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Not to disappoint Philip Roth, but the fact that you title your book, The Great American Novel, does not make it a great American novel. My definition of Great American Novel is pretty straightforward: a first rate fiction, by an American, that tells us something large and expansive about the American experience. One other condition—it has to be readable. A caveat upfront for the sensitive: seven of the ten novels listed below use the word “nigger,” not the infantile “n-word,” but the actual word itself. For the last many years, we have collectively refrained from using “nigger,” even in an...

As museums around the world celebrate the 250th birthday of JMW Turner, it's time to reappraise his beloved and celebrated painting, The Fighting Temeraire. JMW Turner's The Fighting Temeraire became a national celebrity when it was first unveiled in 1839, and its fame has endured to the present day. It was once voted Britain's favourite painting and currently features on £20 banknotes. But the widely accepted interpretation of this iconic painting's message might, in fact, contradict Turner's true intentions. The "Temeraire" of the title refers to a 98-gun warship of the British Navy, which is depicted in the painting's background....

2,700-year-old inscribed papyrus, a letter to 'Ishmael' written in early Hebrew script, joins only two others from biblical times. But that's just the beginning of the story...This 4-centimeter-high, 5-centimeter-wide (1.5 inch x 2 inches) fragment joins only two other known contemporary papyrus fragments inscribed with early Hebrew in the Land of Israel to date.The treasure hunt ended earlier this year after the IAA’s Eitan Klein located the owner of the exceedingly rare papyrus in the fittingly nicknamed Treasure State.The inscription is composed of four fragmented lines, the first of which begins with the intriguing command "To Ishmael, send…." and then...

One of the speakers at this year’s Modern Language Association (MLA) meeting brought up a fascinating quote by William Wordsworth that may well be an indictment of the annual conclave of English professors: "To dissect is to murder." If that is so, much of the professoriat at the MLA meeting could be up on assault charges. If he hadn't already passed away, Herman Melville might want to file such a complaint. Melville, of course, is the author of Moby Dick. Many will probably recognize this as the one about a one-legged sea captain pursuing a great big whale. Yet and...

In Herman Melville's classic story "Billy Budd," the narrator ponders what could be the matter with the master-at-arms "who has an animus toward the young seaman known as Billy Budd." Therein ensues a discussion about "natural depravity: a depravity according to nature." Thus, "one who has this natural depravity can be described as having an …even temper and discreet bearing [which] would seem to intimate a mind peculiarly subject to the law of reason, not the less in heart he would seem to riot in complete exemption from that law, having apparently little to do with reason [other] than to...

Have you ever lied about reading a book? Maybe you didn’t want to seem stupid in front of someone you respected. Maybe you rationalized it by reasoning that you had a familiarity with the book, or knew who the author was, or what the story was about, or had glanced at its Wikipedia page. Or maybe you had tried to read the book, even bought it and set it by your bed for months unopened, hoping that it would impart what was in it merely via proximity (if that worked, please email me).

Wreck of the The Two Brothers found 600 miles northwest of Honolulu Divers have found the shipwrecked vessel of a doomed sailor who inspired the classic American tale Moby Dick off the coast of Hawaii.When, in 1820, a fierce sperm whale sank George Pollard's first whaling ship — Essex — it captured the imagination of author Herman Melville, who published the book in 1851.And, just three years after his first ship sank, a second whaler captained by Pollard, 30, struck a coral reef during a night storm and sank in shallow water.Marine archaeologists scouring remote atolls 600 miles northwest...