Moby-Dick is a very big classic because it's one-third fiction, one-third documentary, and one-third a collection of essays. The whaling theme dominates every bit of all three of these. The plot is very straightforward: a demonstration of the pointlessness of revenge, especially when it becomes one's sole purpose. Melville's use of language is enjoyable and he constantly introduces thought-provoking questions about religion and human nature. ( )

This a challenging read, but with film, audio and interpretive editions there are an embarrassment of riches that make it a lot easier. Here is the strategy I followed: 1) As background reading "In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex" (2000) recounts the real-life story that inspired Melville to write "Moby Dick", and gives a good background on Nantucket and the whaling industry. It provides needed historical context for the modern reader that was common knowledge in the 19th century. It was after reading this that I was inspired to read "Moby Dick". 2) The 2005 audiobook version narrated by William Hootkins (25 hours unabridged) - Hootkins should win an Oscar for his performance. I'm an audiobook junkie but this is one of if not the best audiobook performance I've heard, his reading is perfect for the book. I never would have picked up the amount of humor, satire and sheer emotion without his professional interpretive skills, every character sounds different. 3) Read along the audiobook version with the Norton Critical Edition (2002), which contains plentiful explanatory footnotes and other material such as contemporary reviews, pictures, maps, criticisms, etc.. 4) See the 1956 John Houston movie. It's 90-minutes and is a spoiler (save it for last); the sets, acting, costumes, accents all bring it alive in glorious technocolor, the film is a classic in its own right. For example Pip and the tambourine seems incongruous in the book but makes sense in the film, and the preachers pulpit visualized with Orson Wells delivering "The Sermon" is as good as it gets.

The novel is written in the Romanticsm tradition (cf. Lord Byron, Sir Walter Scott, "Les Miserables") and the language is full of symbolism and subtle layers of meaning. Yet, strangely, Melville turned this emotional, poetic style to a near documentary treatment of what is otherwise a fairly dry subject in minute detail. It's like writing poetry about the details of the nuclear power industry from backhoes to graphite rods to cooling ponds. Yet somehow it worked, the immersion is so complete, the details so real and "true of the thing" (Melville) that the main storyline becomes all that much more credible and powerful. The story its self is not that complex or even original (it's based on a Shakespeare tragedy) but the symbolic depth of the language, truthfulness of the details, and mythological power of the characters (Moby Dick and Ahab in particular) combine to make this "strange sort of a book" (Melville) a canonical work. ( )