Herman Melville, an American author best known today for his novel Moby Dick, was actually more popular during his lifetime for some of his other works. He traveled extensively and used the knowledge gained during his travels as the basis for his early novels. In 1837, at the age of eighteen, Melville signed as a cabin boy on a merchant ship that was to sail from his Massachusetts home to Liverpool, England. His experiences on this trip served as a basis for the novel Redburn (1849). In 1841 Melville set out on a whaling ship headed for the South Seas. After jumping ship in Tahiti, he wandered around the islands of Tahiti and Moorea. This South Sea island sojourn was a backdrop to the novel Omoo (1847). After three years away from home, Melville joined up with a U.S. naval frigate that was returning to the eastern United States around Cape Horn. The novel White-Jacket (1850) describes this lengthy voyage as a navy seaman. With the publication of these early adventure novels, Melville developed a strong and loyal following among readers eager for his tales of exotic places and situations. However, in 1851, with the publication of Moby Dick, Melville's popularity started to diminish. Moby Dick, on one level the saga of the hunt for the great white whale, was also a heavily symbolic allegory of the heroic struggle of man against the universe. The public was not ready for Melville's literary metamorphosis from romantic adventure to philosophical symbolism. It is ironic that the novel that served to diminish Melville's popularity during his lifetime is the one for which he is best known today.

The word “metamorphosis” in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to_________.

Câu hỏi liên quan

• When education first reached women, they were _______.

• The word "innovative" in line 1 could best be replaced by ...............

• The author implies that the mammals of the "suburban forest" differ from most species of trees there in which of the following ways?

ZUNIA12

• Green algae is generally found .............

• Which of the following statements is supported by the passage?

• According to the writer, people should ______.

• The word "This" in paragraph 5 refers to .................

• The author mentions "several representative handfuls" in the passage in order to show ______.

• Who is the most likely speaker?

• What does Bethan conclude about Facebook?

• In the author’s judgment ................

• The passage mainly discusses ______.

• In the passage, the expression “children interrupt their education to go to school” mostly implies that ..........

• Facebook ...............

• Which of the following is NOT mentioned about John Harvard?

• How did John feel about his fears in the end?

• According to the passage, many people believe that lions come from ...........

• How would the author probably characterize the people who are mentioned in the first line of the second paragraph?

• Which of the following is NOT mentioned about John Harvard?

• Students who are not well – prepared to be young “adults” with all the responsibilities of life will need ______.