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Paradise or Plight? Melville and Berkshire Industry
10:23AM / Wednesday, September 03, 2025
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Actor Marcus Kearns and historian John Dickson team up for a program discussing Herman Melville's influence on industry in Berkshire County during the nineteenth century. 
 
The program, presented by the Berkshire County Historical Society, begins with a dramatic reading of Melville's short story "The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids." 
 
The Lecture will take place at Arrowhead on Sept. 9, at 5:30 pm
 
First published in 1855, the story combines two sketches, one set in the center of London's legal industry and the other in a New England paper factory (possibly based on The Old Red Mill in Dalton, Massachusetts, where Melville had visited). John Dickson will then lead a discussion of the story and how Melville's views on Industrialization influenced Berkshire County's industrial history followed by a Q & A.
 
Tickets are available by using the BOOK NOW button at berkshirehistory.org; $15 BCHS members, $20 non-members.
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