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Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land
Melville’s long poem A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land (1876) was the last full-length book he published. Until the mid-twentieth century even the most partisan of Melville’s advocates hesitated to endure a four-part poem of 150 cantos and almost 18,000 lines about a naive American named Clarel, on pilgrimage through the Palestinian ruins with a provocative cluster of companions.
But modern critics have found Clarel a much better poem than was ever realized. Robert Penn Warren called it a precursor of The Waste Land. It abounds with revelations of Melville’s inner life. Most strikingly, it is argued that the character Vine is a portrait of Melville’s friend Nathaniel Hawthorne. Clarel is one of the most complex theological explorations of faith and doubt in all of American literature, and this edition brings Melville’s poem to new life.
But modern critics have found Clarel a much better poem than was ever realized. Robert Penn Warren called it a precursor of The Waste Land. It abounds with revelations of Melville’s inner life. Most strikingly, it is argued that the character Vine is a portrait of Melville’s friend Nathaniel Hawthorne. Clarel is one of the most complex theological explorations of faith and doubt in all of American literature, and this edition brings Melville’s poem to new life.
499 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1876
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About the author
Herman Melville
2,382 books4,515 followersThere is more than one author with this name
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Moby-Dick (1851); Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and Billy Budd, Sailor, a posthumously published novella. At the time of his death, Melville was no longer well known to the public, but the 1919 centennial of his birth was the starting point of a Melville revival. Moby-Dick eventually would be considered one of the great American novels.
Melville was born in New York City, the third child of a prosperous merchant whose death in 1832 left the family in dire financial straits. He took to sea in 1839 as a common sailor on a merchant ship and then on the whaler Acushnet, but he jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands. Typee, his first book, and its sequel, Omoo (1847), were travel-adventures based on his encounters with the peoples of the islands. Their success gave him the financial security to marry Elizabeth Shaw, the daughter of the Boston jurist Lemuel Shaw. Mardi (1849), a romance-adventure and his first book not based on his own experience, was not well received. Redburn (1849) and White-Jacket (1850), both tales based on his experience as a well-born young man at sea, were given respectable reviews, but did not sell well enough to support his expanding family.
Melville's growing literary ambition showed in Moby-Dick (1851), which took nearly a year and a half to write, but it did not find an audience, and critics scorned his psychological novel Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852). From 1853 to 1856, Melville published short fiction in magazines, including "Benito Cereno" and "Bartleby, the Scrivener". In 1857, he traveled to England, toured the Near East, and published his last work of prose, The Confidence-Man (1857). He moved to New York in 1863, eventually taking a position as a United States customs inspector.
From that point, Melville focused his creative powers on poetry. Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866) was his poetic reflection on the moral questions of the American Civil War. In 1867, his eldest child Malcolm died at home from a self-inflicted gunshot. Melville's metaphysical epic Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land was published in 1876. In 1886, his other son Stanwix died of apparent tuberculosis, and Melville retired. During his last years, he privately published two volumes of poetry, and left one volume unpublished. The novella Billy Budd was left unfinished at his death, but was published posthumously in 1924. Melville died from cardiovascular disease in 1891.
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Moby-Dick (1851); Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and Billy Budd, Sailor, a posthumously published novella. At the time of his death, Melville was no longer well known to the public, but the 1919 centennial of his birth was the starting point of a Melville revival. Moby-Dick eventually would be considered one of the great American novels.
Melville was born in New York City, the third child of a prosperous merchant whose death in 1832 left the family in dire financial straits. He took to sea in 1839 as a common sailor on a merchant ship and then on the whaler Acushnet, but he jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands. Typee, his first book, and its sequel, Omoo (1847), were travel-adventures based on his encounters with the peoples of the islands. Their success gave him the financial security to marry Elizabeth Shaw, the daughter of the Boston jurist Lemuel Shaw. Mardi (1849), a romance-adventure and his first book not based on his own experience, was not well received. Redburn (1849) and White-Jacket (1850), both tales based on his experience as a well-born young man at sea, were given respectable reviews, but did not sell well enough to support his expanding family.
