Neither Believer Nor Infidel : Skepticism and Faith in Melville's Shorter Fic...

by Jonathan A. Cook

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Neither Believer Nor Infidel : Skepticism and Faith in Melville's Shorter Fiction and Poetry, Hardcover by Cook, Jonathan A., ISBN 1501770969, ISBN-13 9781501770968, Like New Used, Free shipping in the US Shedding new light on both classic and lesser-known works in the Melville canon with particular attention to the author's literary use of the Bible, Neither Believer Nor Infidel examines the debate between religious skepticism and Christian faith that infused Herman Melville's writings following Moby-Dick. Jonathan A. Cook's study is the first to focus on the decisive role of faith and doubt in Melville's writings following his mid-career turn to shorter fiction, and still later to poetry, as a result of the commercial failures of Moby-Dick and Pierre. Nathaniel Hawthorne claimed that Melville "can neither believe nor be comfortable in his unbelief," a remark that encapsulates an essential truth about Melville's attitude to Christianity. Like many of his Victorian contemporaries, Melville spent his literary career poised between an intellectual rejection of Christian dogma and an emotional attachment to the consolations of non-dogmatic Christian faith. Accompanying this ambivalence was a lifelong devotion to the text of the King James Bible as both moral sourc and literary template. Following a biographical overview of skeptical influences and manifestations in Melville's early life and career, Cook examines the evidence of religious doubt and belief in "Bartleby, the Scrive

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Year: 2023
• Binding: Hardcover
• ISBN: 9781501770968
• Condition: Fine

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