The Piazza Tales

audiobook

The Piazza Tales

by Herman Melville

EN·~8 hours

Chapters

Description

A weary traveler seeks refuge in an aging country house, its stone walls steeped in history and its surroundings a painter’s dream. The hills roll with wild strawberries and blue violets, while distant mountains sketch a permanent horizon of light and shadow. Within this tranquil realm, the narrator feels the ache of a missing piazza—an outdoor room where the comforts of home might meet the freedom of the open sky. His musings turn the landscape into a living gallery, each vista a brushstroke awaiting a place to be admired.

Determined to create that missing space, he weighs the merits of every side of the house: the eastern hills that kiss the sunrise, the southern orchard blooming like a bride, the western pasture that unfurls into maple woods, and the ever‑looming northern ridge. Each view promises its own poetry, and his imagination builds a circular haven to frame them. As he sketches plans and gathers materials, the story settles into a gentle meditation on architecture, nature, and the desire to carve a personal sanctuary from the world’s vast canvas.

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Details

Language

en

Duration

~8 hours (462K characters)

Publisher of text edition

Project Gutenberg

Release date

2005-05-18

Rights

Public domain in the USA.

About the author

Herman Melville

Herman Melville

1819–1891

Best known for Moby-Dick, this American writer turned years at sea into stories full of adventure, mystery, and big questions about human nature. His work was not fully appreciated in his lifetime, but it later became central to American literature.

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