Jack Blunt and his Dream Book

Abstract

T HE idea of predicting the future fascinated Herman Melville. Besides the numerous prophets and prophecies in his fiction, he also depicts various attempts to divine the future through astrology, fortune-telling, or dream interpretation. Several scholars have discussed Melville's familiarity with the art of astrology,' but Melville also knew and employed in his writing other common nineteenth-century attempts to discover the future. Jack Blunt in Redburn epitomizes these efforts, particularly in his use of one of the most popular contemporary predictive devices, a dream book. A common seaman described as an Irish Cockney, Blunt believes in fortune-telling, dream interpretation, and witch-work and magic.2 He takes precautions against black magic and frequents the house of a Liverpool fortune teller, who, as Redburn naively informs us, felt his pulse, to tell what was going to befall him (p. 88). Blunt superficially resembles the description of British seamen provided by John Codman in his Sailors' Life and Sailors' Yarns (i 847). While describing the prevalent superstitions held by sailors of various nationalities, Codman notes that British