Was he jealous ...

>>8495299
Europeans for some reason don't give a fuck about American writers, although for some reason they love Hemingway. I've met quite a few well-read Europeans and the only American motherfucker they ever seem to care about is Hemingway.

>>8495303
so what was the European reception of Moby-Dick?

>>8495307
I'm talking about today, but IIRC, in England it was better received than it was here. Obviously, it didn't have much of a greater spread than that because it wasn't popular enough to be translated and lol illiterate irish peasants.

>>8495303
>tfw english but most of my favourite authors are american

>>8495303
they've also read PKDick and Chomsky, but yes

>>8495307
Virtually the same as American opinions. It widely recognized as part of the canon, and one of the few American works worth reading. At the entertainment level, the basic story is gripping and fun. It fills a niche that had been missing till that time--the epic narrative of the sea.

Problems would include the analytical examination of whale hunting, which is more than half the book, and in comparison fluff.

>>8495299
He mostly was just very sad about many things. If you've done some research on his life you can just see how sad he must have been.

I really feel bad for Melville. Wrote the greatest American work but had a lot of hardships (poor childhood, sons suicide). Ishmael's hypos may have been solved in the end, but its clear that Melville's never were.

>>8495325
>PKDick
Oh yeah, I was gonna mention that asshole too for some reason, good one. And I guess Chomsky too, you're right. But Hemingway is the stereotypical American writer that Europeans read IMO. He practically is more of a European than an American writer, considering his influences and all the travelling he did throughout Europe.

Argentina here

Walt Whitman, Twain, Faulkner, Hemingway and Poe are famous. Newspaper stands near bus stations and subway stations often sell books, and you can often find books by them (except Whitman)
With Melville, you get the case of Moby Dick being much more famous than him.