课件：HermanMelville赫尔曼梅尔维尔简介.ppt

Herman Melville 赫尔曼·梅尔维尔 （1819-1891） Introduction of Herman Melville Introduction of his life and family The experience as an seaman The period of his writing Herman Melville’s major work Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, writer of short stories, and poet from the American Renaissance period. The bulk of his writings was published between 1846 and 1857. He is one of the great American writers and a major figure in world literature. He is also known as the “American Shakespeare”. Herman Melville was born in New York City on August 1, 1819. He was a descendent of English and Dutch colonial families. His father, once a successful dry-goods. Melville‘s education began when he was five years old, and then he read widely. When he was 12 years old, his farther died because of bankruptcy . Since Melville was no longer attending school, he had to face the hard time of his family. In order to get rid of poverty, he began to work on merchant ship. Sailing broadened his vision. Then he became a successful writer. Withdrawn from literary circles, back in New York, being a clerk in a customhouse. His death went unnoticed by the public in 1891. In 1839, Melville decided to become a seaman, first signed on to a merchant ship that was going from Boston to liver-pool, England, and then in 1841 signed on for a long whaling cruise to the South Seas. During this harsh voyage, he met another young man. Later they ventured into a valley on the island of Nukahiva. Finally they escaped, and Melville signed as a seaman on a naval vessel and returned home in 1844. From 1841 to 1844, seafaring life had a great influence on Melville’s life. His experiences and adventures on the sea furnished him with abundant material for his fiction writings, especially his masterpiece Moby Dick. Not long after his return to the United States, Melville began to write the story of his adventures in the South Seas. In August 1847 Melville married Elizabeth Shaw