Description

After spending the summer of 1853 in the Berkshire Mountains, where he supposedly had a real life encounter with a lightning-rod salesman, Melville published “The Lightning-Rod Man." At the end of this short story, the lightning-rod salesman is exposed for the fraud that he is. However, that will not keep his successors from fanning out to the Middle West, where lightning storms abound and farmers were gullible. On another level, the story can be interpreted as a confrontation between Good and Evil. Through description and diction, the narrator is understood as a follower of God, someone who believes in The Almighty watching over him. On the other hand, the lightning-rod man is seen as a negative character, someone who only has faith in the product he's peddling.

Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist and poet, whose work is often classified as part of the genre of dark romanticism. He is best known for his novel Moby Dick and novella Billy Budd, the latter of which was published posthumously. After a fast-blooming literary success in the late 1840s, his popularity declined precipitously in the mid-1850s and never recovered during his lifetime. When he died in 1891, he was almost completely forgotten. It was not until the "Melville Revival" in the early 20th century that his work won recognition, most notably Moby Dick which was hailed as one of the chief literary masterpieces of both American and world literature.

Patrick Girard Lawlor, a classically trained stage actor, has performed on-stage throughout the United States and Europe. He has appeared in several feature films, as well as on the television series, “L.A. Heat.” His extensive work as an audiobook narrator has garnered numerous awards, including the Audie Award nomination.

The Lightning-Rod Man

Author: Herman Melville

Narrator: Patrick Lawlor

ISBN: 9781593165376

SRP: $5.95

Length: 0:21:00

Item No: LL500

Available on the following websites: Amazon, Apple, Audible, AudioBookStore, Audiobooks, Blackstone, Catalist, Epic!, Kobo, Libro.fm, Mackin, Overdrive, StoryTel, Tumblebooks.