The Second Edition includes significantly expanded interpretive commentary, particularly regarding biblical references. The section "Contemporary Critiques" contains nineteen comments on the "Confidence-Man," eight of which are new to the Second Edition. The coordinated attacks against Melville, especially from Protestant critics, Centrists, and Methodists, are better understood today. A new section, "Biographical Overviews," incorporates the transformation of knowledge about Melville's life that has occurred over the past thirty years. This section provides a wide range of readings of Melville's life from Nathaniel Hawthorne, Dennis Marnon, and Hershel Parker, among others. The section "Sources, Background, and Criticism" is thematically organized to inform readers about movements and social developments central to Melville's America and to this novel, including utopias, cults, therapeutics, Transcendentalism, hatred against Native Americans, the Bible, and popular literature. A Selected Bibliography is also included.

Pages: 528, Year of Publication: 0108, Dimensions: 13x13cm