Herman Melvilleshivaree
MELVILLE'S LIFE
Herman Melville was born in New York City on August 1, 1819, to Allan Melvill (as his father spelled his name) and Maria Ganvoort Melvill. Both sides of the family were quite well off, and could even be called "aristocratic" in a n; his father came from a line of successful merchants, and his mother from Hudson Valley landholders. His childhood was a cure and comfortable one, but his fortunes changed in 1830, when his father suffered rious business loss. In January, 1832, Allan Melvill died, mentally and physically exhausted. Melville had idolized his father, and his death was a profound shock. For veral years thereafter, the family was in a financial twilight, never destitute (一贫如洗) but never cure.
During this difficult period, Melville's family moved upstate in New York, to a little town near Troy. His education was spotty (非系统的); he attended the Albany Classical School (Albany 学校) for a time, but during the formative years (少年时代) he had no consistent schooling. His mother, a rather domineering woman, became even more overbearing (very domineering )after her
husband's death, and her influence (combined with the strict Calvinism of the Dutch Reformed Church eternity
(荷兰归正新教教会), to which she belonged) ems to have inspired in Melville some of the religious skepticism and rebelliousness （激发起对宗教的怀疑及反叛精神）that runs under the surface of （在… 中隐约可见）Moby Dick and others of his works. Melville developed in his mature years a feeling (产生了一种感觉，即:) that no profound mind could overlook a n of fateful imperfection in life (任何思想深邃的人都不能忽视生活中的一种命中注定的缺陷感) (one ns this attitude frequently in Moby Dick ), which was probably the result of the very strong Calvinistic idea of original sin.
breathlessWhen eighteen years old, he took a job as a schoolmaster at a remote school near Pittsfield, Massachutts (where his uncle's family lived). Then, in the summer of 1839, he signed up as a "boy" (干杂活的伙计) on a British merchant ship, the St. Lawrence, and went on a round-trip voyage (往返航程) to Liverpool--a voyage which he ud as the basis for his fourth book,
Redburn(1849). This trip began for the young Melville a period of almost five years of traveling around the world that gave him the material for his first veral books,, including Moby Dick (《白鲸记》).
高考落榜的出路Upon returning to the United States after the St. Lawrence voyage, Melville again taught school for a
while, but evidently he had developed a love for the a. For in January, 1841, he signed on the whaler Acushnet（与捕鲸船Acushnet签约） for a trip to the South Seas. Life aboard the whaler repelled （使…厌倦，反感）Melville, however, and in July, 1842, he and another aman, Richard Greene ("Toby" in the novel Typee)(小说《泰比》中人物Toby的原型) derted ship （开小差，不辞而别）at the Marquesas Islands ( 马克萨斯群岛). He lived for a month with a cannibal tribe （食人肉部落）which treated him well but would not let him go. Then he escaped on an Australian whaler, the Lucy Ann, which he abandoned （溜走）at Tahiti. (塔希提岛) There he worked for a time as a field laborer （干临时农活的短工） and eventually left on another whaler （搭乘捕鲸船离开）, the Nantucket ship （Nantucket 岛的名为… 的捕鲸船）Charles and Henry, which arrived at the Hawaiian Islands (夏威夷群岛) in April, 1843. The adventures of the months in the Marquesas and Tahiti were the materials out of which Melville later shaped (成为… 的素材) Typee (1846) and Omoo ((欧穆,1847). At Hawaii Melville signed up as a aman on an American warship, the United States, which returned him to America. He was dismisd in October of 1844, and returned home to begin writing.resistance
He published Typee and Omoo , and then, in 1849, a book called Mardi (《玛地》)， a confud and difficult allegorical novel (寓言型小说) which repelled many of the readers who had so enjoyed hi
氢怎么读s first two books. (Mardi is today often considered the first in a trilogy (三部曲) which also includes Moby Dick and Pierre《皮埃尔》.) Later in 1849 came the above-mentioned
lha
Redburn, and in 1850 Meiville published White-Jacket 《白外衣》, a book bad on his experiences on the Man-of-War United States （名为Man-of-War 的美国军舰）. The first
five books won him considerable reputation (which he later repudiated （对上述名誉拒不接受）; in a letter to Hawthorne he ironically lamented （以讥讽的语气哀叹道）that he emed doomed to be accepted only as "a man-who had lived among the cannibals"). He became a member of the influential New York literary group （颇有影响的纽约文学社）led by the Duyckinck
brothers, and for a time was lionized （被尊为盟主）. In 1849 he traveled to England to arrange for foreign publication of his works, and in 1850 he moved to a farmhou near Pittsfield, Massachutts, where he lived for the next thirteen years with his wife (Elizabeth Shaw, whom he married in 1847) and children.
During his first year at his home, which he named "Arrowhead, "（他为这座房子命名为“箭头”）Melville met Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the two men, nsing that they had much in common, struck up a friendship. It was a singularly fortunate association （与…结交是件难得的幸事）for Melville, ev
en though it was a truly personal one only for about two years. He read Hawthorne's works avidly (如饥似渴地), and was given encouragement by Hawthorne's interest (霍桑对该书的兴趣给了他很大鼓励) precily during the period in which he was writing his masterpiece, Moby Dick. As a result of his high esteem (高度敬仰) for Hawthorne, Melville dedicated (题献) Moby Dick to him when it appeared in late 1851.
