natives when it suited his purpose of peaceful interaction. When his standard of interaction was violated, however, he used force to ensure the natives interacted according to his principles. (Elizabeth Finch)

Melville employs a number of literary allusions in order to critique how society attempts to paint images of the picturesque over the grotesque injustices occurring around them in order to deny their existence and bury the shame of their participation in these injustices. The narrator’s journey is marked by contradictions between the picturesque and the grotesque such as the image of the Chinese creeper. The blessed and unblessed nature of the Chinese creeper is much like that of the blessed way in which Charles Loring Brace's Orphan Trains movement removed children from the “contaminating influence of their own families” to the “good Christian homes” where they were then subjugated to a life of indentured servitude (Gish 121). Max Mendieta

It is not clear why he chooses to keep his knowledge to himself, whether he thinks it is not his responsibility to enlighten her or he thinks enlightenment will destroy her or he knows he is incapable of being her savior figure. Whatever the reason, there is a disconnect between what he thinks knowledge will do for him and what it will do for her. (Elizabeth Finch)

For the narrator, soundness of mind and foundation for reality is based on the picturesque features of his environment. He purposely places his piazza facing North, where he can view with awe Mt. Greylock, where the natural and magnificent scenery maintains his comfortable illusion of living with nature. -Christina V.

Herman Melville’s The Piazza has many mythological and theological referrals scattered throughout its pages. Greek mythology terms such as Elysium, Orion, and Damocles are intertwined with biblical references of Abraham, Lazarus, and the Kaaba (Holy Stone), among many others. These parabled sources spoke to the readers of his era in descriptors that would be easily recognizable and understandable. Melville’s conscious mixing of the two religious forms, showing more than one ideological opinion, is reminiscent of another author he was known to look to for inspiration, Plutarch (as spoken about in several commentary excerpts found in Melville’s Marginalia). Greek by birth, Plutarch integrated into Roman society in the middle part of his life, even changing his name to Lucius Plutarchus, and was witness to Roman acceptance of multiple forms of religion. Although Christianity was not accepted in Rome for another three and a half centuries, the well-rounded structure of the Roman society of Plutarch’s time was no doubt an influence on his work, and subsequently, on Melville. It is quite possible that some of the conscious or unconscious blending of these biblical and mythical concepts also came from Melville’s reading of Dante, translated by Rev. Henry Francis Cary, one of many books found in the Melville collection on the “Melville’s Marginalia” website.<br> Melville filled the pages of the Piazza with allusion, many of which can be lost on the modern reader. One such reference this contemporary reader may not readily connect to is Abraham. For Melville, this citation is most likely drawn from The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: Translated out of the Original Greek, and The Book of Psalms: Translated out of the Original Hebrew, published by the American Bible Society, New York, 1844, Book of John, pg. 171. A book found in Melville’s personal collection.<br> The Piazza quote where we first find mention of Abraham “And then, in the cool elysium of my northern bower, I, Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, cast down the hill a pitying glance on poor old Dives, tormented in the purgatory of his piazza to the south.”(Pg. 2), is a striking reference to the biblical ideal mixing of Greek Mythology and the Jewish faith. This entire idiom can be quite puzzling to the unknowing reviewer of Melville’s work. The belief is that Abraham is the father of all Jews, with all faithful Jews being called the sons and daughters of Abraham. They are promised that Abraham will be there to meet them when they pass away. The first part of the quote “I, Lazarus in Abraham's bosom,” is a reference to the story of Lazarus found in the Book of John 11, where Lazarus comes down with an illness and passes away (resting in the bosom of Abraham), until the fourth day of his passing, when Jesus visits his tomb and Lazarus is resurrected. Elysium is a common Greek citation alluded to in describing a heavenly destination for those who were heroes or lived virtuous and courageous lives. In Greek mythology, interestingly, the term refers to two ideally similar, yet geographically different, locales. The first of the two backdrops is an island paradise (Island of the Blessed), surrounded by a river, reigned over by Kronos, the son of Zeus. The second location was found in the underworld kingdom of Haides (or Hades), where it’s pleasing meadows were separated from Hell, also by a river. The river itself has held several names throughout the many reincarnations of the ancient concept, being known as Okeanos, or Lethe, but is best recognized and remembered as the river Styx. This place, Elysium, is the piazza Melville refers to where his narrator (Melville’s version of Lazarus) looks down from his heavenly perch upon the supposedly rich person of the town, left to suffer his poor views from his self-imposed hell.<br> The acknowledgment of “poor old Dives” is yet another harkening to the story of Lazarus. The biblical man, nicknamed Dives, was a rich man who did not offer any assistance to the hungry and sick Lazarus, and upon both men’s passing (which were close in interval to one another), Dives looked up from his sweltering confines in Hades (later renamed by the Catholic faith as purgatory) to see Lazarus in comfort at the side of Abraham, in Elysium.<br> It is of interest to note, on page 10 of The Piazza, a point of view change for the narrator. Instead of continuing to cast or see himself as Lazarus, the storyteller now shows the opposite human qualities of Poor Old Dives, referenced in the earlier quote from the story. This contrast could be Melville’s way of showing the hypocrisy inherently found in all humans. Melville’s orator denies the impoverished girl of the knowledge as to his true identity, and with this action, or inaction, also denies himself the ability to help relieve her misery. This could be a possible nod to tendencies of the intrinsic need for self-preservation being held in highest regard, whether we are consciously aware of it or not, and despite our supposed best intentions, morals, and values. Once, and if, the present-day reader is capable of deciphering Melville’s intimations, the underlying story of The Piazza becomes clearer. One of the biggest obstacles to reading classical works is understanding the author’s frame of reference. This inclination of recognizing the era in which a work was produced is often lost on the casual reader. Because of this, the writing (or alternative forms of art being studied) is frequently discarded based on lack of knowledge and understanding of its outdated references and allusions.<br> Through researching the terminology Melville used in the earlier quoted text, the reader is better able to relate to the idea, or message, behind the allusions. This analysis and interpretation, although complex and inconvenient at times, can open (for both the researcher and modern reader), countless windows to more well-rounded and higher levels of learning.<br> Researching this small quote from The Piazza allowed me to gain a much better perspective and appreciation of the entire text. This recognition is not only for the writing itself, or for the allusions used, which help the reviewer to envision the picture Melville has created, but for the arduous work ethic and passion which the modern examiner of these works must possess. My small foray into Melville’s world was mesmerizing. Looking through the actual library of his favorite texts, most being used in some form or other, to bolster his own writing, was for me, like seeing into the author’s mind. Melville’s annotations in several of the texts were a great insight into his personal character and beliefs. The intrinsic insights of Melville left behind in the pages of all these now classic works were also an interesting way for someone like me to see how an accomplished writer such as Melville looked at (both revering and loathing) many of his contemporaries.

Mecca

Shakespeare?