The Piazza Tales is a collection of six short stories by American writer Herman Melville, published by Dix & Edwards in the United States in May 1856 and in Britain in June. Except for the newly written title story, ‘The Piazza, ‘ all of the stories had appeared in Putnam’s Monthly in 1853-1855. The collection includes what has long been regarded as the author’s three most important achievements in the genre of short fiction, ‘Bartleby, the Scrivener’, ‘Benito Cereno’, and ‘The Encantadas’, his sketches of the Galápagos Islands.
About the author
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. His best known works include Typee (1846), a romantic account of his experiences in Polynesian life, and his whaling novel Moby-Dick (1851). His work was almost forgotten during his last 30 years.