The Literature Network - Melville's Masquerade.(Herman Melville)(Critical Essay)

Melville's Masquerade.(Herman Melville)(Critical Essay)

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From: World and I
Date: 19990801
Author:GINGHER, BOB

The link between failed idealism and recurring themes of American fiction is explored, using Herman Melville's novel 'Masquerade' as a foundation. Themes include faith displaced by mistrust, the futility of a unifying sense to world order, and the abuses underlying a veneer of social acceptability.

This historical novel is an imaginative study and tribute to one of AmericaOs greatest authors, as well as an indictment of manOs inhumanity to man.

The most significant irony in the history of any literature may well be the enormous gap between real merit and contemporary public ...

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