In phonology, a syllable coda comprises the consonant sounds of a syllable that follow the nucleus, which is usually a vowel. The combination of a nucleus and a coda is called a rime. Some syllables consist only of a nucleus with no coda. Some languages' phonotactics, like that of Japanese, limit syllable codas to a small group of single consonants, whereas others allow any consonant phoneme or even clusters of consonants.

Here are some single-syllable words that have both a nucleus and a coda (the codas are specified in the International Phonetic Alphabet):

an: coda = cup: coda = tall: coda = milk: coda = tints: coda = fifths: coda = sixths: coda = twelfths: coda =

The following single-syllable words end in a nucleus and do not have a coda (phonologically):

glue

pie

though

boy

A list of examples of syllable codas in English is found at English phonology: Coda.

See also

Syllable onset

Category:Phonology Category:Phonotactics

Caption	Woodburytype of Victor Hugo by Étienne Carjat, circa 1880
Deathdate	(aged 83)
Occupation	Poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights campaigner
Movement	Romanticism
Influences	François-René de Chateaubriand, Walter Scott, Voltaire, Alphonse de Lamartine, William Shakespeare
Influenced	Louis-Honoré Fréchette, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Ayn Rand, Irvine Welsh, Albert Camus, Gérard de Nerval, Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Oscar Wilde, Jean Cocteau, Gustave Flaubert, Jorge Luis Borges, Charles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle,
Signature	Victor Hugo Signature.svg
Birthplace	Besançon, France
Deathplace	Paris, France

Victor-Marie Hugo () (26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France.

In France, Hugo's literary fame comes first from his poetry but also rests upon his novels and his dramatic achievements. Among many volumes of poetry, Les Contemplations and La Légende des siècles stand particularly high in critical esteem, and Hugo is sometimes identified as the greatest French poet. Outside France, his best-known works are the novels Les Misérables and Notre-Dame de Paris (also known in English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame).

Though a committed royalist when he was young, Hugo's views changed as the decades passed; he became a passionate supporter of republicanism, and his work touches upon most of the political and social issues and artistic trends of his time. He is buried in the Panthéon.

Life

Hugo was the third illegitimate son of Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo (1774–1828) and Sophie Trébuchet (1772–1821); his brothers were Abel Joseph Hugo (1798–1855) and Eugène Hugo (1800–1837). He was born in 1802 in Besançon (in the region of Franche-Comté) and lived in France for the majority of his life. However, he went into exile as a result of Napoleon III's Coup d'état at the end of 1851. Hugo lived briefly in Brussels (1851) then moved to the Channel Islands, firstly to Jersey (1852–55) and then to the smaller island of Guernsey (1855–1870). Although a general amnesty was proclaimed by Napoleon III in 1859; Hugo stayed in exile, only ending it when Napoleon III was forced from power as a result of the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. Hugo returned again to Guernsey (1872–73), after suffering through the Siege of Paris, before finally returning to France for the remainder of his life.

Hugo's early childhood was marked by great events. Napoléon was proclaimed Emperor two years after Hugo's birth, and the Bourbon Monarchy was restored before his thirteenth birthday. The opposing political and religious views of Hugo's parents reflected the forces that would battle for supremacy in France throughout his life: Hugo's father was an officer who ranked very high in Napoleon's army. He was an atheist republican who considered Napoléon a hero; his mother was an extreme Catholic Royalist who is believed to have taken as her lover General Victor Lahorie, who was executed in 1812 for plotting against Napoléon. Since Hugo's father, Joseph, was an officer, they moved frequently and Hugo learned much from these travels. On his family's journey to Naples, he saw the vast Alpine passes and the snowy peaks, the magnificently blue Mediterranean, and Rome during its festivities. Though he was only nearly six at the time, he remembered the half-year-long trip vividly. They stayed in Naples for a few months and then headed back to Paris.

Sophie followed her husband to posts in Italy (where Léopold served as a governor of a province near Naples) and Spain (where he took charge of three Spanish provinces). Weary of the constant moving required by military life, and at odds with her husband's lack of Catholic beliefs, Sophie separated temporarily from Léopold in 1803 and settled in Paris. Thereafter she dominated Hugo's education and upbringing. As a result, Hugo's early work in poetry and fiction reflect a passionate devotion to both King and Faith. It was only later, during the events leading up to France's 1848 Revolution, that he would begin to rebel against his Catholic Royalist education and instead champion Republicanism and Freethought.

Young Victor fell in love and against his mother's wishes, became secretly engaged to his childhood friend Adèle Foucher (1803–1868).

Unusually close to his mother, he married Adèle (in 1822) only after his mother's death in 1821. They had their first child Léopold in 1823, but the boy died in infancy. Hugo's other children were Léopoldine (28 August 1824), Charles (4 November 1826), François-Victor (28 October 1828) and Adèle (24 August 1830). Hugo published his first novel the following year (Han d'Islande, 1823), and his second three years later (Bug-Jargal, 1826). Between 1829 and 1840 he would publish five more volumes of poetry (Les Orientales, 1829; Les Feuilles d'automne, 1831; Les Chants du crépuscule, 1835; Les Voix intérieures, 1837; and Les Rayons et les ombres, 1840), cementing his reputation as one of the greatest elegiac and lyric poets of his time.

for Notre Dame de Paris (1881) showing the recently restored galerie des chimères]]

Victor Hugo was devastated when his oldest and favorite daughter, Léopoldine, died at age 19 in 1843, shortly after her marriage. She drowned in the Seine at Villequier, pulled down by her heavy skirts, when a boat overturned. Her young husband died trying to save her. Victor Hugo was traveling with his mistress at the time in the south of France, and learned about Léopoldine's death from a newspaper as he sat in a cafe. He describes his shock and grief in his poem À Villequier:

Hélas ! vers le passé tournant un oeil d'envie, Sans que rien ici-bas puisse m'en consoler, Je regarde toujours ce moment de ma vie Où je l'ai vue ouvrir son aile et s'envoler !

Je verrai cet instant jusqu'à ce que je meure, L'instant, pleurs superflus ! Où je criai : L'enfant que j'avais tout à l'heure, Quoi donc ! je ne l'ai plus !

''

Alas! turning an envious eye towards the past, unconsolable by anything on earth, I keep looking at that moment of my life when I saw her open her wings and fly away!

I will see that instant until I die, that instant—too much for tears! when I cried out: "The child that I had just now-- what! I don't have her any more!"

He wrote many poems afterwards about his daughter's life and death, and at least one biographer claims he never completely recovered from it. His most famous poem is probably Demain, dès l'aube, in which he describes visiting her grave.