Melville's growing literary ambition showed in Moby-Dick (1851), which took nearly a year and a half to write, but it did not find an audience, and critics scorned his psychological novel Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852). From 1853 to 1856, Melville published short fiction in magazines, including "Benito Cereno" and "Bartleby, the Scrivener". In 1857, he traveled to England, toured the Near East, and published his last work of prose, The Confidence-Man (1857). He moved to New York in 1863, eventually taking a position as a United States customs inspector.
From that point, Melville focused his creative powers on poetry. Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866) was his poetic reflection on the moral questions of the American Civil War. In 1867, his eldest child Malcolm died at home from a self-inflicted gunshot. Melville's metaphysical epic Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land was published in 1876. In 1886, his other son Stanwix died of apparent tuberculosis, and Melville retired. During his last years, he privately published two volumes of poetry, and left one volume unpublished. The novella Billy Budd was left unfinished at his death, but was published posthumously in 1924. Melville died from cardiovascular disease in 1891.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
April 29, 2025
Reading Clarel For Melville's Bicentennial
To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Melville's birth (August 1, 1819), I decided to read his books that I hadn't read before. I read his novel "Pierre or the Ambiguities" and then turned to the long narrative poem that Melville published in 1876 with financial assistance from a generous relative, "Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land". I was moved to read "Clarel" when I learned that the Library of America will be publishing the poem, together with Melville's other poetry, in a volume to be released this August. I didn't want to wait for the LOA volume. Many years ago, I purchased "Clarel" from a used book store in this 1960 volume edited by the American literary and historical scholar, Walter Bezanson (1912 -- 2011). Despite good intentions, the book had long gathered dust on my shelf. It came recommended to me as a way to approach the difficulties of Melville's poem, and I was glad to have the book to hand and to turn to at last.
Bezanson's book is invaluable to approach a poem which is daunting on every level. It begins with a lengthy introduction which summarizes Melville's career and the writing of "Clarel". Bezanson offers background on the poem, its reception, and its difficult language, and its meter. He offers a summary of the action of the poem in each of its four long parts together with discussions of the setting and of the many complex characters. I read the Introduction before turning to "Clarel" and consulted it frequently during my reading. Following the text of the poem, this edition includes a maps of the Palestine of Melville's day and of the route followed by the pilgrims in the poem.A lengthy additional section discusses the characters in the poem and the roles each plays. Then, Bezanson offers lengthy explanatory notes which discuss many of the difficult references and passages in the poem. These materials helped me immeasurably in my journey with Clarel.
Clarel had its origins in a journey Melville took to the Holy Land in 1856 -- 1857, At this time, his career as a novelist had failed (with the exception of "Billy Budd" published after his death). Melville secured a tedious day job working at the customs house in New York City and worked on his poem at night. It is easy to understand the chagrin Melville's wife and family felt at his devoting his time to this markedly difficult and never-to-be-popular poem. The poem failed upon publication and failed for many years thereafter even with the strong revival of interest in Melville in the 1920s. With its length and difficulty, the poem remains little read but has gathered attention from Melville's admirers and will undoubtedly receive some additional attention through the LOA volume.
Melville used his journey to Palestine, the journal he kept of his trip, and his extensive reading as the basis for "Clarel". The title character is a young American student of theology who comes to Palestine and search of faith and also, as it develops, of love. In the course of his stay, Clarel meets many other pilgrims. The two primary characters are Rolfe, who seems to be modeled on Melville himself and Vine, who is usually taken for Melville's friend Hawthorne. Other characters represent a variety of theological, philosophical, and political positions, from deeply believing Christians to scientific materialists heavily influenced by Darwin.
The book is in four large parts each of which is subdivided into many cantos. The first part describes Clarel's stay in Jerusalem where he sees many of the historic sites of the city, engages in discussions, and ultimately falls in love with a young American Jewish woman, Ruth. When Ruth's father dies, Clarel sets out on a pilgrimage which lasts ten days but seems longer. The second part of the book describes the long exacting journey through Palestine through the desert and to the Dead Sea. The third part describes a three day stay at a Greek monastery, Mar Saba. In the fourth part, the pilgrims return to Bethlehem, and Clarel ultimately travels to Jerusalem where he learns Ruth has died. There is a short concluding Epilogue.
