'Herman Melville Crazy'

Okay, I have officially fallen short in my goal in reading all of Herman Melville's novels in the order they were written in. The truth is that I have found Melville's novels - for the most part - deserve the praise or scorn that they have earned over the years. Since his novels after Moby Dick are largely ignored (as they were at the time he published them), I'm not really motivated to read them.

Still, 6 out of 9 (I'm not counting Billy Budd as a novel) is not bad. The ones I didn't get to are Pierre (infamously panned in an article titled 'Herman Melville Crazy'), Israel Potter, and The Confidence-Man. The only other work of his that I have read was one of his short stories (Bartleby, the Scrivener). It was an interesting piece that was almost proto-modern in its style and the depiction of the title character.

So long for now Hermy. But life twists and turns, so maybe I will return to you someday and finish what I started.