societies

The first major novel by Herman Melville. This is a combination of pamphlet and melodrama, ethnics and esoterics, psychology and memoirs, a detective and travel notes, philosophy and poetry, woven into the historical canvas of the mid-19th century. The main character finds himself in a metaphorical world, reflecting the appearance of the countries of the Old and New Worlds in the mirror of the societies...

The book opens shortly before Christmas, many years ago. The city of Polchester was an old rickety building on a cliff above old grass. The house was a windy, creaky, bitten rain place where three elderly women lived as tenants, including Miss Beringer, who had moved the day before. These old women are only 70 years old, but in the history of Walpole, written in 1924, they are seriously ancient, poor,...