The book is full of the desolation and ruin of Palestine in the mid 19th Century. Readers may find this history set out more clearly in other books, but Melville captures a strong sense of place and history. There are moments of action in the book as Melville describes the journey of his pilgrims. But most of the book is inward and most of it focuses on extensive theological, philosophical, and political discussions among the major protagonists and several minor characters. Broadly the discussions center upon the existence of God, the necessity or its lack of religious faith to provide meaning to life, the relationship between faith and science, and finding a form of religion in a world in which traditional creeds seem to have lost their vitality and meaning. The book shows how the characters interact and their varied impact on each other and on the young Clarel.
The poem is made difficult by its sheer length, by its awkward meter, archaic language, and subject matter. The book is full of allusions to the Bible, the classics, to sites in Palestine, to literature, and to political events in Melville's day. These considerations and others make for a slow, difficult book which understandably was judged a failure when it appeared. In its tone of earnestness and moral seriousness, "Clarel" has much in common with Victorian and romantic literature.
On working through "Clarel" I found it mixed with many effective passages, both in poetry and content as well as much that is tedious. The poetical meter is handled more effectively than I had anticipated, on the whole, and monotony is relieved on several occasions through songs and variations in meter and tempo. The poem describes in terms I can understand the religious quest and the various options Melville saw in the religious search. The material is difficult and presented in different guises and forms again and again in the poem. It is still a moving picture of religious search. Is is so often the case with religious search, Clarel's religious journey for faith is intertwined with questions and doubts about his sexuality and sexual responses.
The poem suggest a profound skepticism in understanding the mystery of life and religion while suggesting the necessity of engaging with these questions in one's life.
"Clarel" is not a work to recommend to the casual reader. Still, the work was important to Melville and will help the reader with a passion for this author. The poem is valuable for itself in showing a depth of engagement with questions of religion, secularism and faith. I was glad to have made the effort to struggle with "Clarel". It is a precious gift to have this work available in the LOA as an example of the depth and difficulty of American literature and of the American experience.
Robin Friedman
To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Melville's birth (August 1, 1819), I decided to read his books that I hadn't read before. I read his novel "Pierre or the Ambiguities" and then turned to the long narrative poem that Melville published in 1876 with financial assistance from a generous relative, "Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land". I was moved to read "Clarel" when I learned that the Library of America will be publishing the poem, together with Melville's other poetry, in a volume to be released this August. I didn't want to wait for the LOA volume. Many years ago, I purchased "Clarel" from a used book store in this 1960 volume edited by the American literary and historical scholar, Walter Bezanson (1912 -- 2011). Despite good intentions, the book had long gathered dust on my shelf. It came recommended to me as a way to approach the difficulties of Melville's poem, and I was glad to have the book to hand and to turn to at last.
Bezanson's book is invaluable to approach a poem which is daunting on every level. It begins with a lengthy introduction which summarizes Melville's career and the writing of "Clarel". Bezanson offers background on the poem, its reception, and its difficult language, and its meter. He offers a summary of the action of the poem in each of its four long parts together with discussions of the setting and of the many complex characters. I read the Introduction before turning to "Clarel" and consulted it frequently during my reading. Following the text of the poem, this edition includes a maps of the Palestine of Melville's day and of the route followed by the pilgrims in the poem.A lengthy additional section discusses the characters in the poem and the roles each plays. Then, Bezanson offers lengthy explanatory notes which discuss many of the difficult references and passages in the poem. These materials helped me immeasurably in my journey with Clarel.
Clarel had its origins in a journey Melville took to the Holy Land in 1856 -- 1857, At this time, his career as a novelist had failed (with the exception of "Billy Budd" published after his death). Melville secured a tedious day job working at the customs house in New York City and worked on his poem at night. It is easy to understand the chagrin Melville's wife and family felt at his devoting his time to this markedly difficult and never-to-be-popular poem. The poem failed upon publication and failed for many years thereafter even with the strong revival of interest in Melville in the 1920s. With its length and difficulty, the poem remains little read but has gathered attention from Melville's admirers and will undoubtedly receive some additional attention through the LOA volume.
