The Piazza Tales

By: Herman Melville

Narrated by: Mark Owen, Pete Cross, Michael Lackey

Written in seclusion following the intense negative public reaction to the publication of his novel Pierre, The Piazza Tales is Herman Melville's accessible and entertaining collection of short stories and novellas concerning love, labor, and loss. The collection includes his three most important achievements in the genre of short fiction: the short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener" and the novellas Benito Cereno and The Encantadas. Melville had originally intended to entitle the volume Benito Cereno and Other Sketches but settled on the definitive title after he had written the introductory story, a tale concerning the coincidental meeting of mutual long-distance admirers separated by a valley in the mountains.

Public Domain (P)2018 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Solid collection of Melville's shorter works

I was drawn into this collection when the opening story mentioned Mt. Greylock. I grew up in the Berkshires and can see Greylock from my house. Melville can be tediously formal and verbose sometimes, but the short story format forces the action along. Benito Cerino was a decent pirate story and Bartleby had some merit. The Lightning Rod Man gives me a deja vu feeling like I've heard it repeated in works by other authors. Narration was adequate.