''The Passages of H.M.'' is a 2010 historical novel written by

Jay Parini Jay Parini (born April 2, 1948) is an American writer and academic. He is known for novels, poetry, biography, screenplays and criticism. He has published novels about Leo Tolstoy, Walter Benjamin, Paul the Apostle, and Herman Melville. Early l ...

about the life of

Herman Melville Herman Melville (Name change, born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American people, American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance (literature), American Renaissance period. Among his bes ...

Reviews

The novel was well received. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' said, "Parini's 'Passages' is a spokesman for the 'fiction is more true than fact' camp. Organized as a series of episodes, many of them imaginative reconstructions of what may have transpired on Melville's known sea voyages, 'Passages' purports to reveal the workings of Melville's mind as he finds his vocation as a writer."

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

called the novel "A thoughtful re-imagining of the man who remains America's Milton." And the

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

said "it is deeply absorbing.... A literary novel in every sense of the word.... It adds strongly to Melville's posthumous presence."

References

External links

2010 American novels American historical novels Novels about writers Herman Melville Doubleday (publisher) books {{2010s-hist-novel-stub