Melville used his journey to Palestine, the journal he kept of his trip, and his extensive reading as the basis for "Clarel". The title character is a young American student of theology who comes to Palestine and search of faith and also, as it develops, of love. In the course of his stay, Clarel meets many other pilgrims. The two primary characters are Rolfe, who seems to be modeled on Melville himself and Vine, who is usually taken for Melville's friend Hawthorne. Other characters represent a variety of theological, philosophical, and political positions, from deeply believing Christians to scientific materialists heavily influenced by Darwin.
The book is in four large parts each of which is subdivided into many cantos. The first part describes Clarel's stay in Jerusalem where he sees many of the historic sites of the city, engages in discussions, and ultimately falls in love with a young American Jewish woman, Ruth. When Ruth's father dies, Clarel sets out on a pilgrimage which lasts ten days but seems longer. The second part of the book describes the long exacting journey through Palestine through the desert and to the Dead Sea. The third part describes a three day stay at a Greek monastery, Mar Saba. In the fourth part, the pilgrims return to Bethlehem, and Clarel ultimately travels to Jerusalem where he learns Ruth has died. There is a short concluding Epilogue.
The book is full of the desolation and ruin of Palestine in the mid 19th Century. Readers may find this history set out more clearly in other books, but Melville captures a strong sense of place and history. There are moments of action in the book as Melville describes the journey of his pilgrims. But most of the book is inward and most of it focuses on extensive theological, philosophical, and political discussions among the major protagonists and several minor characters. Broadly the discussions center upon the existence of God, the necessity or its lack of religious faith to provide meaning to life, the relationship between faith and science, and finding a form of religion in a world in which traditional creeds seem to have lost their vitality and meaning. The book shows how the characters interact and their varied impact on each other and on the young Clarel.
The poem is made difficult by its sheer length, by its awkward meter, archaic language, and subject matter. The book is full of allusions to the Bible, the classics, to sites in Palestine, to literature, and to political events in Melville's day. These considerations and others make for a slow, difficult book which understandably was judged a failure when it appeared. In its tone of earnestness and moral seriousness, "Clarel" has much in common with Victorian and romantic literature.
On working through "Clarel" I found it mixed with many effective passages, both in poetry and content as well as much that is tedious. The poetical meter is handled more effectively than I had anticipated, on the whole, and monotony is relieved on several occasions through songs and variations in meter and tempo. The poem describes in terms I can understand the religious quest and the various options Melville saw in the religious search. The material is difficult and presented in different guises and forms again and again in the poem. It is still a moving picture of religious search. Is is so often the case with religious search, Clarel's religious journey for faith is intertwined with questions and doubts about his sexuality and sexual responses.
The poem suggest a profound skepticism in understanding the mystery of life and religion while suggesting the necessity of engaging with these questions in one's life.
"Clarel" is not a work to recommend to the casual reader. Still, the work was important to Melville and will help the reader with a passion for this author. The poem is valuable for itself in showing a depth of engagement with questions of religion, secularism and faith. I was glad to have made the effort to struggle with "Clarel". It is a precious gift to have this work available in the LOA as an example of the depth and difficulty of American literature and of the American experience.
Robin Friedman
November 21, 2010
An epic poem of ideas. So hard to follow that you do really feel like you're going on a difficult journey, like the characters. But as you keep going the ideas get more and more interesting, the people get more and more engaging, and you want to see more and more of the little wonderful and terrible moments that happen along the way.
February 11, 2018
Bleak poetry and thought. The heart longs for faith the head rejects. The search for faith leads to loss of joy on earth.
November 13, 2008
Oh, Melville, this is quite an arduous poem you've written here. Sure, there are excellent passages about faith, doubt, and the problem of evil, but the poesy isn't much (sometimes it's outright bad) and the story doesn't exist. Basically, Melville invents a bunch of characters who embody different ideas and has them talk to each other. A lot.
Don't read this unless you're a Melville scholar.
Don't read this unless you're a Melville scholar.
May 22, 2017
Some books are absolute beasts to get through, but incredibly worth it once the journey is over. Clarel is wonderful because the intense spiritual wrestling it prompts continues long after the powerful final lines echo away.