The critical reaction to Moby Dick was mixed, but tended to be negative, especially as time pasd. That Melville himlf ems to have felt that the book had failed is clear from his next novel, Pierre (1852) 作者本人似乎也觉得Moby Dick是个败笔, 这点可以清楚地从他的下一本书中看到, an iconoclastic book (谴责性的著作) which angrily attacks, among other things , publishing practices (愤怒抨击了出版界的种种恶习). Pierre, like Moby Dick, embodies a quest for truth (体现了对真理的追求), but it was condemned as obscure (被指责为晦涩难懂), and its u of incest and suicide (其中的乱伦与自杀的描写) caud it to be attacked as immoral as well. Melville's reputation was by this time definitely on the decline. In the next veral years, he produced Israel Potter (《依斯瑞尔﹒波特》，1855), The Piazza Tales(《广场故事》，1855), and The Confidence-Man(《骗子》，1857), an extremely interesting but difficult moral allegory （劝戒性质的寓言小说）which takes place on a Mississippi River steamboat. He fell more and more in debt （债台愈筑愈高）during the years, an
d in 1856, suffering from what would be called a nervous breakdown （精神崩溃）today, went on a tour of the Holy Land （圣地巴勒斯坦）which restored him from his state of mental exhaustion.
In 1863 he sold his home and moved to New York City, and in 1866, after years of eking a government job, he finally cured a minor position in the New York customs hou. The same year he published Battle Pieces
《战争诗篇》and Aspects of the War《战争所见》 (the best poetry on the American Civil War except for Whitman's Drum Taps惠特曼的《哀鼓》). Ten years later, in 1876, he published Clarel ，《克拉瑞尔》 a long, reflective narrative poem （反思性叙事长诗）about the problems of religious faith （宗教信仰问题）. Two more books of poems were published in his lifetime: John Marr and Other Sailors (《约翰﹒玛尔和其他水手》，1888) and Timoleon(《梯摩里昂》，1891). The last three volumes of poetry were privately financed （自费印刷发行）and printed in small editions. Melville finished the manuscript of Billy Budd（《毕利﹒伯德》）in 1891, but this work was not published until 1924. He died on September 28, 1891, so completely obscure （默默无闻）that many were surprid to discover that he had not beeneveryone是什么意思
dead for years.东莞英语
福州gre培训
BRIEF SUMMARY OF MOBY DICK
Moby Dick is told by a man who identifies himlf only as Ishmael. Impelled by an urge to e more of the world and understand more of its mysteries, Ishmael decides to go to a. He leaves New York and travels to New Bedford, Massachutts, where he spends a night with a South Seas cannibal （食人生番）named Queequeg as a roommate. At first frightened by Queequeg, Ishmael soon finds him likeable enough.
While at New Bedford, Ishmael goes to a famous whaleman's chapel （捕鲸水手常去的教堂）who pastor （牧师）, Father Mapple, is widely known in the whaling fleet （捕鲸船队）. Father Mapple preaches a rmon （做布道）which focus on the story of Jonah and the whale（约拿与鲸鱼）, in which he emphasizes that man must reject his own pride （远离自傲）and be true to God, letting no other force guide him. Ishmael and Queequeg become fast friends at New Bedford, and decide to go to Nantucket Island and sign on the same whaleship together. They take a packet boat （搭乘一条班船）, and on the trip to Nantucket, Queequeg saves an obnoxious lout （智商低下的人）from drowning in the icy waters. (This is the first of a number of scenes in which men are saved from drowning. )At Nantucket, Queequeg tells Ishmael that his god has decided that Ishmael must choo the ship on which they will sail, and Ishmael choos the Pequod becau it is so pictu
resque （外表漂亮）. Both men sign on, and are told that the ship's captain is Ahab, an unusual man but one
who "has his humanities. " （有自己独特的人情味） He is confined at his home becau of some mysterious sickness, so Ishmael cannot e him. As Ishmael and Queequeg leave the ship they are accosted by （有人向他们打招呼）a queer old man who drops dark hints about Ahab （暗示了Ahab种种神秘）.
The ship sails on a cold, gray Christmas day. As the two men approach the Pequod, they e a group of shadowy figures board the ship before them （看到一伙模模糊糊的人影在前面上了船）. The ship plunges out into the Atlantic and for many days nothing is en of Ahab. Ishmael prents the three mates （三位高级船员，大副，二副和三副）, Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask, then the harpooners （标枪手）, and then describes the crew in general. The ship sails down the Atlantic into a warmer climate, and Ahab finally makes an appearance. As time pass, Ahab appears more frequently, usually standing in one of two holes （通常站在后甲板的两处有洞的地方之一）drilled on the quarter-deck for his peg leg of whalebone （那两个洞是为了方便他固定他那条用鲸骨做的假肢钻的）. A scene between Ahab and the cond mate （二副）, Stubb, shows that something is disturbing Ahab profoundly.
Ishmael tells the reader something of whales, categorizing them according to size and type, and showing why he considers the sperm whale the noblest of all （抹香鲸最高贵）. He also begins to give us what proves ultimately to be an immen amount of information about whales, whaling （捕鲸行动）, whaleships, and whalemen. Then comes the first "big scene"（大场面）of the book-- Ahab calls all the crew onto the quarter-deck, and tells them that he has sworn to hunt to the death the great whale （发誓至死也要捕杀巨鲸）, Moby Dick, that ripped his leg off （咬掉他一条腿）on his last voyage. He inflames the crew （激起船员的斗志）so that except for Starbuck, the first mate （大副）, they are all eager to pursue Moby Dick; and he nails a gold doubloon （金币）to the mainmast （主桅杆）, promising it as a reward for the first man to sight Moby Dick on the voyage.
Ishmael ts himlf to find out as much as he can about this whale, and discovers that, besides being unusually large and deformed in certain ways （躯体非同一般）, Moby Dick has a savage temper which has led him to destroy many a whaleboat and kill a number of amen. He is so ferocious （凶猛）that he ems, unlike ordinary whales, to know what he is doing,
