This novel is, I see now on second reading, a proto-Moby Dick without the hyper-intrusive narrator (Ishmael) but with the usual gay (overt?) subtext.

Melville rarely, almost never, wrote extensively about women. “As for ladies, I have nothing to say concerning them; for ladies are like creeds; if you cannot speak well of them, say nothing.” (p. 347)

Redburn is the often amusing story of a young man’s first crossing as “boy” on a merchant ship from New York to the Liverpool. The traveler’s name is Willingborough Redburn and he is the narrator.

Published in 1849 it remains highly readable. And sometimes – there are pages which take the breath away. For example, on the return trip a plague runs through steerage which is occupied by 500 mostly Irish immigrants. This is the quote.

“But those who had lost fathers, husband, wives, or children, needed no crape to reveal to the others who they were. Hard and bitter indeed was their lot; for with the poor and desolate, grief is no indulgence of mere sentiment, however sincere, but a gnawing reality, that eats into their vital beings; they have no kind condolers, and bland physicians, and troops of sympathizing friends; and they must toil, though tomorrow be the burial, and their pallbearers throw down the hammer to lift up the coffin.” (p.379)

This among the blackest moments in a book which otherwise evinces a broad range of tones and moods—in other words, nothing like Thomas Bernhard.

Reads like a trial run for Moby Dick, but an excellent salty story. Definitely a good one if you like tall ship sailing and/or are interested in the period.

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“For the scene of suffering is a scene of joy when the suffering is past; and the silent reminiscence of hardships departed is sweeter than the presence of delight.”
― Herman Melville, Redburn



It must be awful as a writer to dash off a novel for money or tobacco in a couple of weeks and have it praised, but see your earlier serious novel (Mardi) panned, and your later novel (Moby-Dick) under-appreciated until years after your death. That is the genius of a select group of writers -- they are destined to exist in this weird space between art and the public. Perhaps the strong bitter of Melville's art was just too early and too strange for the public, but they WERE ready for his swipes.

If you are into literature of the sea (The Sea Wolf, The Pilot, Captains Courageous, etc.,) or you are just into Melville, you will want to read this. If, however, this is your first Melville, I'd stick with Moby-Dick.

my copy is actually the lovely anchor edition that has cover art and typography by edward gorey. so far, only a chapter in, i'm really digging it.

His first time at sea. He goes to Liverpool. Tragic.

Better than Moby Dick.

I took a Melville seminar in grad school and when it came time to write a paper on Moby Dick (frankly, a book I struggled to get through), I told my teacher that I wanted to do something on homo-eroticism, especially in the bed scene between Ishmael and Queequeg. She dismissed this out of hand. Not only was Melville not gay, but she didn’t want to read about that. Well here it is many years later and just having finished Redburn, I can say, without a doubt, that yes Melville was gay, and his writing must be included as part of hidden gay literature. Many scenes in this book have gay undertones--the old Dutch sailor trying to seduce Redburn, Redburn’s love for the effeminate British boy Harry, the descriptions of the beautiful Italian “organ grinder” (and, yes the double entendres are here on purpose). To not recognize this is to miss a great deal of what is going on in this book!
Also, Melville is never afraid to look at the injustices around him, and in Redburn he explores prejudice in a way that no other white 19th cent American author gets close to. While Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe may be sympathetic to the plight of blacks, they come at it via stereotypes of African-Americans as being simple, uneducated, and childlike to elicit white sympathy. Melville treats them as equals, part of the American fabric, the same as Scotsmen, Dutch or Germans (he saves his disdain for the Irish). He never fails to mention blacks--recognizing them in everyday situations, making them visible. He shames America when he compares to how much better black sailors are treated in Liverpool. How ironic, he notes, that ours is the country that produced the Declaration of Independence.
While there are parts of this book that seem padded (too much sailing talk for my taste), I never got tired of it. I can say for the first time in 30 years that I actually enjoyed a book by this American master!

Here's my secret to reading and enjoying Melville. He writes in short chapters, so read just one a day. Take your time. Absorb the writing. No, Redburn isn't a classic like Moby-Dick, but it has some great moments and insights. One of my top three or four Melville books.

Based on a trip Melville took to Liverpool, England, in June 1839, is a hastily written adventure about Wellingborough Redburn, a genteel but impoverished boy from New York City who endures a rough initiation into life as a sailor.

I give the book three stars but chapter 7 is 5stars

Interesting story about a young man on his first voyage out to sea.

Good hearty stuff.