Clarel is a painfully unwieldy long-form epic poem, the longest ever written by an American, if I'm not mistaken (18,000 lines!) and as its motley cast of characters wander over and across the holy land, and the conflicts between religion(s) and science at the passing of the world from Christendom and Kings to Revolution, democracy, and Darwin, the reader will find themselves pulled in a multitude of different directions, from intense faith to intense doubt and everywhere in between. It is both intensely cerebral and intensely visceral, enacting the constant journeying of human doubt in both belief and skepticism in the literal wandering of the pilgrims. The cast of characters is varied and defies standard tropes: my favorite thread is the friendship rooted in argument that forms between the Protestant American skeptic Rolfe and the Lutheran Derwent.
Melville's poetry is difficult to wrestle with, forcing the reader to engage in the same retracing in the act of reading that the characters are doing both physically and spiritually, but the insights and, more importantly, the necessary enacting of intellectual journeying the text requires of its reader makes it an immensely rewarding read, up there with Moby-Dick and Billy Budd as the famed American author's greatest and most ambitious of texts.
Clarel is a painfully unwieldy long-form epic poem, the longest ever written by an American, if I'm not mistaken (18,000 lines!) and as its motley cast of characters wander over and across the holy land, and the conflicts between religion(s) and science at the passing of the world from Christendom and Kings to Revolution, democracy, and Darwin, the reader will find themselves pulled in a multitude of different directions, from intense faith to intense doubt and everywhere in between. It is both intensely cerebral and intensely visceral, enacting the constant journeying of human doubt in both belief and skepticism in the literal wandering of the pilgrims. The cast of characters is varied and defies standard tropes: my favorite thread is the friendship rooted in argument that forms between the Protestant American skeptic Rolfe and the Lutheran Derwent.
Melville's poetry is difficult to wrestle with, forcing the reader to engage in the same retracing in the act of reading that the characters are doing both physically and spiritually, but the insights and, more importantly, the necessary enacting of intellectual journeying the text requires of its reader makes it an immensely rewarding read, up there with Moby-Dick and Billy Budd as the famed American author's greatest and most ambitious of texts.
January 3, 2023
Even death may prove unreal at last and stoics be astounded into heaven. Then keep thy heart, though yet but ill-resigned, Clarel, thy heart, the issues there but mind. That like the crocus budding through the snow, that like a swimmer rising from the deep, that like a burning secret which doth go. Even from the bosom that would hoard and keep, emerge thou mayst from the last whelming sea and prove that death but routs life into victory.
February 11, 2018
Europe was in a decade dim:
Upon the future's trembling rim
The comet hovered. His a league
Of frank debate and close intrigue:
Plot, proselyte, appeal, denounce--
Conspirator, pamphleteer, at once,
And prophet. Wear and tear and jar
He met with coffee and cigar:
These kept awake the man and mood
And dream. That uncreated Good
He sought, whose absence is the cause
Of creeds and Atheists, mobs and laws.
Precocities of heart outran
The immaturities of brain.
Along with each superior mind
The vain, foolhard, worthless, blind,
With Judases, are nothing loath
To clasp pledged hands and take the oath
Of aim, the which, if just, demands
Strong hearts, brows deep, and priestly hands.
Experience with her sharper touch
Stung Mortmain: Why, if men prove such,
Dote I? love theory overmuch?
Yea, also, whither will advance
The Revolution sprung in France
So many years ago? where end?
That current takes me. Whither tend?
Come, thou who makest such hot haste
To forge the future -- weigh the past.
Such frame he knew. And timed event
Cogent a further question lent:
Wouldst meddle with the state? Well, mount
Thy guns; how many men dost count?
Besides, there's more than here belongs:
Be many questionable wrongs:
By yet more questionable war,
Prophet of peace, thou wouldst thou bar?
The world's not new, nor new thy plea.
Tho' even shouldst thou triumph, see,
Prose overtakes the victor's songs:
Victorious right may need redress:
No failure like a harsh success.
Yea, ponder well the historic page:
Of all who, fired with noble rage,
Have warred for right without reprieve,
How many spanned the wings immense
Of Satan's muster, or could cheat
His cunning tactics of retreat
And ambuscade? Oh, now dispense!
