The Piazza Tales

The Piazza Tales is a collection of short stories by Herman Melville, which he published with Dix and Edwards in 1856 in the United States. A British edition followed shortly afterward. Except for the title story, "The Piazza," all of the stories had appeared in Putnam's Monthly over the years before. It was the only such collection published during Melville's lifetime. Originally, Melville had intended to entitle the volume Benito Cereno and Other Sketches, but it was The Encantadas, his sketches of the Galápagos Islands, that garnered the most attention from critics. Even though The Piazza Tales received largely favorable reviews, it did not sell well enough to get Melville out of his financial straits.