Writings

Like many young writers of his generation, Hugo was profoundly influenced by François-René de Chateaubriand, the famous figure in the literary movement of Romanticism and France's preëminent literary figure during the early 19th century. In his youth, Hugo resolved to be "Chateaubriand or nothing," and his life would come to parallel that of his predecessor in many ways. Like Chateaubriand, Hugo would further the cause of Romanticism, become involved in politics as a champion of Republicanism, and be forced into exile due to his political stances. The precocious passion and eloquence of Hugo's early work brought success and fame at an early age. His first collection of poetry (Odes et poésies diverses) was published in 1822, when Hugo was only twenty years old, and earned him a royal pension from Louis XVIII. Though the poems were admired for their spontaneous fervor and fluency, it was the collection that followed four years later in 1826 (Odes et Ballades) that revealed Hugo to be a great poet, a natural master of lyric and creative song.

Victor Hugo's first mature work of fiction appeared in 1829, and reflected the acute social conscience that would infuse his later work. Le Dernier jour d'un condamné (The Last Day of a Condemned Man) would have a profound influence on later writers such as Albert Camus, Charles Dickens, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Claude Gueux, a documentary short story about a real-life murderer who had been executed in France, appeared in 1834, and was later considered by Hugo himself to be a precursor to his great work on social injustice, Les Misérables. But Hugo's first full-length novel would be the enormously successful Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame), which was published in 1831 and quickly translated into other languages across Europe. One of the effects of the novel was to shame the City of Paris into restoring the much-neglected Cathedral of Notre Dame, which was attracting thousands of tourists who had read the popular novel. The book also inspired a renewed appreciation for pre-renaissance buildings, which thereafter began to be actively preserved. , from the original edition of Les Misérables (1862)]]

Hugo began planning a major novel about social misery and injustice as early as the 1830s, but it would take a full 17 years for Les Misérables, to be realized and finally published in 1862. The author was acutely aware of the quality of the novel and publication of the work went to the highest bidder. The Belgian publishing house Lacroix and Verboeckhoven undertook a marketing campaign unusual for the time, issuing press releases about the work a full six months before the launch. It also initially published only the first part of the novel ("Fantine"), which was launched simultaneously in major cities. Installments of the book sold out within hours, and had enormous impact on French society. The critical establishment was generally hostile to the novel; Taine found it insincere, Barbey d'Aurevilly complained of its vulgarity, Flaubert found within it "neither truth nor greatness", the Goncourts lambasted its artificiality, and Baudelaire – despite giving favorable reviews in newspapers – castigated it in private as "tasteless and inept." Les Misérables proved popular enough with the masses that the issues it highlighted were soon on the agenda of the French National Assembly. Today the novel remains his most enduringly popular work. It is popular worldwide, has been adapted for cinema, television and stage shows.

The shortest correspondence in history is said to have been between Hugo and his publisher Hurst & Blackett in 1862. It is said Hugo was on vacation when Les Misérables (which is over 1200 pages) was published. He sent a letter containing the single-character message '?' to his publisher, who replied with a single '!'.

Hugo turned away from social/political issues in his next novel, Les Travailleurs de la Mer (Toilers of the Sea), published in 1866. Nonetheless, the book was well received, perhaps due to the previous success of Les Misérables. Dedicated to the channel island of Guernsey where he spent 15 years of exile, Hugo's depiction of Man's battle with the sea and the horrible creatures lurking beneath its depths spawned an unusual fad in Paris: Squids. From squid dishes and exhibitions, to squid hats and parties, Parisians became fascinated by these unusual sea creatures, which at the time were still considered by many to be mythical. The word used in Guernsey to refer to squid (pieuvre, also sometimes applied to octopus) was to enter the French language as a result of its use in the book. Hugo returned to political and social issues in his next novel, L'Homme Qui Rit (The Man Who Laughs), which was published in 1869 and painted a critical picture of the aristocracy. However, the novel was not as successful as his previous efforts, and Hugo himself began to comment on the growing distance between himself and literary contemporaries such as Flaubert and Émile Zola, whose realist and naturalist novels were now exceeding the popularity of his own work. His last novel, Quatre-vingt-treize (Ninety-Three), published in 1874, dealt with a subject that Hugo had previously avoided: the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution. Though Hugo's popularity was on the decline at the time of its publication, many now consider Ninety-Three to be a work on par with Hugo's better-known novels.

Political life and exile

After three unsuccessful attempts, Hugo was finally elected to the Académie française in 1841, solidifying his position in the world of French arts and letters. A group of French academiciens, particularly Etienne de Jouy, were fighting against the "romantic evolution" and had managed to delay Victor Hugo's election. Thereafter he became increasingly involved in French politics. He was elevated to the peerage by King Louis-Philippe in 1841 and entered the Higher Chamber as a pair de France, where he spoke against the death penalty and social injustice, and in favour of freedom of the press and self-government for Poland. However, he was also becoming more supportive of the Republican form of government and, following the 1848 Revolution and the formation of the Second Republic, was elected to the Constitutional Assembly and the Legislative Assembly. (1853–55)]]

When Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III) seized complete power in 1851, establishing an anti-parliamentary constitution, Hugo openly declared him a traitor to France. He relocated to Brussels, then Jersey, and finally settled with his family at Hauteville House in Saint Peter Port, Guernsey, where he would live in exile until 1870.

While in exile, Hugo published his famous political pamphlets against Napoleon III, Napoléon le Petit and Histoire d'un crime. The pamphlets were banned in France, but nonetheless had a strong impact there. He also composed or published some of his best work during his period in Guernsey, including Les Misérables, and three widely praised collections of poetry (Les Châtiments, 1853; Les Contemplations, 1856; and La Légende des siècles, 1859).

He convinced the government of Queen Victoria to spare the lives of six Irish people convicted of terrorist activities and his influence was credited in the removal of the death penalty from the constitutions of Geneva, Portugal and Colombia. He had also pleaded for Benito Juárez to spare the recently captured emperor Maximilian I of Mexico but to no avail.

Although Napoleon III granted an amnesty to all political exiles in 1859, Hugo declined, as it meant he would have to curtail his criticisms of the government. It was only after Napoleon III fell from power and the Third Republic was proclaimed that Hugo finally returned to his homeland in 1870, where he was promptly elected to the National Assembly and the Senate.

He was in Paris during the siege by the Prussian army in 1870, famously eating animals given to him by the Paris zoo. As the siege continued, and food became ever more scarce, he wrote in his diary that he was reduced to "eating the unknown."

Because of his concern for the rights of artists and copyright, he was a founding member of the Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale, which led to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.

Religious views

Hugo's religious views changed radically over the course of his life. In his youth, he identified himself as a Catholic and professed respect for Church hierarchy and authority. From there he became a non-practicing Catholic, and increasingly expressed anti-Catholic and anti-clerical views. He frequented Spiritism during his exile (where he participated also in many séances conducted by Madame Delphine de Girardin), and in later years settled into a Rationalist Deism similar to that espoused by Voltaire. A census-taker asked Hugo in 1872 if he was a Catholic, and he replied, "No. A Freethinker".