The world is portioned out, believe:
The good have but a patch at best,
The wise their corner; for the rest--
Malice divides with ignorance.
And what is stable? find one boon
That is not lackey to the moon
Of fate. The flood ebbs out--the ebb
Floods back; the incessant shuttle shifts
And flies, and wears and tears the web.
Turn, turn thee to the proof that sifts:
What if the kings in Forty-eight
Fled like the gods? even as the gods
Shall do, return they made; and sate
And fortified their strong abodes;
And, to confirm them there in state,
Contrived new slogans, apt to please--
Pan and the tribal unities.
Behind all this still works some power
Unknowable, thou'lt yet adore.
That steers the world, not man. States drive;
The crazy rafts with billows strive.--
Go, go--absolve thee. Join that band
That wash them with the desert sand
For lack of water. In the dust
Of wisdom sit thee down, and rust.
Upon the future's trembling rim
The comet hovered. His a league
Of frank debate and close intrigue:
Plot, proselyte, appeal, denounce--
Conspirator, pamphleteer, at once,
And prophet. Wear and tear and jar
He met with coffee and cigar:
These kept awake the man and mood
And dream. That uncreated Good
He sought, whose absence is the cause
Of creeds and Atheists, mobs and laws.
Precocities of heart outran
The immaturities of brain.
Along with each superior mind
The vain, foolhard, worthless, blind,
With Judases, are nothing loath
To clasp pledged hands and take the oath
Of aim, the which, if just, demands
Strong hearts, brows deep, and priestly hands.
Experience with her sharper touch
Stung Mortmain: Why, if men prove such,
Dote I? love theory overmuch?
Yea, also, whither will advance
The Revolution sprung in France
So many years ago? where end?
That current takes me. Whither tend?
Come, thou who makest such hot haste
To forge the future -- weigh the past.
Such frame he knew. And timed event
Cogent a further question lent:
Wouldst meddle with the state? Well, mount
Thy guns; how many men dost count?
Besides, there's more than here belongs:
Be many questionable wrongs:
By yet more questionable war,
Prophet of peace, thou wouldst thou bar?
The world's not new, nor new thy plea.
Tho' even shouldst thou triumph, see,
Prose overtakes the victor's songs:
Victorious right may need redress:
No failure like a harsh success.
Yea, ponder well the historic page:
Of all who, fired with noble rage,
Have warred for right without reprieve,
How many spanned the wings immense
Of Satan's muster, or could cheat
His cunning tactics of retreat
And ambuscade? Oh, now dispense!
The world is portioned out, believe:
The good have but a patch at best,
The wise their corner; for the rest--
Malice divides with ignorance.
And what is stable? find one boon
That is not lackey to the moon
Of fate. The flood ebbs out--the ebb
Floods back; the incessant shuttle shifts
And flies, and wears and tears the web.
Turn, turn thee to the proof that sifts:
What if the kings in Forty-eight
Fled like the gods? even as the gods
Shall do, return they made; and sate
And fortified their strong abodes;
And, to confirm them there in state,
Contrived new slogans, apt to please--
Pan and the tribal unities.
Behind all this still works some power
Unknowable, thou'lt yet adore.
That steers the world, not man. States drive;
The crazy rafts with billows strive.--
Go, go--absolve thee. Join that band
That wash them with the desert sand
For lack of water. In the dust
Of wisdom sit thee down, and rust.
August 27, 2019
After three years of intermittent reading, I've finally finished the complete* poetry and prose of Mr. Herman Melville. Forget anything you've heard about Mardi, Moby-Dick, Pierre, or Confidence-Man being impenetrable and unreadable. The only truly unreadable one is this grotesque, never-ending bog of misery. Even the two 5 star reviews currently on this page concede that Clarel is "tedious" and "painfully unwieldy."
Out of almost 500 pages, there are about 10 pages worth of actual brilliancy. By far the worst ratio in the entire Melville canon. The title character spends the whole poem questioning his Christian faith, and in the end, after several other characters have died, he's right back where he started, not only emotionally, but even literally! What a waste.
Nathaniel Hawthorne once famously wrote that Melville "can neither believe, nor be comfortable in his unbelief." In Clarel, Melville took an excruciating 18,000 lines to say what Hawthorne managed to pithily summarize in only nine words!
