lifts it bodily into the highest domain of romance. 'Moby Dick'
contains an immense amount of information concerning the habits
of the whale and the methods of its capture, but this is
characteristically introduced in a way not to interfere with the
narrative. The chapter entitled 'Stubb Kills a Whale' ranks with
the choicest examples of descriptive literature.

'Moby Dick' appeared, and Melville enjoyed to the full the
enhanced reputation it brought him. He did not, however, take
warning from 'Mardi,' but allowed himself to plunge more deeply
into the sea of philosophy and fantasy.

'Pierre; or, the Ambiguities' (1852) was published, and there
ensued a long series of hostile criticisms, ending with a severe,
though impartial, article by Fitz-James O'Brien in Putnam's
Monthly. About the same time the whole stock of the author's
books was destroyed by fire, keeping them out of print at a
critical moment; and public interest, which until then had been
on the increase, gradually began to diminish.

After this Mr. Melville contributed several short stories to
Putnam's Monthly and Harper's Magazine. Those in the former
periodical were collected in a volume as Piazza Tales (1856); and
of these 'Benito Cereno' and 'The Bell Tower' are equal to his
best previous efforts.

'Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile' (1855), first printed
as a serial in Putnam's, is an historical romance of the American
Revolution, based on the hero's own account of his adventures, as
given in a little volume picked up by Mr. Melville at a