After that point, Hugo never lost his antipathy towards the Catholic Church, due largely to what he saw as the Church's indifference to the plight of the working class under the oppression of the monarchy; and perhaps also due to the frequency with which Hugo's work appeared on the Church's Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Hugo counted 740 attacks on Les Misérables in the Catholic press). On the deaths of his sons Charles and François-Victor, he insisted that they be buried without a crucifix or priest, and in his will made the same stipulation about his own death and funeral. However, although Hugo believed Catholic dogma to be outdated and dying, he never directly attacked the actual doctrines of the Church.

Hugo's Rationalism can be found in poems such as Torquemada (1869, about religious fanaticism), The Pope (1878, anti-clerical), Religions and Religion (1880, denying the usefulness of churches) and, published posthumously, The End of Satan and God (1886 and 1891 respectively, in which he represents Christianity as a griffin and Rationalism as an angel). "Religions pass away, but God remains", Hugo declared. Christianity would eventually disappear, he predicted, but people would still believe in "God, Soul, and the Power."

Victor Hugo and music

of Victor Hugo, 1883]] Although Hugo's many talents did not include exceptional musical ability, he nevertheless had a great impact on the music world through the inspiration that his works provided for composers of the 19th and 20th century. Hugo himself particularly enjoyed the music of Gluck and Weber and greatly admired Beethoven, and rather unusually for his time, he also appreciated works by composers from earlier centuries such as Palestrina and Monteverdi. Two famous musicians of the 19th century were friends of Hugo: Berlioz and Liszt. The latter played Beethoven in Hugo's home, and Hugo joked in a letter to a friend that thanks to Liszt's piano lessons, he learned how to play a favourite song on the piano – even though only with one finger! Hugo also worked with composer Louise Bertin, writing the libretto for her 1836 opera La Esmeralda which was based on the character in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Although for various reasons the opera closed soon after its fifth performance and is little known today, it has been recently enjoying a revival, both in a piano/song concert version by Liszt at the Festival international Victor Hugo et Égaux 2007 and in a full orchestral version presented in July 2008 at Le Festival de Radio France et Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon.

Well over one thousand musical compositions have been inspired by Hugo's works from the 19th century until the present day. In particular, Hugo's plays, in which he rejected the rules of classical theatre in favour of romantic drama, attracted the interest of many composers who adapted them into operas. More than one hundred operas are based on Hugo's works and among them are Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia (1833), Verdi's Rigoletto (1851) and Ernani (1844), and Ponchielli's La Gioconda (1876). Hugo's novels as well as his plays have been a great source of inspiration for musicians, stirring them to create not only opera and ballet but musical theatre such as Notre-Dame de Paris and the ever-popular Les Misérables, London West End's longest running musical. Additionally, Hugo's beautiful poems have attracted an exceptional amount of interest from musicians, and numerous melodies have been based on his poetry by composers such as Berlioz, Bizet, Fauré, Franck, Lalo, Liszt, Massenet, Saint-Saëns, Rachmaninov and Wagner.

Today, Hugo's work continues to stimulate musicians to create new compositions. For example, Hugo's novel against capital punishment, The Last Day of a Condemned Man, has recently been adapted into an opera by David Alagna (libretto by Frédérico Alagna). Their brother, tenor Roberto Alagna, performed in the opera's premiere in Paris in the summer of 2007 and again in February 2008 in Valencia with Erwin Schrott as part of the Festival international Victor Hugo et Égaux 2008. In Guernsey, every two years the Victor Hugo International Music Festival attracts a wide range of musicians and the premiere of songs specially commissioned from such composers as Guillaume Connesson, Richard Dubugnon, Olivier Kaspar and Thierry Escaich and based on Hugo's poetry.

Declining years and death

.]] .]]

When Hugo returned to Paris in 1870, the country hailed him as a national hero. Despite his popularity Hugo lost his bid for reelection to the National Assembly in 1872. Within a brief period, he suffered a mild stroke, his daughter Adèle's internment in an insane asylum, and the death of his two sons. (Adèle's biography inspired the movie The Story of Adele H.) His wife Adèle had died in 1868. His faithful mistress, Juliette Drouet, died in 1883, only two years before his own death. Despite his personal loss, Hugo remained committed to the cause of political change. On 30 January 1876 Hugo was elected to the newly created Senate. The last phase of his political career is considered a failure. Hugo took on the role of a maverick and got little done in the Senate.

In February 1881 Hugo celebrated his 79th birthday. To honor the fact that he was entering his eightieth year, one of the greatest tributes to a living writer was held. The celebrations began on the 25th when Hugo was presented with a Sèvres vase, the traditional gift for sovereigns. On the 27th one of the largest parades in French history was held. Marchers stretched from Avenue d'Eylau, down the Champs-Élysées, and all the way to the center of Paris. The paraders marched for six hours to pass Hugo as he sat in the window at his house. Every inch and detail of the event was for Hugo; the official guides even wore cornflowers as an allusion to Cosette's song in Les Misérables.

Victor Hugo's death on 22 May 1885, at the age of 83, generated intense national mourning. He was not only revered as a towering figure in literature, he was a statesman who shaped the Third Republic and democracy in France. More than two million people joined his funeral procession in Paris from the Arc de Triomphe to the Panthéon, where he was buried. He shares a crypt within the Panthéon with Alexandre Dumas and Émile Zola. Most large French towns and cities have a street named for him. The avenue where he died, in Paris, now bears his name.

Drawings

Victor Hugo was a prolific visual artist, producing more than 4,000 drawings in his lifetime. Originally pursued as a casual hobby, drawing became more important to Hugo shortly before his exile, when he made the decision to stop writing in order to devote himself to politics. Drawing became his exclusive creative outlet during the period 1848–1851.

Hugo worked only on paper, and on a small scale; usually in dark brown or black pen-and-ink wash, sometimes with touches of white, and rarely with color. The surviving drawings are surprisingly accomplished and "modern" in their style and execution, foreshadowing the experimental techniques of Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism.

He would not hesitate to use his children's stencils, ink blots, puddles and stains, lace impressions, "pliage" or folding (i.e. Rorschach blots), "grattage" or rubbing, often using the charcoal from match sticks or his fingers instead of pen or brush. Sometimes he would even toss in coffee or soot to get the effects he wanted. It is reported that Hugo often drew with his left hand or without looking at the page, or during Spiritualist séances, in order to access his unconscious mind, a concept only later popularized by Sigmund Freud.

Hugo kept his artwork out of the public eye, fearing it would overshadow his literary work. However, he enjoyed sharing his drawings with his family and friends, often in the form of ornately handmade calling cards, many of which were given as gifts to visitors when he was in political exile. Some of his work was shown to, and appreciated by, contemporary artists such as Van Gogh and Delacroix; the latter expressed the opinion that if Hugo had decided to become a painter instead of a writer, he would have outshone the artists of their century.

Gallery:

Memorials

postage stamp.]] The people of Guernsey erected a statue in Candie Gardens (St. Peter Port) to commemorate his stay in the islands. The City of Paris has preserved his residences Hauteville House, Guernsey and 6, Place des Vosges, Paris as museums. The house where he stayed in Vianden, Luxembourg, in 1871 has also become a commemorative museum.

