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After a long period of virtual obscurity, Herman Melville is now rated by some competent observers as the greatest writer this country has ever produced.* His major work, MOBY-DICK, was a failure when published by Harper in 1851; it was dismissed as an “extravaganza” by the “competent” critics of the day. Melville's earlier books—TYPEE, OMOO, WHITE JACKET and even MARDI—had been successes; MOBY-DICK was a rank failure, and Melville was never again a “popular” author.
Two provocative points in the Melville story have never been clariefid. What is the meaning of the MOBY-DICK epic? What prompted Melville to write PIERRE, the novel about incest which immediately followed MOBY-DICK, and which marked the end of his fruitful creative period?
In Lewis Mumford's biography of Melville,** a study which, while interesting, is out of focus on decisive points, the most frequently offered “interpretations” of the White Whale are reproduced. This includes the assumption that