New York Churchman, 5 June 1856

These tales are a reprint of papers that from time to time have appeared in the pages of Putnam's Monthly. They lose nothing by republication. Mr. Melville, perhaps, above any of our home writers, is remarkable for a certain taking variety of style. His "Typee" and "Moby Dick" are types of the two extremes. Between them, it may be, lies the just mean, and within this mean we place the collection of sketches before us. The author is a close observer and reverent student of Nature under her wilder as well as her sunnier aspects; he is not less at home in the portrayal of human character and passion. The "Piazza Tales" contain--"The Piazza;" "Bartleby;" "Benito Cereno;" "The Lightning-rod Man;" "The Encantadas; or, Enchanted Islands;" and "The Bell Tower." Those who are familiar with the mountain country of Berkshire will acknowledge the truthfulness of the following:

During the first of my residence . . . on the Barbary Coast, an unknown sail. ["The Piazza," paras. 5-16]

In the "Bell Tower," we have some of the weird conception of "Frankenstein."

but on the magic metal, the magic and metallic stranger . . . the oil-flask spilled across the iron track. [Paras. 83-84]

But our limits forbid further extracts. These "Piazza Tales," we predict, are destined to be read in many a pleasant country house, at watering-places, by the seashore, and among the mountains, during the coming summer heats. Scarcely a pleasanter book for summer reading could be recommended. With this view--and the hint will apply with equal propriety to several others of our more recent books of entertainment--it would not be a bad idea for the publishers to issue the above sketches in a more easily portable form. Pocket companions are proverbially the best read books. Messrs. Dix & Edwards are fast treading on the heels of older houses, in the excellence in which they get up their by no means infrequent editions of thoroughly deserving works.