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| Epigraph |
There Leviathan, Hugest of living creatures, in the deep / Stretch'd like a promontory sleeps or swims, / And seems a moving land; and at his gills / Draws in, and at his breath spouts out a sea. PARADISE LOST
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| Dedication |
In token
of my admiration for his genius,
This Book is Inscribed
to
Nathaniel Hawthorne. | |
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| First words |
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. | |
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Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off -- then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. ...from Chapter 1 : Loomings All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event--in the living act, the undoubted deed--there, some unknown but still reasoning thing put forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there's naught beyond. But 'tis enough. | |
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| Last words |
On the second day, a sail drew near, nearer, and picked me up at last. It was the devious-cruising Rachel, that in her retracing search after her missing children, only found another orphan. (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.) | |
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| Disambiguation notice |
Please do not combine adaptations or abridged editions of Moby Dick with unabridged versions. Shouldn't this be "by Herman Melville"? If this is your book, please check the information you have listed. | |
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▾References References to this work on external resources.  Wikipedia in English (14)
▾LibraryThing members' description
| Book description |
1851 : Moby-Dick published
On this day in 1851, Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville about the
voyage of the whaling ship Pequod, is published by Harper & Brothers
in New York. Moby-Dick is now considered a great classic of American
literature and contains one of the most famous opening lines in
fiction: "Call me Ishmael." Initially, though, the book about Captain
Ahab and his quest for a giant white whale was a flop.
Herman Melville was born in New York City in 1819 and as a young man
spent time in the merchant marines, the U.S. Navy and on a whaling
ship in the South Seas. In 1846, he published his first novel, Typee,
a romantic adventure based on his experiences in Polynesia. The book
was a success and a sequel, Omoo, was published in 1847. Three more
novels followed, with mixed critical and commercial results.
Melville's sixth book, Moby-Dick, was first published in October 1951
in London, in three volumes titled The Whale, and then in the U.S. a
month later. Melville had promised his publisher an adventure story
similar to his popular earlier works, but instead, Moby-Dick was a
tragic epic, influenced in part by Melville's friend and Pittsfield,
Massachusetts, neighbor, Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose novels include The
Scarlet Letter.
After Moby-Dick's disappointing reception, Melville continued to
produce novels, short stories (Bartleby) and poetry, but writing
wasn't paying the bills so in 1865 he returned to New York to work as
a customs inspector, a job he held for 20 years.
Melville died in 1891, largely forgotten by the literary world. By the
1920s, scholars had rediscovered his work, particularly Moby-Dick,
which would eventually become a staple of high school reading lists
across the United States. Billy Budd, Melville's final novel, was
published in 1924, 33 years after his death.
*Note: Information provided by History.com | |
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▾Book descriptions Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0760757836, Hardcover)
On board the whaling ship Pequod, a crew of wise men and fools, renegades, and seeming phantoms is hurled through treacherous seas by a crazed captain hell-bent on hunting down the mythic White Whale. As the "great flood-gates of the wonder-world" swing open, Melville transforms the little world of the whale-ship into a crucible where mankind's fears, faith and frailties are pitted against a relentless fate. Teeming with ideas and imagery, and with its extraordinary, compressed intensity sustained by a buoyant, mischievous irony and by moments of exquisite beauty, Melville's masterpiece is both a great American epic and one of the most profoundly imaginative creations in literary history. Herman Melville was born in 1819 in New York City. Both his grandfathers were Revolutionary War heroes but his father, a merchant, died bankrupt in 1833. Melville left school and worked at various jobs before shipping on the whaler Acushnet in 1841. The next year he deserted, traveled the South Seas and joined the US Navy. After three years he retired, settled in Massachusetts and started to write. His first two novels, Typee (1846) and Omoo (1847), were fictionalized accounts of his travels: they remained his most popular works during his lifetime. In 1847 Melville married and wrote a series of novels he considered potboilers for money. With Moby-Dick (1851) he changed course, partly under the influence of Nathaniel Hawthorne; but the novel's extravagant intensity lost him readers. Pierre (1852) fared no better, and after publishing one more novel Melville took a job as a customs inspector in the New York City harbor and turned to writing poetry. He died there in 1891; an unfinished novel, Billy Budd, Sailor, was published in 1924. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:57 -0400) (see all 6 descriptions) ▾Open Shelves Classification The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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I'm sure most of you are familiar with the plot, so I'll spare you the details. Basically, Ishmael is a whaler on the Pequod, which is captained by Ahab. Ahab's leg was taken by Moby Dick, and now Ahab wants vengeance.
However, before we can meet Moby Dick, Herman Melville has decided that we need an in-depth look at the whaling industry in order to fully understand what's going on. In part, I agree with him. Knowing what specific things are called does help a story move smoothly when there's a high-action scene. But I really didn't need so much detail. And I understand that Melville is making pointed jabs at Christianity and slavery and the whaling industry, and just about everything else under the sun. This is all well and good (and even funny), up to a point. But eventually it just gets old and you just want to see the main event (in which I was rather disappointed).
While this is considered a classic and I know several people who think this is one of the greatest books on Earth, I just couldn't get into it. I get it; I understand its place in literary history and I can appreciate it for what it did, but I just didn't like it.
2 out of 5 stars. I liked some of what Melville did (there was some mystery, but it was short-lived, and he made part of the prose into a play which is unique). But unless you have a burning desire to prove that you are able to power through 500 pages of allegory and whale bones, don't bother. (