Moby Dick

Herman Melville

3.54

562,356 ratings by Goodreads

ISBN 10: 1566193575 ISBN 13: 9781566193573

Publisher: Dorset Press, 1994

Melville’s Moby Dick endures as a literary classic because it explores foundational themes such as the battle of good versus evil, man’s quest to conquer nature, racism and obsession. Moby Dick however explores these themes with a combination of pluck, humor and exhaustive explorations of whaling culture and vocation. Melville has also crafted a progenitor of the “epic male novel” which would later influence the works of Hemmingway and Ellison. The encyclopedic diversion contained in the book are structurally echoed in Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body. Moby Dick is a rich work brimming with imagery well worth the commitment to reading.

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Review:

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. --Emily Lowson

Review:

"Responsive to the shaping forces of his age as only men of passionate imagination are, even Melville can hardly have been fully aware of how symbolical an American hero he had fashioned in Ahab."
--F. O. Matthiessen
"From the Trade Paperback edition."

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