Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 - September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet from the American Renaissance period. Most of his writings were published between 1846 and 1857. Best known for his sea adventure Typee (1846) and his whaling novel Moby-Dick (1851), he was almost forgotten during the last thirty years of his life. Melville's writing draws on his experience at sea as a common sailor, exploration of literature and philosophy, and engagement in the contradictions of American society in a period of rapid change. The main characteristic of his style is probably pervasive allusion, reflecting his written sources. Melville's way of adapting what he read for his own new purposes, scholar Stanley T. Williams wrote, "was a transforming power comparable to Shakespeare's".
En los a os de la Revoluci n Francesa, la lucha franco-alemana genera millares de fugitivos. Son los desplazados que han bebido largamente la copa amarga de este siglo. Herman, joven hijo de un matrimonio que manejan el mes n de un pueblo alem n, es enviado con v veres y ropa a socorrer a esas pobres gentes. Al encontrar a Dorotea, le entrega todo lo que lleva. De ah nace un amor que choca con el deseo de su padre, quien le echa en cara su nulo inter s por encontrar una "novia opulenta". Ayudado por su madre, Herman buscar a la joven desconocida.
