Publisher's Synopsis
The Piazza was written as an introductory short story to Melville's collection of fiction, called The Piazza Tales which was first published in 1856. It depicts the writer sitting on his newly built porch (piazza) daydreaming and fantasizing about going into the surrounding mountains and having endless conversations with a lonely woman named Marianna. When darkness falls his fantasies abruptly ends and he finds himself miserable and alone on his piazza.
