Resumen
Resumen de Israel Potter
Para quién es
For readers who love historical adventure with a satirical edge, and anyone curious about Melville beyond Moby-Dick.
De qué trata este libro
Israel Potter is a novel by Herman Melville, published in 1855 after it first appeared in installments in Putnam's Monthly Magazine. Melville built it from a small true book, a narrative printed in 1824 by a poor old veteran named Israel Potter. That man claimed to have fought in the American Revolution, to have been taken prisoner, and to have spent long years as a wanderer in England. Melville kept the bare outline and filled it with scenes, famous historical figures and a sharp, bitter irony.
You get a fast, episodic adventure. It moves from a New England farm to a battlefield, then to British captivity, the streets of London, Paris, and the deck of a fighting ship. Beneath the action sits a hard question. What does a country owe to the ordinary man who fought to found it? Along the way Potter crosses paths with Benjamin Franklin, John Paul Jones and Ethan Allen, and Melville shows each of them in a way that school books do not. Let us begin where Potter begins, in the hills of western Massachusetts.
En este resumen
- 1A farm boy leaves the Berkshire hillsFree
- 2Bunker Hill makes him a soldier, then a prisoner
- 3A fugitive in England meets a king
- 4In Paris, Franklin gives advice and keeps his distance
- 5At sea with John Paul Jones
- 6What the story is really about
- 7How Melville tells it
Idea clave 1 de 7
A farm boy leaves the Berkshire hills
The story opens in the Berkshire hills of Massachusetts, where Israel Potter grows up as a farmer's son. Melville gives the place a rough, rocky beauty. The land is hard, and so is the life it offers. Potter is strong, restless and used to working outdoors, and he does not take easily to being told what to do.
His early life is marked by a quarrel and a break from home. He leaves the farm and takes up the rough trades that open to a young man with no money. He hunts, clears land and works at the edge of settled country. Melville treats this wandering as a kind of training, because it teaches Potter to rely on his own hands and his own wits.
Then the war with Britain begins to pull men out of the hills. Potter is drawn into it as many young colonists were, not by grand speeches but by the sense that something large is happening and he is old enough to join it. He goes to take part in the fighting around Boston.
This opening matters because it sets the kind of man Potter is. He is not a general or a statesman. He is a plain, brave, stubborn American, and the book will follow him into rooms where plain men are rarely found. Melville wants us to remember the farm when the great names begin to arrive.
That’s 1 of 7 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Israel Potter
What is Israel Potter about?
It follows an American soldier of the Revolution from Bunker Hill into captivity and exile in England and France. He meets Franklin, John Paul Jones and a king, and the novel asks what the nation owes such a man.
Is Israel Potter a true story?
It is based on a real narrative published in 1824 by a veteran named Israel Potter. Melville added scenes, dialogue and famous characters, so the novel is historical fiction built on a true outline.
When was Israel Potter written?
Melville wrote it in the mid 1850s. It first appeared in installments in Putnam's Monthly Magazine and was published as a book in 1855.
Who does Israel Potter meet in the book?
Among the historical figures he meets are Benjamin Franklin, John Paul Jones, Ethan Allen and King George the third. Melville uses each one to show a different side of the Revolution.
Is Israel Potter hard to read?
No. The story is a fast adventure that moves from one scene to the next, from a farm to a battlefield, then London, Paris and a warship. Melville's brisk, mocking voice keeps each scene lively, and the book is short and full of pictures.