Clarel
No CoverHerman Melville's Clarel is an epic poem that follows a young seminarian's pilgrimage through the Holy Land, where he encounters diverse characters and engages in profound discussions...
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Herman Melville's Clarel is an epic poem that follows a young seminarian's pilgrimage through the Holy Land, where he encounters diverse characters and engages in profound discussions...
The aim of this edition of Clarel, volume twelve in the Northwestern-Newberry Edition of The Writing of Herman Melville, is to present a text as close to the authors intention as surviving evidence permits. Based on the only edition published during Melville's lifetime, it adopts 39 correction from a copy marked by Melville and incorporates 154 emendations by the present editors
will contain mild spoilers
Clarel’s courtship and love for Ruth are a major thread; no explicit sex
Desert peril, historical violence allusions, and deaths without graphic gore
No strong language present
Occasional wine in social or ceremonial settings
No explicit LGBTQ+ characters or relationships depicted
Pilgrimage and sustained theological debate on faith, doubt, and creed
No fantasy magic or witchcraft present
No occult practices or demonology present
Recurring themes of democracy, progress, and post-Civil War identity
Spiritual despair and mortality themes; character deaths, not graphic self-harm
References to historical conflict and suffering in the Holy Land
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