My problem with Melville is that he is so long-winded. In Moby-Dick, there is an early chapter where Ishmael is having breakfast at the Spouter Inn. It could be combined with the next chapter and shortened to "After breakfast,".

My wife has a masters in literature. She did her thesis on Melville, specifically the novel Pierre. I tried to read it so I might be able to criticize her thesis intelligently. I gave up about a third of the way through, since the characters were unbelievable, and spoke in what even by 19th century literary standards was an extremely stilted manner. And it was also long-winded. I had no problem in seeing why it was a critical and financial disaster when it was first published.