OK maybe 3.5 on account of certain rhapsodic sections

Loved this so much. All Melville is good Melville but this is an overlooked gem. Not surprised it was the spring board to moby dick—many elements are here in raw fashion. Really loved this.

This novel is filled with Melville's preliminary experimentations with nonfiction and auto-fiction he would fully realize in the cytology and technical seafaring chapters of Moby-Dick. In many ways, Redburn seems an extended sketch in preparation for the masterwork to come. We see how Ahab comes out of the creepy, charismatic, evil, invalid sailor, Jackson, and how Queequeg rises out of the androgynous Harry Bolton. Redburn, the first-person narrator, confesses he is "a sort of Ishmael" amongst the crew, which is fascinating when we begin to draw comparisons with Moby-Dick. Though the novel is in many ways wonderfully plotless, it lacks a compelling thread to hold it all together. The Highlander's round trip voyage from New York to Liverpool simply is not as interesting as mad Ahab's obsessive quest to kill the white whale. In fact, Redburn lacks a strong central character. Harry and Jackson are given the most character development, but ultimately not enough. Redburn's tour and description of Liverpool (which now no longer exists as it was in Melville's day, of course) attempts to capture an exotic crossroads of the world, but the descriptions and the flavor can't compare with what Melville does later in his amazing portraits of New Bedford and Nantucket in Moby-Dick. Still, any reader fascinated by Moby-Dick and Melville would do well to read Redburn, as we see Melville rehearse ideas he later completely reworked, rewrote, and refined (having synthesized the language and breadth of purpose of Shakespeare's King Lear). Redburn offers an amazing glimpse into America's greatest writer's preoccupations and creative process. Aside from a few chapters ("Though the Highlander Puts into No Harbor as Yet; She Here and There Leaves Many of Her Passengers Behind” was particularly well done), the novel is rather dull and lacks the quality of prose found in Melville's best work. This novel is best fit for the Melville aficionado; it will likely prove a sleeper for most casual readers.

From Wellingborough Redburn To Buttons

I decided to celebrate this past Memorial Day by revisiting a classic American novel. I chose one of my favorite authors, Herman Melville, and his "Redburn: His First Voyage" (1849).

"Redburn" was Melville's fourth novel and followed upon the visionary book, "Mardi". The author readjusted his course briefly to write a realistic, semi-autobiographical novel centering upon a sea voyage. Author's frequently are poor judges of their own work; and so, Melville spoke disparagingly of "Redburn".

The novel is both a coming-of-age story and a depiction of a changing United States. In its portrayal of a naive young man losing his innocence, the book reminded me of a later Huckleberry Finn and his journey down the Mississippi River. Wellingborough Redburn's journey was of longer scope: from New York City to Liverpool, England and back on a sailing merchant vessel, the Highlander. Melville makes much of names as a sign of change and character. Young Wellingborough is part of a distinguished once-wealthy family. His uncle had been a United States Senator and his family had been influential in Revolutionary days. With his father's bankruptcy, the family and Wellingborough fall on hard times. Wellingborough is a reader, a teetotaler, and a churchgoer. Much of the force of the book derives from the rude awakening to life he receives both during his voyage and on land. The sailors quickly change the young man's name from Wellingborough to "Buttons".

Redburn tells his story in his own voice which gives the novel a degree of intimacy. But the chapter headings, such as the first, "How Wellingborough Redburn's Taste for the Sea was Born and Bred in him" all speak of the protagonist in the third person. Much of the writing in the book seems detached from the narrator as well. Thus the book also manages to convey a sense of distance. This combination of perspectives is one of many instances of studied ambiguity in this seemingly straightforward story.

Redburn is an innocent at sea, and Melville makes much of his dress, his character, and his tastes in contrast with the rough, lonely, brutal life of the American sailor in the 19th Century. Much of the book is in a bantering tone, but a great deal is also tragic. Here and in his better-known books, Melville is enigmatic.

Besides telling the story of Redburn's transformation, the novel shows a change in the United States from the genteel character of the hero's grandparents and parents to the raw, expanding nation in the decades before the Civil War. Some of the best scenes in the novel occur at land, in Redburn's wandering the streets and ports of New York City before and after his voyage. During the voyage and while in England, Melville is again thoughtful and many sided. The book portrays the possibilities of the United States with its openness to diversity, to settlement, and new ideas (as compared with much of what Redburn sees in England). It also points out the slavery, poverty, and hard laissez-faire economy (Redburn is a reader of Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations") of the young, growing United States.

The book is lengthy but reads relatively quickly. It is organized into 62 short chapters. The narrative moves smoothly and chronologically. The book can be divided into the following sections: 1. Redburn's life before the voyage and the considerations which led him to the sea; 2. the voyage from New York City to Liverpool; 3. Redburn's six-week stay in Liverpool; 4. the return voyage to New York City which features a storm at sea and an epidemic among the steerage passengers; 5. a short concluding section about Redburn in New York following the voyage.

