The complex figure in Melville's carpet -- Typee and Omoo: the quest for the garden -- Mardi: the search for innocence -- Redburn and White Jacket: initiation and baptism -- Moby Dick: the grand hooded phantom -- Pierre: the flowing river in the cave of man -- Israel Potter: survival in the desert -- Tales and sketches: withdrawals and reconciliations -- The Confidence-Man: a comic masquerade -- Clarel: cross bearers all -- Billy Budd: the catastrophe of innocence -- The figure retraced -- The quest for form.