Sea-Brothers offers the most extensive analysis to date of the sea and its meaning in American literature. On the basis of his study of Melville, Crane, London, Hemingway, Matthiessen, and ten lesser-known sea-writers, Bert Bender argues that the tradition of American sea fiction did not end with the opening of the western frontier and the replacement of sailing ships by steamers. Rather, he demonstrates its continuity and vitality, identifying a central vision within the tradition and showing how particular authors draw from, transform, and contribute to it.
What is most distinctive about American sea fiction, Bender contends, is its visionary, often mystical, response to the biological world and to man's perceived place in the larger universe. When Melville envisioned the sea as the essential element of life, indeed as life itself, he changed the course of American sea fiction by introducing the relevance of biological thought. But his meditations on the whale and "the ungraspable phantom of life" project a different reality from that envisioned by his successors. In American sea fiction after Melville, the influence of Origin of Species is as powerful as that of Moby Dick or the theme of sailing ships being displaced by steam.
The ideal of brotherhood so central to American sea fiction was severely compromised by the biological reality of a competitive, warring nature. Twentieth-century sea fiction has continued to center on the biological world and address the possibility of democratic brotherhood, but the issues were fundamentally changed by Darwin's theories.
This book will be a valuable source for students and scholars of American literature and will interest readers of sea fiction.
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"The study offers the most extensive analysis to date of the sea and its meaning in American literature."—London Review of Books
"Anyone interested in the role that adventure fiction in general, and sea fiction in particular, has played in injecting life into American literature, will find good reading, well documented scholarship, and some strong-stated theses in Sea-Brothers."—American Studies International
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Book Description Condition: Good. Angell, Tony (illustrator). illustrated edition. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Seller Inventory # 3522944-6
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Fair. No Jacket. Angell, Tony (illustrator). Missing dust jacket; Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 1.4. Seller Inventory # G0812281241I5N01
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. Angell, Tony (illustrator). 1st Edition. 1988 Penn hardcover 1st edition 1st printing (no additional printings listed). Spine a little tilted, sunning, very light edgewear, and foxing on dj (mostly on the flaps and inside), back board curves outward a little, light musty smell if you go into the spine, else text clean, binding tight . NOTE: This copy is not the one in the picture. Seller Inventory # ABE-1634247946310
Book Description Condition: Very Good. Angell, Tony (illustrator). . Good dust jacket. From the library of American novelist, naturalist, wilderness writer, zen teacher and CIA officer Peter Matthiessen. (Sea Stories, American, Literary Criticism). Seller Inventory # SA19D-00037
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Angell, Tony (illustrator). Hardcover and dust jacket. Good cover. Binding slightly cocked. Clean, unmarked pages. Light wear. xiv, 267 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. Seller Inventory # 2002210041