Presented together in this collection are two stories by Herman Melville: a satire on spiritualism that examines the conflicting impressions of the members of a family of a bug-infested table and a reflection on the contrast between the pleasant life of rich bachelors and the alienation of enslaved young women. In “The Apple-Tree Table,” the narrator brings down a table and book of witchcraft stories he finds in the garret of his old house, long believed to be haunted. Strange sounds come from the table before 150-year-old bugs begin to emerge from it, inspiring daughter Julia to believe the creatures are a symbol of the resurrection. “The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids” points out the outrageous differences between two groups by juxtaposing the lavish dinner of a group of young, single male lawyers, scholars, and writers in London in the first part with a visit to a paper factory in a nearly inaccessible mountain village where young women toil under subhuman conditions in the second. Presentados juntos en esta recopilación hay dos cuentos de Herman Melville: una sátira del espiritismo que examina las opiniones divididas de los miembros de una familia sobre una mesa infestada de insectos y una reflexión sobre el contraste entre la vida placentera de los ricos solteros y la alienación de las jóvenes esclavizadas. En “La mesa de madera de manzano,” el narrador baja del desván de su casa vieja—considerada desde hace tiempo encantada—una mesa y un libro de brujería. La mesa emite un extraño crujido antes de que insectos de 150 años emanen de ella, inspirando a la hija Julia a creer que las criaturas son un símbolo de la resurrección. “El Paraíso de los solteros y el Tártaro de las doncellas” muestra las inauditas diferencias entre dos grupos, yuxtaponiendo una cena pantagruélica con abogados, eruditos y escritores solteros en Londres en la primera parte con una visita a una fábrica de papel en una aldea de montaña casi inaccesible en la que trabajan mujeres jóvenes en condiciones infrahumanas en la segunda.
Author
There is more than one author with this name Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. His first two books gained much attention, though they were not bestsellers, and his popularity declined precipitously only a few years later. By the time of his death he had been almost completely forgotten, but his longest novel, Moby Dick—largely considered a failure during his lifetime, and most responsible for Melville's fall from favor with the reading public—was rediscovered in the 20th century as one of the chief literary masterpieces of both American and world literature.
