Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Moby-Dick in Rhode Island

From the Providence, Rhode Island Manufacturers' and Farmers' Journal, December 1, 1851; found in the online archives of Historical Newspapers at Genealogy Bank:

LITERARY NOTICES.

We have received the following books from G. H. Whitney:
MOBY-DICK, OR THE WHALE. By Herman Melville. New York: Harper & Brothers.

Twenty-five years ago, two or three such books as Typee and Omoo would have been enough for a man's reputation, but now it has been well said, good books are so plenty that they are like beautiful women in a crowd, who pass by before one has an opportunity to fall in love with them. If, in the abundance of new publications, Mr. Melville's old books must be shoved aside, we are glad to see that his new ones come to take their place. No one has equalled him in the romance of the Pacific. He invests savage life with charms such as were never found in it before, and his description of the ocean and of the ship have a fascination that binds the reader to his pages. We have read Typee more than once, we have forgiven Mardi, and we shall turn with the assurance of new enjoyment to Moby-Dick.

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