The text of The Confidence-Man reprinted here is again that of the first American edition (1857), slightly corrected.

Confidence-Man: His Masquerade 2E Norton Critical Edition

Ismaël, philanthrope original, embarque sur le Péquod, baleinier qui part vers les mers du Nord. Mais le capitaine Achab a prévu de poursuivre Moby Dick, une baleine blanche qui lui a arraché la jambe. Chacun des deux hommes donnera son propre sens à la chasse à la baleine

Moby Dick

"Mais en dépit de la façon dont je l'ai traité et bien que j'aie mis en garde mes voisins contre lui, le marchand de paratonnerres hante toujours les parages, voyage toujours quand le temps est à l'orage et fait de bonnes affaires avec les peurs humaines", Le marchand de paratonnerres. "En été aussi, tel Canute, en restant assis ici, la mer vous revient souvent en mémoire. Car non seulement de longues lames de fond parcourent les pentes de blé et les petites vaguelettes de l'herbe déferlent en ondulant sur la basse véranda, comme sur leur plage, non seulement les pissenlits sont emportés par le vent comme les embruns, la pourpre des montagnes n'est que la pourpre des flots et un paisible midi d'août règne sur les profondes prairies comme le calme sur la Ligne, mais l'immensité et la solitude sont si océaniques ainsi que le silence et l'uniformité, que lorsqu'on aperçoit une maison étrangère, se dressant par-delà les arbres, c'est pour tous comme l'apparition d'une voile inconnue sur la côte barbaresque", La véranda.

Le Marchand de paratonnerres - Suivi de La Véranda

Le mot Taïpi désigne à la fois une région de l'île Nuku-Hiva, de l'archipel des Marquises, et la population qui l'habite. C'est ce pays et ces hommes que le jeune matelot Herman Melville, évadé du navire baleinier la Dolly, fut, vers 1843, amené à connaître. Les Taïpis ont une horrible réputation : on les dit cannibales. Cela n'empêcha pas Melville et son camarade Toby de se réfugier chez eux. Contre toute attente, les deux fugitifs furent très bien accueillis et vécurent avec les Taïpis des mois merveilleux. Melville fait revivre la gentillesse et l'intelligence de ses hôtes, ses amours avec la belle Faïaoahé, ses nobles discussions avec le grand chef Mehevi, ses démêlés avec Kory-Kory son domestique... C'est vraiment un Eden que Melville a recréé.

Taïpi

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is a novel by Herman Melville, in which Ishmael narrates the monomaniacal quest of Ahab, captain of the whaler Pequod, for revenge on the albino sperm whale Moby Dick, which on a previous voyage destroyed Ahab's ship and severed his leg at the knee. Although the novel was a commercial failure and out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891, its reputation grew immensely during the twentieth century. D. H. Lawrence called it "one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world," and "the greatest book of the sea ever written." Moby-Dick is considered a Great American Novel and an outstanding work of the Romantic period in America and the American Renaissance. "Call me Ishmael" is one of world literature's most famous opening sentences. The product of a year and a half of writing, the book is dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne, "in token of my admiration for his genius," and draws on Melville's experience at sea, on his reading in whaling literature, and on literary inspirations such as Shakespeare and the Bible. The detailed and realistic descriptions of whale hunting and of extracting whale oil, as well as life aboard ship among a culturally diverse crew, are mixed with exploration of class and social status, good and evil, and the existence of God. In addition to narrative prose, Melville uses styles and literary devices ranging from songs, poetry and catalogs to Shakespearean stage directions, soliloquies and asides. The author changed the title at the very last moment in September 1851. The work first appeared as The Whale in London in October 1851, and then under its definitive title Moby-Dick in New York in November. The whale, however, appears in both the London and New York editions as "Moby Dick," with no hyphen. The British edition of five hundred copies was not reprinted during the author's life, the American of almost three thousand was reprinted three times at approximately 250 copies, the last reprinting in 1871. These figures are exaggerated because three hundred copies were destroyed in a fire at Harper's; only 3,200 copies were actually sold during the author's life.

Widely considered one of the great American novels, Herman Melville’s masterpiece went largely unread during his lifetime and was out of print at the time of his death in 1891. Called the greatest book about the sea ever written by D.H. Lawrence, Moby Dick features detailed descriptions of whale hunting and whale oil extraction as well as beautiful, incisive writing on race, class, religion, art, and society. The story, loosely based on a real whaling shipwreck, features the unforgettable, vengeful Captain Ahab, who obsessively hunts a great white whale who bit his leg off below the knee.

Herman Melville wrote White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War during two months of intense work in the summer of 1849. He drew upon his memories of naval life, having spent fourteen months as an ordinary seaman aboard a frigate as it sailed the Pacific and made the homeward voyage around Cape Horn.Already that same summer Melville had written Redburn, and he regarded the books as "two jobs, which I have done for money--being forced to it, as other men are to sawing wood." The reviewers were not as hard on White-Jacket as Melville himself was. The English liked its praise of British seamen. The Americans were more interested in Melville's attack on naval abuses, particularly flogging, and his advocacy of humanitarian causes. Soon Melville was acclaimed the best sea writer of the day.Part autobiography, part epic fiction, White-Jacket remains a brilliantly imaginative social novel by one of the great writers of the sea. This text of the novel is an Approved Text of the Center for Editions of American Authors (Modern Language Association of America).

La vareuse blanche

Pierre doit épouser Lucy. Il découvre qu'il a une demi-soeur que sa mère refuse de reconnaître. Pierre s'enfuit alors avec elle, à New York, où Lucy s'avise de les rejoindre pour vivre avec eux. Bientôt, leur vie à trois devient l'objet d'un scandale. Cette vie tourne au cauchemar quand Pierre, devenu assassin, entraîne ses compagnes dans la mort. Un roman somptueux, publié en 1852, d'une force et d'une modernité implacables.

Confidence-Man: His Masquerade 2E Norton Critical Edition

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