From Father Mapple’s sermon to the very premise of The Whale, the Biblical figure of Jonah hovers throughout Moby-Dick. The ancient story of Jonah is a shared text that has influenced literature and religion across cultures and centuries. In conjunction with the Rosenbach’s American Voyager exhibit, scholars and faith leaders from Philadelphia will explore the importance of the prophet Jonah to understandings of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
From Father Mapple’s sermon to the very premise of The Whale, the Biblical figure of Jonah hovers throughout Moby-Dick. The ancient story of Jonah is a shared text that has influenced literature and religion across cultures and centuries. In conjunction with the Rosenbach’s American Voyager exhibit, scholars and faith leaders from Philadelphia will explore the importance of the prophet Jonah to understandings of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Sea monsters in Jewish tradition bear with them always tales of the beginning of time, and its end. Jonah, riding in the belly of his great fish, is carried uncertainly between them. Johan has baffled Jewish interpreters for centuries, and ignited a wide range of conflicting interpretations. The rabbis said the eyes of the whale were like windows though which Jonah could observe the foundations of creation – we’ll look back through at him to try to get a hold on what has made this short book such a fathomless riddle for Jews.
The Whale: A Love Story, a rich and captivating novel set amid the witty, high-spirited literary society of 1850s New England, offers a new window on Herman Melville’s emotionally charged relationship with Nathaniel Hawthorne and how it transformed his masterpiece, Moby-Dick. Author Mark Beauregard joins us to discuss his new work.
Scott joins us to discuss Herman Melville’s lesser known masterpiece, the novella Benito Cereno, published in 1855, as the nation stumbled toward civil war. Like the two sides of the coming war, Melville saw in the nation incommensurable ideals, completely in opposition but equally a part of the American body politic.
Herman Melville acquired some 1,000 books prior to his death, after which his library was dispersed among family members and second-hand book dealers. Less than a third of the collection is known to survive, but copies with his autograph and notes continue to resurface. This program will discuss ongoing efforts to trace the dispersal of Melville’s library and analyze evidence of his reading, including technical recovery of annotations that were erased after his death, and will address the role of Melville’s engagement with books in the formation of his genius and the creation of his art.
Join us as we read Herman Melville’s entire novel over a 24-hour period. This collaboration with the Independence Seaport Museum will feature food and activities for all ages. Celebrate the Great White Whale with us!
With a warm heart for human nature, a cold eye for the human condition, and prose that would awe a Biblical prophet, Herman Melville was too good for his time. Join us for an odyssey through the Rosenbach’s mighty Melville collection. We’ll chart our course toward the source of Melville’s greatness through original editions of his novels and handwritten letters. “It is not down in any map,” says Moby-Dick’s Ishmael, “true places never are.”
In this course, we’ll explore the works of authors, Charles Brockden Brown, Robert Montgomery Bird, George Lippard, Edgar Allan Poe, and Frank Webb — and see how they were inspired to look beneath the veneer of American democracy and expose our deepest fears.