Hugo is venerated as a saint in the Vietnamese religion of Cao Dai.

The Avenue Victor-Hugo in the XVIème arrondissement of Paris bears Hugo's name, and links the Place de l'Étoile to the vicinity of the Bois de Boulogne by way of the Place Victor-Hugo. This square is served by a Paris Métro stop also named in his honor. A number of streets and avenues throughout France are likewise named after him. The school Lycée Victor Hugo was founded in his town of birth, Besançon in France. Avenue Victor-Hugo, located in Shawinigan, Quebec, Canada, was named to honor him.

In the city of Avellino, Italy, Victor Hugo lived briefly stayed in what is now known as Il Palazzo Culturale, when reuniting with his father, Leopold Sigisbert Hugo, in 1808. Victor would later write about his brief stay here quoting "C’était un palais de marbre...".

Works

Published during Hugo's lifetime

Cromwell preface only (1819)

Odes et poésies diverses (1822)

Odes (Hugo) (1823)

Han d'Islande (1823) (Hans of Iceland)

Nouvelles Odes (1824)

Bug-Jargal (1826)

Nils Gunnar Lie's history (1826)

Odes et Ballades (1826)

Cromwell (1827)

Les Orientales (1829)

Le Dernier jour d'un condamné (1829) (The Last Day of a Condemned Man)

Hernani (1830)

Notre-Dame de Paris (1831), (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame)

Marion Delorme (1831)

Les Feuilles d'automne (1831)

Le roi s'amuse (1832)

Lucrèce Borgia (1833) (Lucretia Borgia)

Marie Tudor (1833)

Littérature et philosophie mêlées (1834)

Claude Gueux (1834)

Angelo, tyran de padoue (1835)

Les Chants du crépuscule (1835)

La Esmeralda (only libretto of an opera written by Victor Hugo himself) (1836)

Les Voix intérieures (1837)

Ruy Blas (1838)

Les Rayons et les ombres (1840)

Le Rhin (1842)

Les Burgraves (1843)

Napoléon le Petit (1852)

Les Châtiments (1853)

Les Contemplations (1856)

Les TRYNE (1856)

La Légende des siècles (1859)

Les Misérables (1862)

William Shakespeare (1864)

Les Chansons des rues et des bois (1865)

Les Travailleurs de la Mer (1866), (Toilers of the Sea)

La voix de Guernsey (1867)

L'Homme qui rit (1869), (The Man Who Laughs)

L'Année terrible (1872)

Quatrevingt-treize (Ninety-Three) (1874)

Mes Fils (1874)

Actes et paroles – Avant l'exil (1875)

Actes et paroles – Pendant l'exil (1875)

Actes et paroles – Depuis l'exil (1876)

La Légende des Siècles 2e série (1877)

L'Art d'être grand-père (1877)

Histoire d'un crime 1re partie (1877)

Histoire d'un crime 2e partie (1878)

Le Pape (1878)

La pitié suprême (1879)

Religions et religion (1880)

L'Âne (1880)

Les Quatres vents de l'esprit (1881)

Torquemada (1882)

La Légende des siècles Tome III (1883)

L'Archipel de la Manche (1883)

Poems of Victor Hugo

Published posthumously

Théâtre en liberté (1886)

La fin de Satan (1886)

Choses vues (1887)

Toute la lyre (1888)

Amy Robsart (1889)

Les Jumeaux (1889)

Actes et Paroles Depuis l'exil, 1876–1885 (1889)

Alpes et Pyrénées (1890)

Dieu (1891)

France et Belgique (1892)

Toute la lyre – dernière série (1893)

Les fromages (1895)

Correspondences – Tome I (1896)

Correspondences – Tome II (1898)

Les années funestes (1898)

Choses vues – nouvelle série (1900)

Post-scriptum de ma vie (1901)

Dernière Gerbe (1902)

Mille francs de récompense (1934)

Océan. Tas de pierres (1942)

L'Intervention (1951)

Conversations with Eternity

Online texts

Works by Victor Hugo at Internet Archive

Works by Victor Hugo at The Online Books Page

Political speeches by Victor Hugo: Victor Hugo, My Revenge is Fraternity!

Selected Poetry

Biography and speech from 1851

Obituary in The Times

References

Online references

Afran, Charles (1997). “Victor Hugo: French Dramatist”. Website: Discover France. (Originally published in Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, 1997, v.9.0.1.) Retrieved November 2005.

Bates, Alfred (1906). “Victor Hugo”. Website: Theatre History. (Originally published in The Drama: Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization, vol. 9. ed. Alfred Bates. London: Historical Publishing Company, 1906. pp. 11–13.) Retrieved November 2005.

Bates, Alfred (1906). “Hernani”. Website: Theatre History. (Originally published in The Drama: Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization, vol. 9. ed. Alfred Bates. London: Historical Publishing Company, 1906. pp. 20–23.) Retrieved November 2005.

Bates, Alfred (1906). “Hugo’s Cromwell”. Website: Theatre History. (Originally published in The Drama: Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization, vol. 9. ed. Alfred Bates. London: Historical Publishing Company, 1906. pp. 18–19.) Retrieved November 2005.

Bittleston, Misha (uncited date). "Drawings of Victor Hugo". Website: Misha Bittleston. Retrieved November 2005.

Burnham, I.G. (1896). “Amy Robsart”. Website: Theatre History. (Originally published in Victor Hugo: Dramas. Philadelphia: The Rittenhouse Press, 1896. pp. 203–6, 401–2.) Retrieved November 2005.

Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th Edition (2001–05). “Hugo, Victor Marie, Vicomte”. Website: Bartleby, Great Books Online. Retrieved November 2005. Retrieved November 2005.

Haine, W. Scott (1997). “Victor Hugo”. Encyclopedia of 1848 Revolutions. Website: Ohio University. Retrieved November 2005.

Illi, Peter (2001–2004). “Victor Hugo: Plays”. Website: The Victor Hugo Website. Retrieved November 2005.

Karlins, N.F. (1998). "Octopus With the Initials V.H." Website: ArtNet. Retrieved November 2005.

Liukkonen, Petri (2000). “Victor Hugo (1802–1885)”. Books and Writers. Website: Pegasos: A Literature Related Resource Site. Retrieved November 2005.

Meyer, Ronald Bruce (2004). “Victor Hugo”. Website: Ronald Bruce Meyer. Retrieved November 2005.

Portasio, Manoel (2009). “Victor Hugo e o Espiritismo”. Website: Sir William Crookes Spiritist Society. (Portuguese) Retrieved August 2010.

Robb, Graham (1997). “A Sabre in the Night”. Website: New York Times (Books). (Excerpt from Graham, Robb (1997). Victor Hugo: A Biography. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.) Retrieved November 2005.

Roche, Isabel (2005). “Victor Hugo: Biography”. Meet the Writers. Website: Barnes & Noble. (From the Barnes & Noble Classics edition of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 2005.) Retrieved November 2005.

