Melvillian

English

Alternative forms

• Melvillean

Etymology

From Melville +‎ -ian.

Adjective

Melvillian (comparative more Melvillian, superlative most Melvillian)

1. Associated with the Scottish education reformer Andrew Melville (1545–1622).

   The Melvillian reforms of the 16th century.

2. In a manner reminiscent of the writings of Herman Melville (1819–1891), especially the character Captain Ahab in Moby-Dick.

   He had a Melvillian obsession.

   • 2012, “2 better choices in 9th Congressional District”, in The Charlotte Observer:

     "Then he rallied in Huntersville with Maricopa County (Ariz.) Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a Melvillian character on a never-ending crusade against Latinos."[1]

Noun

Melvillian (plural Melvillians)

1. (historical) A supporter of Scottish education reformer Andrew Melville (1545–1622).
   • 1998, Roger Lockyer, “King of Scotland”, in James VI and I (Profiles in Power), Harlow, Essex: Addison Wesley Longman Limited, →ISBN, page 26:

     The reduction of aristocratic power had been achieved only at the cost of conciliating the Melvillians in the Scottish Church and leaving episcopacy in limbo.

   • 2005, Jenny Wormald, “Confidence and Perplexity: The Seventeenth Century”, in Jenny Wormald, editor, Scotland: A History, Oxford, Oxon: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 157:

     In 1596, James had successfully undermined Edinburgh’s support for the Melvillians by threatening to remove council and law court from the capital.

   • 2009, Alec Ryrie, “Reforming the World of the Parish”, in The Age of Reformation: The Tudor and Stewart Realms, 1485–1603 (Religion, Politics and Society in Britain), Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education Limited, →ISBN, page 262:

     It was easier for the Melvillians to write manifestos than to bring these structures into being. For most of the 1567–73 civil war, the Scots Church remained a strange hybrid, a half-finished Reformed Church alongside the still-functioning husk of its Catholic predecessor.

2. An admirer or scholar of the works of Herman Melville (1819–1891).
   • 1949 March 10, Henry Murray, “Appendix: Repunctuating the Melville Revival: A New Map, a Pause, and a Tour through the Archives [Murray to [Jay] Leyda, March 10, 1949]”, in Clare L. Spark, Hunting Captain Ahab: Psychological Warfare and the Melville Revival, Kent, Oh., London: The Kent State University Press, published 2001, →ISBN, page 522:

     Perhaps you think I am “spitefully” sitting on a lot of secrets—facts unknown to you or other Melvillians—I don’t know of a single fact that is unknown to you.—Many of them facts from my collection are to be found in the Pierre footnotes; if they have not already been published by other Melvillians.

   • 2010, David Dowling, “Conclusion: Poetry in and beyond Moby-Dick”, in Chasing the White Whale: The Moby-Dick Marathon; or, What Melville Means Today, Iowa City, Ia.: University of Iowa Press, →ISBN, page 202:

     Most Melvillians have their own favorite impassioned lyrical moments in Moby-Dick prior to the marathon reading.

   • 2011, James L. Machor, “Preface”, in Reading Fiction in Antebellum America: Informed Response and Reception Histories, 1820–1865, Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISBN, page xi:

     While Melville began as a highly popular author, his fiction quickly fell into disfavor in the early 1850s. Most modern Melvillians have explained that descent by depicting Melville as the quintessentially brilliant but misunderstood writer, who grew increasingly alienated from and disdainful of his contemporary readers because they failed to respond to and appreciate the genius and complexity of his novels.