New York Dispatch, 8 June 1856.

This is a collection of short stories, consisting of "The Piazza," "Bartleby," "Benito Cereno," "The Lightning Rod Man," "The Encantados" or "Enchanted Islands" of the Pacific, and "The Bell Tower"--all of which have appeared at different times in Putnam's excellent Magazine, now published by this house. Herman Melville has achieved a name in the production of tales of fiction. His "Typee" and "Omoo," published many years ago, at once placed him in a prominent position as a writer of nautical romances. They were universally popular. He is no copyist of Maryat or Cooper, but has struck out an entirely new path for himself--a path in which none can hope to overtake him. There is a beautiful freshness about his style and his fancy that is extremely pleasing, and that enwraps the attention of his readers, and causes them to lay aside his tales with regret that they are finished, and the charm that bound them is broken. "Benito Cereno" and "The Encantadas," are, in our opinion, the best two tales in the present collection.

The former opens with a mysticism which reminds us of Edgar Poe's prose tales, and this mysticism is admirably preserved, even deepening in every character to the end, when all appears as clear as the sun at noon-day. The Encantados is a romance, a sort of mixture of "Mardi" and "Robinson Crusoe"--though far more interesting than the first named work. When the "Encantados" first appeared in "Putnam's," the chapters were universally considered among the most interesting papers of that popular Magazine, and each successive chapter was read with avidity by thousands. Converted in book form, these pleasing tales should command a large sale, and will doubtless do so. The name of the author is a passport to a public favor, and the tales themselves possess rare merits, not the least of which is the simplicity and purity of the author's style.