Schneider, Maria do Carmo M (2010). “Victor Hugo, gênio sem fronteiras”. Website: MiniWeb Educacao. (Portuguese) Retrieved August 2010.

Uncited Author. “Victor Hugo”. Website: Spartacus Educational. Retrieved November 2005.

Uncited Author. “Timeline of Victor Hugo”. Website: BBC. Retrieved November 2005.

Uncited Author. (2000–2005). “Victor Hugo”. Website: The Literature Network. Retrieved November 2005.

Uncited Author. "Hugo Caricature". Website: Présence de la Littérature a l'école. Retrieved November 2005.

Further reading

Barbou, Alfred (1882). Victor Hugo and His Times. University Press of the Pacific: 2001 paper back edition. Book sources

Barnett, Marva A., ed. (2009). Victor Hugo on Things That Matter: A Reader. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. Book sources

Brombert, Victor H. (1984). Victor Hugo and the Visionary Novel. Boston: Harvard University Press. Book sources

Davidson, A.F. (1912). Victor Hugo: His Life and Work. University Press of the Pacific: 2003 paperback edition. Book sources

Dow, Leslie Smith (1993). Adele Hugo: La Miserable. Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions. Book sources

Falkayn, David (2001). Guide to the Life, Times, and Works of Victor Hugo. University Press of the Pacific. Book sources

Feller, Martin, Der Dichter in der Politik. Victor Hugo und der deutsch-französische Krieg von 1870/71. Untersuchungen zum französischen Deutschlandbild und zu Hugos Rezeption in Deutschland. Doctoral Dissertation, Marburg 1988.

Frey, John Andrew (1999). A Victor Hugo Encyclopedia. Greenwood Press. Book sources

Grant, Elliot (1946). The Career of Victor Hugo. Harvard University Press. Out of print.

Halsall, A.W. et al. (1998). Victor Hugo and the Romantic Drama. University of Toronto Press.Book sources

Hart, Simon Allen (2004). Lady in the Shadows: The Life and Times of Julie Drouet, Mistress, Companion and Muse to Victor Hugo. Publish American. Book sources

Houston, John Porter (1975). Victor Hugo. New York: Twayne Publishers. Book sources

Hovasse, Jean-Marc (2001), Victor Hugo: Avant l'exil. Paris: Fayard. Book sources

Hovasse, Jean-Marc (2008), Victor Hugo: Pendant l'exil I. Paris: Fayard. Book sources

Ireson, J.C. (1997). Victor Hugo: A Companion to His Poetry. Clarendon Press. Book sources

Laster, Arnaud (2002). Hugo à l'Opéra. Paris: L'Avant-Scène Opéra, no. 208.

Maurois, Andre (1956). Olympio: The Life of Victor Hugo. New York: Harper & Brothers.

Maurois, Andre (1966). Victor Hugo and His World. London: Thames and Hudson. Out of print.

Pouchain, Gérard and Robert Sabourin (1992). Juliette Drouet, ou, La dépaysée. Paris: Fayard. Book sources

Robb, Graham (1997). Victor Hugo: A Biography. W.W. Norton & Company: 1999 paperback edition. Book sources, (description/reviews at wwnorton.com)

Tonazzi, Pascal (2007) Florilège de Notre-Dame de Paris (anthologie) Paris, Editions Arléa ISBN 2-86959-795-9

External links

France of Victor Hugo

Guernsey’s Official Victor Hugo Website

Guernsey’s Victor Hugo International Music Festival

Victor Hugo Central

Victor Hugo's works: text, concordances and frequency lists

1867 Caricature of Victor Hugo by André Gill

Victor Hugo le dessinateur

Translation of Victor Hugo note found in "Hunchback of Notre Dame," french edition

English translation of Hugo's At Dawn Tomorrow (Demain, dès l'aube)

Another English translation of Demain, dès l'aube

English translation of Hugo's A Villequier

English translation of Hugo's Oh ! je fus comme fou dans le premier moment ('Oh! I was like a crazy man in the first moment') on the death of his daughter Léopoldine

Official site of the Société des Amis de Victor Hugo

Official site of the Festival international Victor Hugo et Égaux

Translation of The legend of Victor Hugo by Paul Lafargue

Category:1802 births Category:1885 deaths Category:19th-century French writers Category:19th-century theatre Category:Burials at the Panthéon Category:Cao Dai saints Category:Deists Category:French anti-death penalty activists Category:French dramatists and playwrights Category:French fantasy writers Category:French novelists Category:French poets Category:French-language poets Category:Guernsey writers Category:Jersey writers Category:Lycée Louis-le-Grand alumni Category:Members of the Académie française Category:Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Category:People from Besançon Category:Philhellenes Category:Romantic poets Category:Rosicrucians Category:Spiritualists Category:University of Paris alumni Category:Western mystics Category:Writers who illustrated their own writing

Name	Maybeshewill
Landscape	yes
Background	group_or_band
Origin	Leicester, UK
Genre	Post-rock, electronica, post-metal, math rock, instrumental
Years active	2005–present
Label	Robot Needs Home, Field Records, XTAL Records
Url	maybeshewill.net
Current members	James CollinsJohn HelpsRobin SouthbyJamie Ward

Maybeshewill are an instrumental band from Leicester, United Kingdom whose music is characterised by the use of programmed and sampled electronic elements alongside guitars, bass and drums.

Maybeshewill has seen a number of musicians come and go, but core members Robin Southby, John Helps and James Collins have been with the band since their first tour and album.

History

Maybeshewill was formed by guitarists Robin Southby and John Helps whilst the pair were studying together at university in 2005. They released their first record Japanese Spy Transcript on the band's own label, Robot Needs Home Records in 2006 with Tanya Byrne on bass guitar and Lawrie Malen on drums. The 4-track EP was well received by the press and attracted the attention of Nottingham's Field Records (also home to Public Relations Exercise) who released "The Paris Hilton Sex Tape" (taken from the record) as part of a split 7" single with Ann Arbor later that year. In August 2006 a re-mastered version of Japanese Spy Transcript was released in Japan on the XTAL label (also home to Yndi halda and You Slut!) which was set up specifically for the release by The Media Factory Group. Shortly after this release the band dissolved temporarily.

In May 2007, John and Robin began working with drummer James Collins (formerly a member of Fight Fire With Water) and bassist Andrew Jackson, along with a number of guest vocalists and musicians on an album entitled Not for Want of Trying. The record was released on Monday 12 May 2008 through Field Records, and was chosen by BBC Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens as his album of the week in its release week. 'The Paris Hilton Sex Tape' also featured on the cover CD of June's edition of Rock Sound magazine.

Thirteen months later on 7 June 2009, the band released their second LP Sing The Word Hope In Four-Part Harmony through Field Records, with Victoria Sztuka taking Andrew Jacksons place on bass guitar. This was a heavier record which saw them continue to try to break away from the post-rock tag with which they are often labelled. The record was received well by both press and fans alike, but did receive some criticism for failing to depart substantially enough from the band's established sound.

