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Redburn: His First Voyage, Being the Sailor-Boy, Confessions and Reminiscences of the Son-of-a-Gentleman, in the Merchant Service

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Format: Mass Market Paperback

Condition: Acceptable*

*Best Available: (ex-library)

$6.79
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Book Overview

Drawn from Melville's own adolescent experience aboard a merchant ship, Redburn charts the coming-of-age of Wellingborough Redburn, a young innocent who embarks on a crossing to Liverpool together... This description may be from another edition of this product.

Customer Reviews

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Rated 5 stars
A memorable 'first voyage'

Melville notoriously said that he wrote "Redburn" strictly to make money, this after the dismal commercial failure of his third book, "Mardi." Unlike that difficult and metaphysical work, "Redburn" was to be "nothing but cakes and ale" in its recounting of Melville's first voyage at sea. The story of 15-year-old Wellingborough Redburn (Melville himself was actually 20 years old on his first voyage) is indeed entertaining,...

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Rated 5 stars
Parzifal at sea and abroad

A tough initiation to sea life for the frustrated and angry young man from the suddenly impoverished family with the formerly wealthy background. His father has died, leaving the mother and several kids without means. Wealthy aunts and uncles do little. He goes to sea, but starts on a wrong foot. The 'Highlander' takes him from New York to Liverpool as a 'boy', but based on the misunderstanding that he is wealthy and that...

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Rated 5 stars
A deep look at Melville's heart

There are those who read Moby-Dick and say they love it because they're supposed to, because it's marked as a classic American novel; and then there are those who love Moby-Dick because its miraculous prose, its Shakespearean characters and its spirit truly get inside them. Redburn is for the second group: any real fan of Melville's unique philosophy and thorough mastery of style will love this book. Redburn is, to be sure,...

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Rated 5 stars
His First Voyage

"Redburn" is a fantastic story. It is complex, funny and mysterious. Using Wellingborough Redburn as his persona and narrator, Melville writes of his first voyage overseas, when as a young man of 19 he signs on as a common seaman on board the "Highlander", a merchant ship bount for Liverpool, England. In the first few chapters Redburn seems to be mocking himself, using a tongue-in-cheek tone as he describes his romantic...

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Rated 5 stars
Melville, Like Me

I'm one of those people who have read MOBY DICK a few times, so I may be biased towards Herman Melville, but I found REDBURN an excellent read. Though it is an argueable point; many believe that REDBURN is based on Melville's first voyage. This may not be interesting to you if you are an adherent of NEW CRITICISM, but for any Melville fan or scholar this book sheds some light on Melville's persona. I noticed some elements...

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