The characters are deliberately odd. Ishmael himself is a loner, one who wishes to take ship for the adventure of it, but also to avoid society. He believes that “in landlessness alone resides highest truth, shoreless, indefinite as God” and would rather die at sea than be “dashed upon the lee, even if that were safety“. Queequeg is a cannibal who worships a small head in a mishmash of religions considered pagan by Ishmael. As they embark there are three captains aboard: Captain Peleg and Captain Bildad as well as Captain Ahab, who even at the point of departure is still nowhere to be seen. Despite the omens – Elijah’s warnings, and the whispered snatches of conversation about the elusive Ahab – Ishmael considers there to be nothing strange about this.

To read more of what is more of a summary than a review, see http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/200... ( )

I did it! I finished Moby Dick, finally. Let me tell you, it wasn't easy.

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. ( )

Everyone is familiar with Moby Dick. Strangely, I don't know anyone who has ever actually read it. It's about damn time I take a peek...

Summary: Ishmael, a young schoolteacher, signs up on a whaling ship to seek adventure. He joins the Pequod, captained by the mysterious Ahab. But Ahab is only interested in seeking revenge upon the great white wahale, Moby Dick, who took off Ahab's leg on a earlier trip.

This is a pretty long, allegorical book about a whale, and a man with a God-complex. ( )

I love this book. I've read it twice in the past few years, and both times took something new and exciting from the text. The characters are wonderful, the prose gorgeous (I'm continually sucked in by the imagery Melville conjures).

I would definitely recommend doing at least some reading on the Transcendentalist and Anti-Transcendentalist movements before picking this up, for some context. ( )

A bit dated, but great nonetheless. ( )

One of the classics of American literature. Filled with an adventurous spirit. ( )

Even with a fully working knowledge of the transcendental movement, and a comprehension of the time, and a well developed love for classic literature, this novel just didn't do anything for me at all. The language always felt coarse, and I didn't actually care for Melville's voice at all. I'm glad to have read it. There are some interesting ideas and themes. The blending of styles, with a touch of a Shakespeare motif, was intriguing. Ahab's blind and somewhat maddening pursuit can be at times engaging. But overall this just wasn't for me. ( )

I've been reading this for about ten years now and I am determined to finish it. Melville's writing is incredible. There is a rhythm to it that is almost soothing and that might be the problem. This is the book I read to help me fall asleep and I think that is why its taken me so long to finish it. ( )

You gotta love these Barnes & Noble reprints!

A lot of people can't understand Moby-Dick. And I think, to an extent, nobody can fully understand this book who doesn't know at least a little about the transcendentalist movement in American literature.

Transcendentalism, to Thoreau and Emerson, et al., was the idea that one can get to know God by studying nature. Thoreau was transcendentalism's greatest proponent. That's what 'Walden Pond' was all about.

Melville used Ahab and the whale to show (to put it as simply as possible) that one thing we learn when we study nature is that God isn't necessarily a creature we'd like to be closely acquainted with. When little Pip, the cabin boy, falls out of the whaleboat -- to take one example -- he sinks down and down, then he goes down a little farther, then farther still, and then he sinks some more until, bye and bye, he sank so far down in the ocean that he 'saw God's foot on the treadle of the loom.' At that point his mind snapped and when he finally broke surface, he was as crazy as a crap-house mouse. Having seen God, he became a madman, and his derangement was permanent.

Ahab is crazy because he, too, has met God -- and the damned thing took his leg off. He was not happy about losing his leg. He has sworn vengeance on God (manifest in the unstoppable power of the whale) and he will have it if it kills him -- as of course it finally does. Ahab's rage against God reflects the human creature's rage to order the insane universe (God) in which we live.

I mean, that vein is deep and rich. Moby-Dick gives us plenty of room to think and plenty of material to think about, and if we bother to think about it we'll be thinking for a long while. How about the scene where the men sit in a circle around a tub, squishing spermaceti between their fingers? Is there a circle-jerk going on there? Is there a hint at the homosexuality that was so common in all-male crews who spent months and years at sea?

In sum, I believe the novel has at least three purposes and at least two of those are didactic. On the one hand it discourses on transcendentalism, on the nature of God and the nature of man and the relationship between them. On the other hand, it discourses on the life of the whalers. We learn from reading Moby-Dick a very great deal about life and work on a wooden, wind-powered, Yankee whaling vessel. You can read it one way, you can read it the other way, or you can read it as a straight-up, meaningless adventure yarn. No matter how you read it, it's a whale of a tale and it's one that always yields more to those who re-read it.

I give it five stars because I think it earns every one of 'em. ( )

Makes Spielberg's 'Jaws' look like Grimm's Fairy Tales. ( )

I know, I know. Some of you were required to read this in school and thought yech. Fortunately for me, I didn't read it until I was in my 30s, and guess what? Melville really knew how to write a tale. Sometimes gory (think rendering whale blubber), sometimes mesmerizing -- it's part of our cultural heritage that should not be missed.