*excluding the posthumously published poetry. Maybe some night when I'm really bored...
Out of almost 500 pages, there are about 10 pages worth of actual brilliancy. By far the worst ratio in the entire Melville canon. The title character spends the whole poem questioning his Christian faith, and in the end, after several other characters have died, he's right back where he started, not only emotionally, but even literally! What a waste.
Nathaniel Hawthorne once famously wrote that Melville "can neither believe, nor be comfortable in his unbelief." In Clarel, Melville took an excruciating 18,000 lines to say what Hawthorne managed to pithily summarize in only nine words!
*excluding the posthumously published poetry. Maybe some night when I'm really bored...
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January 27, 2023Clarel proves that Melville's genius had not diminished when he gave up prose for poetry. He draws graphic pictures of all the scenes of the Holy Land, and the dialogues among the pilgrims are challenging and incisive. This is another great book in Melville's corpus, along with White-Jacket, Moby Dick, Pierre, The Piazza Tales, and Billy Budd.
Read
December 26, 2025Geez I wish this was a great book. I think Melville had lost his mind. And not in a Finnegans Wake-way. Will need to reread to see if I’m missing it, but this was tough to get through. Melville was a sharp observer and went and traveled around the Middle East, particularly Ottoman Palestine in the late 1850’s, so it’s an interesting look into the Holy Land not biased by current debates.
Currently reading
October 2, 2024I've wanted to read this for years. Finally found a cheap copy. I am all about the "last works" of creative old-white-men.
Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, Nick Cave, C.S. Lewis, Prospero, Melville?
Jackson Browne will not make it on the list fwiw. note his last album is called 'downhill from everywhere' apropro.
could suck. i'll let u know.
Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, Nick Cave, C.S. Lewis, Prospero, Melville?
Jackson Browne will not make it on the list fwiw. note his last album is called 'downhill from everywhere' apropro.
could suck. i'll let u know.
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February 23, 2012INDICE
Prefazione
CLAREL
I. JERUSALEM/GERUSALEMME
I. The Hostel
I. L’0stello
II. Abdon
II. Abdon
XXV. Huts
XXV. Tuguri
XXXII. Of Rama
XXXII. Rama
XXXIV. They Tarry
XXXIV. Indugiano
XXXv11. A Sketch
XXXVII. Bozzetto
II. THE WILDERNESS/LA DESOLAZIONE
XVI. Night in Jericho
XVI. Notte a Gerico
XVIII. The Syrian Monk
XVIII. Il monaco siriano
XXXV. Prelusive
XXXV. Preludendo
XXXVI. Sodom
XXXVI. Sodoma
XXXVIII. The Fog
XXXVIII. La nebbia
IV. BETHLEHEM/BETLEMME
X. A Monument
X. Un monumento
XX. Derwent and Ungar
XX. Derwent e Ungar
XXI. Ungar and Rolfe
XXI. Ungar e Rolfe
Prefazione
CLAREL
I. JERUSALEM/GERUSALEMME
I. The Hostel
I. L’0stello
II. Abdon
II. Abdon
XXV. Huts
XXV. Tuguri
XXXII. Of Rama
XXXII. Rama
XXXIV. They Tarry
XXXIV. Indugiano
XXXv11. A Sketch
XXXVII. Bozzetto
II. THE WILDERNESS/LA DESOLAZIONE
XVI. Night in Jericho
XVI. Notte a Gerico
XVIII. The Syrian Monk
XVIII. Il monaco siriano
XXXV. Prelusive
XXXV. Preludendo
XXXVI. Sodom
XXXVI. Sodoma
XXXVIII. The Fog
XXXVIII. La nebbia
IV. BETHLEHEM/BETLEMME
X. A Monument
X. Un monumento
XX. Derwent and Ungar
XX. Derwent e Ungar
XXI. Ungar and Rolfe
XXI. Ungar e Rolfe
February 7, 2008
Probably not worth the 500 plus pages of tetrameter but bold and intellectually severe at times.
October 23, 2025
Verse Novel, truly a remarkable meditation on existentialism and agnosticism.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews