Melville and the Gothic Novel
1949; The MIT Press; Volume: 22; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/361534
ISSN1937-2213
Autores Tópico(s)Literature: history, themes, analysis
ResumoSurely these are little better than laughable juxtapositions, and nothing could be idler or more pedantic than to look closely and seriously at the clue that Melville dropped behind him in the passage I have just quoted. Such, at least, is bound to be one's first response to the suggestion that there is a certain strain of the Radcliffean, of the Gothic, in Melville's own work-until, perhaps, one recalls how fond of Mrs. Radcliffe's books both Balzac and Stendhal were, and reflects that Melville would not be the first writer of great power to owe a certain debt to one of his small predecessors. The fact is, of course, that his mind was a very complex one; that he was tirelessly responsive to the imaginative currents of his age; and that he was indebted, as only writers of the first order can be, to a thousand books and authors who preceded him. In all that, the influence of the Gothic school is a slight and minor element; but every element in the sensibility of a writer like Melville has its interest and meaning for us. There can be no doubt of his familiarity with the writers of the Tale of Terror school. He was probably familiar with them from an early date, no doubt from boyhood, though we have to guess at this. In any case, we know that Smollett's Ferdinand Count Fathom, with its one or two rather trumped-up
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