One if not THE greatest American Novel. ( )

This is my favorite American novel. I have read it every Fall for the past 18 years ... Each time I read it I find new layers of symbolism within ... Truly the Great American Literary Masterpiece! ( )

I don't really know what to say about Moby-Dick without making a fool of myself. It's a courageous masterpiece and I am thankful I read it. ( )

This is still one of my favorite classics. Ahab is such a classic character. ( )

I thought I had read MOby Dick - well everyone knows the story - and then I re-read it, and realised that I had never read it before. The prose is excellent, the study of men perceptive. I was teased with snatches of humor, bored with too many pages of "whale" and finished the tale wanting to know the human characters better. Maybe i expected more "story" in the story, ( )

I will concede that this is an American classic...even the American classic...only if, in return, I get dispensation from having to finish it.

Seriously though, I found the book exhausting and gave up after 250 pages. I think that I needed to be reading this under the care of an expert—say, a college course—or, at least, in a heavily annotated version. I was half-overwhelmed by symbology, usually only dimly perceived, thinking I was being taken on a journey through Christian faith toward atheistic rationalism but never quite being able to appreciate fully the scenery along the way. I did enjoy the humor when I encountered it, but did not enjoy the slog through wordiness in between. And...I certainly reached my limit on whaling-ology, a subject I find myself less interested in now than previously.

To date, my Melville comprised only Billy Budd, which I did not enjoy. I felt the need to attempt his classic but can now say with reasonable certainty that I am not a Melville fan. ( )

Moby Dick is an American Classical Novel that shows us how whaling was in the 1800's of the USA. It vividly depicts the actions of the main character and of the whale. It will get maybe tiresome sometimes and boring but definitely worth the read. I will give Moby Dick 3 out of 5 stars. ( )

Arguably Herman Melville's greatest work, and hailed as a classic American novel, Moby Dick tells the tale of one man's fatal obsession and his willingness to sacrifice his life and that of his crew to achieve his goal. The story follows the fortunes of Captain Ahab and the culturally and spiritually diverse crew of the Pequod, a 19th century whaling ship. The Pequod is on its last voyage out of New Bedford, Mass, in pursuit of Moby Dick, the great white whale which has been Ahab's obsessional quarry and bitter adversary for many years. Narrated by sole survivor Ishmael, the tale forms a complex fictional fusion, combining a wealth of literary symbolism, hidden meaning and philosophical debate with adventure narrative and a detailed historical account of the 19th century whaling trade.

The writing is first rate and the plot enveloping. Although there is a lot of chapters that dont have anything to do with the plot it gives a very indepth look at the whaling industry in the early to mid nineteenth century. ( )

THE Great American Novel, par excellence! ( )

“Call me Ishmael.” Possibly the most popular and recognized first line of any book and all classics, even by those who have never read it before.

Moby Dick is about Ishmael, as he joins a boat in search for the great white whale who stole Captain Ahab’s leg and cause various other troubles among the sea.

One of the greatest classics ever written, I’m surprised it has taken me this long to read the book in its entirety. I’ve heard much about it, but for some reason never had to read it in school and/or never finished it. Now that I have, I can tell that Melville’s catching tale of revenge and survival on the sea helped him create this amazing story. The weaving in of fact and fiction on a whaling boat makes the reader feel almost as if the tale were true and not an amazing creation.

Call me impressed. The blurb on the jacket of this audio book calls it a “breathtaking masterwork,” but actually, it’s better than that! It is a epic and staggering tale every bit as big as its subject matter--the largest of all living creatures and the edacious, relentless men who hunt and kill them.

Melville’s language is grandiloquent and a bit archaic, almost like the King James Bible. Although some might find that pretentious, I think it works in its context. My experience of the book may even have been enhanced by listening to it rather than reading it: the language is so elevated that, like a Shakespearian play, it is more moving when heard than when read. Melville says somewhere near the end of the book that one should write big stories about big subject matters, not about small things. And indeed, this book is not about mice or fleas; it is about whales and whaling.

Moby Dick was first published in 1851. The plot is of course familiar to most; beginning with the first sentence “Call me Ishmael” to the obsessed quest by Captain Ahab on the whaleship Pequod to catch and kill the whale that severed his leg, this story has been swimming through the culture in every medium from music to movies (including adaptations like “Jaws) and television.

Melville can be forgiven for utilizing a sprinkling of omens and preternaturally prescient shamans, reminiscent of Shakespeare’s witches, to create a foreboding atmosphere. His characters were superstitious and would have attributed such portentousness to ordinary coincidences. And what wonderful characters they are! Dickens himself would have been proud to have limned them, especially the “pagan savages,” the harpooners named Queequeg, Tashtego, Daggoo, and Fedallah.

This is not just a novel. It is also an encyclopedic treatise on the subject of whales and whaling, relating not only what scientists of the time knew, but also much of the lore (obviously exaggerated, but in many ways more interesting than the truth) prevalent in the fishery.

In the performance to which I listened (“Unabridged Classics” on 18 CDs), Frank Muller did a superb job of mastering accents and employing different voices for different characters. This book sets a very high standard for other fiction. It deserves its rating as one of the greatest novels in the English language.

(JAB) ( )