Book Cover

A practical materialist, what Bannadonna had aimed at was to have been reached, not by logic, not by crucible, not by conjuration, not by altars; but by plain vice-bench and hammer. In short, to solve nature, to steal into her, to intrigue beyond her, to procure someone else to bind her to his hand; - these, one and all, had not been his objects; but, asking no favors from any element or any being, of himself, to rival her, outstrip her, and rule her. He stooped to conquer. With him, common sense was theurgy; machinery, miracle; Prometheus, the heroic name for machinist; man, the true God.

# Review

The Piazza Tales is a collection of 6 stories/novellas by the American author Herman Melville; the stories are on the longer end and cover a variety of themes.

# The Piazza

This story was especially written for the collection; it tells of a man who spots a radiant spot in the mountains from his piazza. I liked how Melville references numerous fantastical works in his narration such as Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The story explores idealism, and how oftentimes, the ideals being pursued are illusionary and unrealistic.

# Bartleby, the Scrivener

This is one of my favourite short stories from this collection; it's narrated from the perspective of an elderly lawyer who hires a new scrivener, Bartleby. While initially productive, Bartleby quickly refuses to perform certain tasks, and eventually derioriates physically as well as mentally.

For me, the story of Bartleby is a warning to not do meaningless work. The narrator described the job of a scrivener as easy but not something the likes of Byron would do. From Bartleby's initial performance, it was clear that Bartleby was overqualified for the role; being forced to perform tasks that were monotonous and meaningless, Bartleby eventually breaks down.

Autobiographically, this story is significant as it was written after the publication of Moby-Dick, which, at the time of its publication, was not as well-received as Melville's earlier novels (atleast in America). Bartleby can thus be thought of Melville's criticism of the overly commercial nature of society, where one is expected to perform monotomous and repetitive tasks (in Melville's case, to write in the same manner as his earlier works) and deviations from the expectation result in rejection and even punishment from society.

With the proliferation of knowledge work, there aren't as many monotomous tasks as there were during Melville's time; there are still plenty of soul-sucking, meaningless jobs, though. For me, Bartleby is a stark reminder to do work that has meaning.

# Benito Cereno

This story follows Amasa Delano, the captain of an American sealing ship, who spots a distressed ship drifting aimlessly around the bay of Santa Maria. Delano boards the dilapidated ship, which is a slave ship captained by Don Benito Cereno. The story follows Delano's interactions with Cereno, the crew of the ship, as well as the slaves. Delano gets more uneasy with each interaction, as there are various things out of place, such inconsistencies in Don Cereno's story.

The story is a thriller, as the reader gets to read Delano's thoughts during each interaction; Delano flipflops between being sceptical and trusting of his hosts. While slavery is a major theme in the story, Melville doesn't take an ideological stance on the issue; I think this story is more focused on the depravity of humanity.

# The Lightning-Rod Man

This is a shorter story about a salesman who travels around during thunderstorms to sell lightning-rods. This is the only humourous story in the collection and reminded me of Le malade imaginaire by Molière.

# The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles

This is a series of ten sketches of various islands in the Galápagos. Melville paints a ghastly image of each island, with stories of desolation and brutality. I had always wanted to visit the Galápagos because of Darwin's journey, but now I have another reason to go.

# The Bell-Tower

While this stories is not as well-known as some of the others in this collection, I actually enjoyed this one the most after Bartleby. The story follows the tale of a desolate bell-tower, about its inception and ultimately its downfall. The story is aggressively gothic, with its dark setting and even darker description of the events of the story.

There were many themes which resonated with me, in particular, the theme of humanity's role and hubris as creators; in the story, the inventor was struck down by his own invention. I found that incredibly poetic and I think, with the exponential pace of technological development today, we're at an increased risk of accidentally being annihilated by our own creations. It is as crucial as ever to consider the consequences of technological progress during the process of technological development.

# Conclusion

An iconic collection of Herman Melville short stories.

# Overall rating: 8.4

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