Melville Stories is a collected work of the author's short-form work. It includes several novellas and novelettes concerned with Melville's typical subject matter. Bureaucracy, record-keeping and the running of libraries, seafaring life, and exploration are dominant themes throughout the collection. Also prevalent is the concept of research and its inclusion in creative narratives. Whaling and life aboard whaling and merchant ships are also central symbolic systems around which many of Melville's stories turn.