After the release of Sing The Word Hope, The band returned to the three-piece line-up of James Collins, John Helps and Robin Southby. They were joined in 2009 by Jamie Ward, a former member of Kyte and Tired Irie who was to guide the recording session for their third album, as well as filling the vacant role of bassist.

As of August 2009 the band are known to be working on an album for release in 2011.

Maybeshewill tour very regularly across the UK, Europe and Asia. This has seen them pair up with Fight Fire With Water, worriedaboutsatan, And So I Watch You From Afar, Death Of London and Cats & Cats & Cats on various excursions. They have also appeared at Summer Sundae Weekender, Truck Festival, Brainwash Festival 2000 Trees, Hockley Hustle and Dot To Dot.

Ethics and ethos

The band have stated in a number of interviews that they are concerned about the state of the mainstream music industry and as such continue to work with 'DIY' label Field Records, release a lot of their music themselves through Robot Needs Home, and are learning to do the jobs that would normally be performed by managers and booking agents themselves. Up until December 2010 they had booked all their tours 'in-house' and recorded all their music themselves using borrowed equipment and spare rooms. The band have claimed in interviews that they wanted to prove that it's possible to make music without spending any money. In the liner notes of Sing The Word Hope In Four-Part Harmony they published a brief guide to the approach that they take, as well as information on how they go about recording everything themselves.

Although not a 'political' band as such, many of the samples and song-titles within their music hint at broadly left-wing, somewhat socialist or idealistic ideas. For example This Time Last Year from Sing The Word Hope In Four-Part Harmony uses a sample from I Heart Huckabees in which the characters discuss whether a desire to preserve open space is a socialist idea, and the same album's title track includes a long monologue bemoaning the state of the society, but praising the community in which the band exists and suggesting hope for the future.

Musical style

The band have described their sound as "instrumental rock with electronics", while Drowned in Sound described them as sounding "like Mogwai would if the latter had ever found love in an arthouse cinema. And then were beaten around the head with a keyboard". Comparisons have also been made with Sigur Rós, and 65daysofstatic were often mentioned by reviewers as a likely influence on their earlier work. Their tracks often include samples of film or other dialogue; "Not for Want of Trying" contains a sample from Network, while Sing the Word Hope in Four Part Harmony includes samples of broadcaster Edward R. Murrow, and excerpts from Young Winston.

Members

Current members

James Collins (Drums)

John Helps (Guitar)

Robin Southby (Guitar)

Jamie Ward (Bass)

Former members

Victoria Sztuka (bass)

Andy Jackson (bass)

Dave Voss (drums)

Lawrie Malen (drums)

Tanya Byrne (bass)

Kris Tearse (drums)

Scott West (guitar)

Discography

Albums

Not For Want of Trying (Field Records UK & EU, XTAL JP) (May 2008)

Sing the Word Hope in Four-Part Harmony (Field Records UK & EU, XTAL JP) (June 2009)

I Was Here For a Moment, Then I Was Gone (May 2011)

EPs

Japanese Spy Transcript (EP) (XTAL JP) (August 2006)

Singles and Minor Releases

Ann Arbor / Maybeshewill Split (7" Single) (Field Records) (July 2006)

Seraphim & Cherubim / Heartflusters (CD-R Single) (Robot Needs Home) (September 2007)

Anti-Semantics: The Remixes Vol. 1 (CD-R EP) (Robot Needs Home) (May 2008)

Amateur Grammatics: The Remixes Vol. 2 (CD-R EP) (Robot Needs Home) (October 2008)

Maybeshewill / Her Name is Calla Split (12" Single) (Field Records) (November 2008)

"The Remixes 2005 - 2010" (CD-R Album) (Robot Needs Home) (April 2010)

To The Skies From A Hillside (7" Single) (Field Records) (October 2010)''

Critical Distance (7" Single) (Function Records) (March 2011)

Compilations

Kill All Humans (CD-R Compilation) (Robot Needs Home) (September 2007)

Notes 1 (Mini CD-R and Art Compilation) (Notes) (Unknown 2009)

Tellison - Contact! Contact! Remixed (Remix Compilation) (Drums Don't Kill Records) (January 2009)

White Noise One (CD-R Compilation) (Robot Needs Home) (May 2009)

"Truck 12" (Compilation) (June 2009)

Not For Want of Trying + 4 (Field Records UK & EU) (October 2009)

"White Noise Two" (CD-R Compilation) (Robot Needs Home) (December 2009)

"Off The Cuff" (Compilation) (Big Scary Monsters) (August 2010)

References

External links

Official Website

Official Myspace Page

Official Facebook Page

Maybeshewill on Last.fm

Official Twitter Feed

Maybeshewill interview on Rockmidgets.com (2008)

Maybeshewill interview on Rockmidgets.com (2009)

XTAL Records

Category:English rock music groups Category:English post-rock groups Category:English electronic music groups Category:Leicester musical groups

Name	Herman Melville
Caption	Melville in 1860.
Birthdate	August 01, 1819
Birthplace	New York City, New York, U.S.
Deathdate	September 28, 1891
Deathplace	New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Novelist, short story writer, teacher, sailor, lecturer, poet, customs inspector
Nationality	American
Genre	Travelogue, Captivity narrative, Sea story, Gothic Romanticism, Allegory, Tall tale
Movement	Romanticism, and Skepticism; precursor to Modernism, precursor to absurdism and existentialism
Signature	Herman Melville signature.svg

Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd. His first three books gained much contemporary attention (the first, Typee, becoming a bestseller), but after a fast-blooming literary success in the late 1840s, his popularity declined precipitously in the mid-1850s and never recovered during his lifetime. When he died in 1891, he was almost completely forgotten. It was not until the "Melville Revival" in the early 20th century that his work won recognition, especially Moby-Dick which was hailed as one of the literary masterpieces of both American and world literature. He was the first writer to have his works collected and published by the Library of America.

Biography

Early life, education, and family

Herman Melville was born in New York City on August 1, 1819, the third of eight children of Allan and Maria Gansevoort Melvill. After her husband Allan died, Maria added an "e" to the family surname. Part of a well-established and colorful Boston family, Melville's father spent a good deal of time abroad as a commission merchant and an importer of French dry goods. The author's paternal grandfather, Major Thomas Melvill, an honored participant of the Boston Tea Party who refused to change the style of his clothing or manners to fit the times, was depicted in Oliver Wendell Holmes's poem "The Last Leaf". Herman visited him in Boston, and his father turned to him in his frequent times of financial need. The maternal side of Melville's family was Hudson Valley Dutch. His maternal grandfather was General Peter Gansevoort, a hero of the Battle of Saratoga; in his gold-laced uniform, the general sat for a portrait painted by Gilbert Stuart, which is described in Melville's 1852 novel, , for Melville wrote out of his familial as well as his nautical background. Like the titular character in Pierre, Melville found satisfaction in his "double revolutionary descent."

