The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Piazza Tales, by Herman Melville

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Title: The Piazza Tales
The Piazza; Bartleby; Benito Cereno; The Lightning-Rod Man; The Encantadas, Or, Enchanted Islands; The Bell-Tower

Author: Herman Melville

Release Date: May 18, 2005 [eBook #15859]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

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THE PIAZZA TALES

by

HERMAN MELVILLE,

Author of "Typee," "Omoo," etc., etc., etc.

New York;
Dix & Edwards, 321 Broadway.
London: Sampson Low, Son & Co.
Miller & Holman,
Printers & Stereotypers, N.Y.

1856

CONTENTS

THE PIAZZA

BARTLEBY

BENITO CERENO

THE LIGHTNING-ROD MAN

THE ENCANTADAS; OR, ENCHANTED ISLANDS

THE BELL-TOWER

THE PIAZZA.

"With fairest flowers,
Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele--"

When I removed into the country, it was to occupy an old-fashioned
farm-house, which had no piazza--a deficiency the more regretted,
because not only did I like piazzas, as somehow combining the coziness
of in-doors with the freedom of out-doors, and it is so pleasant to
inspect your thermometer there, but the country round about was such a
picture, that in berry time no boy climbs hill or crosses vale without
coming upon easels planted in every nook, and sun-burnt painters
painting there. A very paradise of painters. The circle of the stars cut
by the circle of the mountains. At least, so looks it from the house;
though, once upon the mountains, no circle of them can you see. Had the
site been chosen five rods off, this charmed ring would not have been.

The house is old. Seventy years since, from the heart of the Hearth
Stone Hills, they quarried the Kaaba, or Holy Stone, to which, each
Thanksgiving, the social pilgrims used to come. So long ago, that, in
digging for the foundation, the workmen used both spade and axe,
fighting the Troglodytes of those subterranean parts--sturdy roots of a
sturdy wood, encamped upon what