Thanks to Herman Melville, we have the great (and we mean huge—this novel is important and fat) American epic Moby-Dick. Melville is a huge part of the American Romantic movement because his works engage with American Romanticism's big topics: nature, individualism, the imagination, and freedom. Oh, and whales. Hmm, we guess that falls under the umbrella of "nature," huh?

Melville is known for his novels. Along with Nathaniel Hawthorne (see elsewhere in this section), he developed the novel form (how's that for innovation?!) and made it an important genre within the American Romantic movement.

Moby Dick (1851)

Moby Dick tells the story of sailors on a whaling ship. At the center of the story is Captain Ahab, the crotchety one-legged captain who is on a quest to track down and kill a white metaphor, er, whale. Ahab seeks vengeance on Moby Dick, the huge, scary, albino whale that chewed his leg off.

In Melville's novel, you'll find some of the most beautiful descriptions of the natural world, and especially the ocean, to come out of American Romanticism. As a bonus, you'll also learn a whole lot about whaling… maybe even more than you ever wanted to know.

Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life (1846)

Melville's first published novel was based on his own experience of being stranded on a remote island in the South Pacific in 1842. Way to live a cooler life than any of us, Melville.

It was also one of his most successful works, and during Melville's lifetime did much better than his later novel Moby-Dick, which only gained a wide readership after Melville's death.

On one level, this is just an adventure story set in a far-away land. But the novel also reflects themes that would become central to Melville's later writing. You'll find wonderful descriptions of the island's natural landscape, and the theme of exploration—which would preoccupy Melville for the rest of his writing career—is already on full display in this first novel.

Chew On This

Herman Melville uses symbolism in masterful ways. The white whale is a central symbol in his novel Moby-Dick. 

Emotions are also central to Melville's novel Moby-Dick. Captain Ahab, who wants to kill the white w hale, is a pretty emotional guy. We can see it in his tirade against the white whale in this quotation from the novel.