Allan Melvill sent his sons to the New York Male School (Columbia Preparatory School). Overextended financially and emotionally unstable, Allan tried to recover from his setbacks by moving his family to Albany in 1830 and going into the fur business. The new venture, however, was unsuccessful; the War of 1812 had ruined businesses that tried to sell overseas and he was forced to declare bankruptcy. He died soon afterward, leaving his family penniless, when Herman was 12. Although Maria had well-off kin, they were concerned with protecting their own inheritances and taking advantage of investment opportunities rather than settling their mother's estate so Maria's family would be more secure with Herman's younger brother, Thomas Melville, who eventually became a governor of Sailors Snug Harbor.

Melville attended the Albany Academy from October 1830 to October 1831, and again from October 1836 to March 1837, where he studied the classics.

Early working life

.]] Melville's roving disposition and a desire to support himself independently of family assistance led him to seek work as a surveyor on the Erie Canal. This effort failed, and his brother helped him get a job as a cabin boy on a New York ship bound for Liverpool. He made the voyage, and returned on the same ship. Redburn: His First Voyage (1849) is partly based on his experiences of this journey.

The three years after Albany Academy (1837 to 1840) were mostly occupied with teaching school, except for the voyage to Liverpool in 1839. From 1838 to 1847, he resided at what is now known as the Herman Melville House in Lansingburgh, New York. Near the end of 1840 he once again decided to sign ship's articles. On January 3, 1841, he sailed from New Bedford, Massachusetts on the whaler Acushnet, which was bound for the Pacific Ocean. He was later to comment that his life began that day. The vessel sailed around Cape Horn and traveled to the South Pacific. Melville left little direct information about the events of this 18-month cruise, although his whaling romance, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, probably gives many pictures of life on board the Acushnet. Melville deserted the Acushnet in the Marquesas Islands in July 1842. It was eventually published in 1846 in London, where it became an overnight bestseller. The Boston publisher subsequently accepted Omoo sight unseen. Typee and Omoo gave Melville overnight notoriety as a writer and adventurer, and he often entertained by telling stories to his admirers. As writer and editor Nathaniel Parker Willis wrote, "With his cigar and his Spanish eyes, he talks Typee and Omoo, just as you find the flow of his delightful mind on paper". They had four children: two sons and two daughters. In 1850 they purchased Arrowhead, a farm house in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, now a museum. Here Melville lived for 13 years, occupied with his writing and managing his farm. While living at Arrowhead, he befriended the author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, who lived in nearby Lenox. Melville, an intellectual loner for most of his life, was tremendously inspired and encouraged by his new relationship with Hawthorne during the period that he was writing Moby-Dick (dedicating it to Hawthorne Following this and other scathing reviews of Pierre by critics, publishers became wary of Melville's work. His publisher, Harper & Brothers, rejected his next manuscript, Isle of the Cross which has been lost. On April 1, 1857, Melville published his last full-length novel, The Confidence-Man. This novel, subtitled "His Masquerade", has won general acclaim in modern times as a complex and mysterious exploration of issues of fraud and honesty, identity and masquerade, but when it was published, it received reviews ranging from the bewildered to the denunciatory.

To repair his faltering finances, Melville listened to the advice of friends and decided to enter what was for others the lucrative field of lecturing. From 1857 to 1860, he spoke at lyceums, chiefly on the South Seas. Turning to poetry, he gathered a collection of verse that failed to interest a publisher. In 1863, he and his wife resettled, with their four children, in New York City. After the end of the American Civil War, he published Battle Pieces and Aspects of the War, (1866) a collection of over 70 poems that generally was ignored by the critics, though a few gave him patronizingly favorable reviews. In 1866, Melville's wife and her relatives used their influence to obtain a position for him as customs inspector for the City of New York (a humble but adequately paying appointment), and he held the post for 19 years. In a notoriously corrupt institution, Melville soon won the reputation of being the only honest employee of the customs house. (The customs house was coincidentally on Gansevoort St., named after his mother's prosperous family.) But from 1866, his professional writing career can be said to have come to an end.

Later years

Melville spent years writing a 16,000-line epic poem, Clarel, inspired by his earlier trip to the Holy Land. His uncle, Peter Gansevoort, by a bequest, paid for the publication of the massive epic in 1876. But the publication failed miserably, and the unsold copies were burned when Melville was unable to afford to buy them at cost.

As his professional fortunes waned, Melville's marriage was unhappy. Elizabeth's relatives repeatedly urged her to leave him, and offered to have him committed as insane, but she refused. In 1867, his oldest son, Malcolm, shot himself, perhaps accidentally. While Melville worked, his wife managed to wean him off alcohol, and he no longer showed signs of agitation or insanity. But recurring depression was added to by the death of his second son, Stanwix, in San Francisco early in 1886. Melville retired in 1886, after several of his wife's relatives died and left the couple legacies that Mrs. Melville administered with skill and good fortune.

As English readers, pursuing the vogue for sea stories represented by such writers as G. A. Henty, rediscovered Melville's novels, he experienced a modest revival of popularity in England, though not in the United States. Once more he took up his pen, writing a series of poems with prose head notes inspired by his early experiences at sea. He published them in two collections, each issued in a tiny edition of 25 copies for his relatives and friends: John Marr (1888) and Timoleon (1891).

One of these poems further intrigued him, and he began to rework the headnote to turn it into first a short story and then a novella. He worked on it on and off for several years, but when he died in September 1891, he left the piece unfinished, and not until the literary scholar Raymond Weaver published it in 1924 did the book – which is now known as Billy Budd, Sailor – come to light.

Melville died at his home in New York City early on the morning of September 28, 1891, age 72. The doctor listed "cardiac dilation" on the death certificate. He was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York. A common story says that his New York Times obituary called him "Henry Melville",

From about age 33, Melville ceased to be popular with a broad audience because of his increasingly philosophical, political, and experimental tendencies. His novella Billy Budd, Sailor, unpublished at the time of his death, was published in 1924. Later it was turned into an opera by Benjamin Britten, a play, and a film by Peter Ustinov.

In Herman Melville's Religious Journey, Walter Donald Kring detailed his discovery of letters indicating that Melville had been a member of the Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City. Until this revelation, little had been known of his religious affiliation. Hershel Parker in the second volume of his biography makes it clear that Melville became a nominal member only to placate his wife. Melville despised Unitarianism and its associated "ism", Utilitarianism. (The great English Unitarians were Utilitarians.) See the 2006 Norton Critical Edition of The Confidence-Man for more detail on Melville and religion than in Parker's 2002 volume.

Publications and contemporary reactions

Most of Melville's novels were published first in the United Kingdom and then in the U.S. Sometimes the editions contain substantial differences; at other times different printings were either bowdlerized or restored to their pre-bowdlerized state. (For specifics on different publication dates, editions, printings, etc., please see entries for individual novels.)