The book proceeds largely in short scenes with characters moving in and out. Redburn himself is the central character. But other individuals, including the lost, forbidding seaman, Jackson, Redburn's rakishly handsome and reckless young friend Harry Bolton, and the conniving Captain Riga of the Highlander receive strong portrayals. The best scenes in the book take place in Liverpool and London, in dives, docks, cheap saloons and gaming houses as Redburn receives an unforgettable exposure to life's cruelties.

In its portrayal of a changing American character and a changing United States, "Redburn" proved an appropriate choice for thinking about the United States over Memorial Day. I was pleased to have the opportunity to revisit Melville and to reread with more understanding a book I had read long ago.

Robin Friedman

A dry run for Moby Dick that is probably only for completists. It’s a fact-based study of a sea voyage from New York to Liverpool and back with the chapters set in the Merseyside city probably among the least interesting. Much of the matter-of-fact description of seagoing used in Melville’s later masterpiece is there but the story and characterisation is less developed. Perhaps the most interesting sequences involve emigré passengers heading from famine-era Ireland for a new life in the new world.

Continuing my chronological journey through the works of Melville, several of which I've not read, including this one. Having braved the Polynesia trilogy, we now enter his first real foray into a seafaring tale, pointing the way toward the later works. Redburn still has plenty of static, descriptive longeurs, (at least I find them such) but also lots of sea action and "jolly" tars and, yes, spontaneous human combustion, but is also beautifully written, and suffused with Melville's great intelligence and humanity, even if he himself thought it was trash written to pay for tobacco. He was ultimately ignored and forgotten in his lifetime; I'm trying to make sure it doesn't happen again in mine!!!

great book by Melville. all the typical Melvillean trademarks are here - story set on the sea, short chapters, slightly difficult vocabulary, singular style of description.

great plot and unforgettable characters. Harry Bolton is a prima donna spoiled bourgeois young gentleman who suffers from extreme mood swings. Captain Riga was the unscrupulous captain and the author is the greenhorn new ship sign-up.
Written in the same year, i also noticed many similarities in poetic style between Redburn and Mardi, another favorite of mine.

overall, this book is DEFINITELY worth a read.

Wellingborough Redburn comes from a large and illustrious New York mercantile family which has recently become impoverished because of the bankruptcy and death of his father. Needing to support himself, he decides to find employment where employment is available - the sea. This novel, like Melville's earlier Typee and Omoo, is a sort of fictionalized memoir based upon his own experiences at sea - this time his first voyage in 1839. This was not aboard a whaling ship but on a merchant vessel carrying goods and passengers from New York to Liverpool and back. Redburn is far more advanced in literary matters than his co-workers but this counts for nothing until he has learned (literally) the ropes and how to manage sails with them. His self-deprecating humor as this process begins and continues is a good deal of what makes this novel so entertaining. He suffers much but learns through what he suffers and because of his outstanding literary gifts and capacities for close and discerning observation gives us a very vivid view of his fellow crew members, their ship and their very arduous lives. Once in Liverpool we are treated to some very touching scenes of the poverty and vice there at that day and Henry Bolton, a young Englishman in comparable circumstances to Redburn's own is introduced. Henry joins the return trip to New York seeking to emigrate to America, but sadly comes to a tragic end despite Redburn's efforts on his behalf. This and Redburn's many speculative (i.e. Melvillean) flights of fancy ultimately turn this into quite a deep and serious work.

I'm surprised how much I enjoyed this book--I couldn't put it down! Nothing happens--it's just a series of vignettes. And yet, it was very compelling. I felt it was sort of a prequel to Moby Dick--setting the stage, sketching the characters, etc. It works better than Mardi because the symbolism isn't heavy-handed. Because it feels so natural, the subtle symbolism works.

Oh, the duality of Melville indeed! While Melville couldn’t stop jibber jabbering about the vastness of the ocean or the whiteness of the sea or the greatness of the whales in his acclaimed Moby Dick, he is all for land in Redburn. Redburn is everything that Ishmael wasn’t in Moby Dick. Redburn hates the sea, the day he steps into it. He yearns for the land even before he lost sight of the New York shore. He doesn’t really think whales are cool, in fact he is disappointed at how much uncool they are, contrary to his expectations. He is as much a novice as a sailor as the reader is. Tbh, I knew what a head-mast was and Redburn didn’t.

All that being said, Redburn was more wholesome and a far easier read than Moby Dick. The latter is not surprising, any book will be easier to read when you don’t have ten thousand anecdotes to emphasize the greatness of the color white. Redburn, on that other hand, is a personal story. It’s about likes and dislikes. About the inner thoughts of protagonist concerning general life. It’s almost very relatable for a novel of the 19th century. And for those fans of Ishmael-Queegueg ship, there’s much more of that in here too. Melville was at least being constant about that.

I enjoyed Moby Dick. It is a book I’d definitely return to, just to soak in the text and philosophy if not for the whales. But, Redburn would stick with me for its ease and warmth and the devastating ending.

Although I don't consider this to be either my favorite Melville novel or my favorite seafaring adventure, it DOES happen to be the book I was reading when I realized how much I truly do love Melville novels and seafaring adventures.

Oh my gosh this was so boring.