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale has become Melville's most famous work and is often considered one of the greatest literary works of all time. It was dedicated to Melville's friend Nathaniel Hawthorne. It did not, however, make Melville rich. The book never sold its initial printing of 3,000 copies in his lifetime, and total earnings from the American edition amounted to just $556.37 from his publisher, Harper & Brothers. Melville also wrote Billy Budd, White-Jacket, Israel Potter, Redburn, Typee, Omoo, , The Confidence-Man and many short stories, including "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" and "Benito Cereno," and works of various genres.

Melville is less well known as a poet and did not publish poetry until later in life. After the Civil War, he published Battle Pieces and Aspects of the War, which did not sell well; of the Harper & Bros. printing of 1200 copies, only 525 had been sold ten years later. Again tending to outrun the tastes of his readers, Melville's epic length verse-narrative Clarel, about a student's pilgrimage to the Holy Land, was also quite obscure, even in his own time. Among the longest single poems in American literature, Clarel, published in 1876, had an initial printing of only 350 copies. The critic Lewis Mumford found a copy of the poem in the New York Public Library in 1925 "with its pages uncut"—in other words, it had sat there unread for 50 years.

His poetry is not as highly critically esteemed as his fiction, although some critics place him as the first modernist poet in the United States; others would assert that his work more strongly suggest what today would be a postmodern view. A leading champion of Melville's claims as a great American poet was the poet and novelist Robert Penn Warren, who issued a selection of Melville's poetry prefaced by an admiring and acute critical essay.

Critical response

Contemporary criticism

Melville was not financially successful as a writer, having earned just over $10,000 for his writing during his lifetime. After the success of travelogues based on voyages to the South Seas and stories based on misadventures in the merchant marine and navy, Melville's popularity declined dramatically. By 1876, all of his books were out of print. In the later years of his life and during the years after his death he was recognized, if at all, as only a minor figure in American literature.

Melville revival

A confluence of publishing events in the 1920s brought about a reassessment now commonly called "the Melville Revival". The two books generally considered most important to the Revival were Raymond Weaver's 1921 biography Herman Melville: Man, Mariner and Mystic and his 1924 edition of Melville's last great but never quite finished manuscript, Billy Budd, which Melville's granddaughter gave to Weaver when he visited her for research on the biography. The other works that helped fan the Revival flames were Carl Van Doren's The American Novel (1921), D. H. Lawrence's Studies in Classic American Literature (1923), and Lewis Mumford's biography, Herman Melville: A Study of His Life and Vision (1929). In 1945, the Melville Society was formed as a nonprofit organization dedicated to celebrating Melville’s literary legacy. Jay Leyda, better known for his work in film, spent more than a decade gathering documents and records for the day by day Melville Log (1951). In the same year Newton Arvin published the critical biography Herman Melville, which won the nonfiction National Book Award.

In the 1960s, Northwestern University Press, in alliance with the Newberry Library and the Modern Language Association, established ongoing publication runs of Melville's various titles. This alliance sought to create a "definitive" edition of Melville's works. Titles republished under the Northwestern-Newberry Library include Typee, Piazza Tales and Other Prose Pieces, Omoo, Israel Potter, Pierre or the Ambiguities, Confidence-Man, White Jacket or the World in a Man-of-War, Moby Dick, Mardi and a Voyage Thither, Redburn, Clarel , as well as several volumes of Melville's poems, journals, and correspondence.

Themes of gender and sexuality

Although not the primary focus of Melville scholarship, there has been an emerging interest in the role of gender and sexuality in some of Melville's writings. Some critics, particularly those interested in gender studies, have explored the existence of male-dominant social structures in Melville's fiction. For example, Alvin Sandberg claimed that the short story "The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids" offers "an exploration of impotency, a portrayal of a man retreating to an all-male childhood to avoid confrontation with sexual manhood" from which the narrator engages in "congenial" digressions in heterogeneity. In line with this view Warren Rosenberg argues the homosocial "Paradise of Bachelors" is shown to be "superficial and sterile." In the end the narrator is never fully able to come to terms with the contrasting masculine and feminine modalities. Issues of sexuality have been observed in other works as well. Rosenberg notes Taji, in "Mardi", and the protagonist in "Pierre" "think they are saving young "maidens in distress" (Yillah and Isabel) out of the purest of reasons but both are also conscious of a lurking sexual motive." In "Pierre" the motive for his self-sacrifice for Isabel is admitted: "womanly beauty and not womanly ugliness invited him to champion the right." Rosenberg argues "This awareness of a double motive haunts both books and ultimately destroys their protagonists who would not fully acknowledge the dark underside of their idealism. The epistemological quest and the transcendental quest for love and belief are consequently sullied by the erotic." Billy Budd's physical attractiveness is described in quasi-feminine terms: "As the Handsome Sailor, Billy Budd's position aboard the seventy-four was something analogous to that of a rustic beauty transplanted from the provinces and brought into competition with the highborn dames of the court." Some critics argue that "Ahab's pursuit of the whale, which can be associated with the feminine in its shape, mystery, and in its naturalness, represents the ultimate fusion of the epistemological and sexual quest."

Legacy

On May 12, 1985, the New York City Herman Melville Society gathered at 104 East 26th Street to dedicate the intersection of Park Avenue south and 26th Street as Herman Melville Square. This is the street where Melville lived from 1863 to 1891 and where, among other works, he wrote Billy Budd.

In 2010 it was announced that a new species of extinct giant sperm whale, Livyatan melvillei was named in honor of Melville. The paleontologists who discovered the fossil are all fans of Moby-Dick and wanted to dedicate their discovery to Melville.

Bibliography

References and further reading

Notes

External links

Arrowhead—The Home of Herman Melville

Physical description of Melville from his 1856 passport application

Melville's page at Literary Journal.com-research articles on Melville's works

Melville Room at the Berkshire Athenaeum

New Bedford Whaling Museum

The Confidence Man: His Masquerade ed. Scott Atkins with critical introduction, historical contexts, and new footnotes from American Studies at the University of Virginia.

Billy Budd: Foretopman ed. David Padilla with extensive linked footnotes and glossary of terms from American Studies at the University of Virginia

The Language of Gesture: Melville's Imaging of Blackness and the Modernity of Billy Budd by Klaus Benesch

The Encantadas from American Studies at the University of Virginia

The Life and Works of Herman Melville

The Melville Society

Melville index entry at Poets' Corner

Contemporary views on Herman Melville

"Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World", PBS, American Experience, 2010. Cf. section on Melville.

Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America: Collecting Herman Melville

Category:1819 births Category:1891 deaths Category:American novelists Category:American essayists Category:American poets Category:American Presbyterians Category:American Christians Category:American sailors Category:American short story writers Category:American travel writers Category:American Unitarians Category:American people of Dutch descent Category:Moby-Dick Category:People from Albany, New York Category:People from New York City Category:People from Pittsfield, Massachusetts Category:American people of Scottish descent Category:Maritime writers