Buy this book
![Loading indicator](/images/ajax-loader-bar.gif)
“Call me Ishmael” says Moby Dick’s protagonist, and with this famous first line launches one of the acclaimed great American novels. Part adventure story, part quest for vengeance, part biological textbook and part whaling manual, Moby Dick was first published in 1851. The story follows Ishmael as he abandons his humdrum life on shore for an adventure on the waves. Finding the whaler Pequod at harbour in Nantucket, he signs up for a three year term without meeting the Captain of the ship, a mysterious figure called Ahab. It is only well into the voyage that Ahab’s thirst for vengeance against the eponymous white whale Moby Dick—and the consequences—become clear.
The novel is semi-autobiographical: Herman Melville had had his own experience of whaling, having spent a year and a half aboard a whaling ship and further years travelling the world in the early 1840s. Herman used the knowledge gained from his experiences and wide reading on the subject to furnish Moby Dick with an almost encyclopaedic quality at times. The literary style varies widely, veering from soliloquies and staged scenes to dream sequences to comprehensive lists of ships provisions, but everything serves to further detail the world that’s being painted.
Presented here is the New York edition, which was published later than the London edition and reverted numerous changes the original publishers had made, as well as including the initially omitted epilogue.
Buy this book
![Loading indicator](/images/ajax-loader-bar.gif)
Previews available in: Russian English Spanish German French
Subjects
American Sea stories, Mentally ill, Whaling, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Whales, great_books_of_the_western_world, Translations into French, Literature, Captain Ahab (Fictitious character), American Adventure stories, Sailors, Sea stories, Classic Literature, Whaling in literature, Young Adult Fiction, Open Library Staff Picks, open_syllabus_project, Fiction, Ship captains, Whaling ships, Juvenile fiction, Chasse, Whales in literature, Shipwrecks, Baleines, Long Now Manual for Civilization, General, Children: Grades 4-6, American fiction (fictional works by one author), Ahab, captain (fictitious character), fiction, Whaling, fiction, Children's fiction, Whales, fiction, Fiction, action & adventure, Fiction, psychological, Literature and fiction (general), Fiction, sea stories, Fiction, fantasy, epic, Poetry (poetic works by one author), Melville, herman, 1819-1891, American literature, history and criticism, Sea stories, history and criticism, Large type books, Literature and fiction, action and adventure, Illustrations, Pictorial works, Drama (dramatic works by one author), Picture-writing in literature, Readers (Primary), Readers for new literates, Adventure and adventurers, fiction, Ballenas, Ficción, Capitanes de barcos, Enfermos mentales, Naufragios, Cuentos de mar, Novela psicológica, Romance literature, Epic literature, Adventure fiction, Allegories, Whalers (Persons), Drama, Revenge, Prohibition, Achab (Personnage fictif), Romans, nouvelles, Capitaines de navire, Personnes vivant avec un trouble de santé mentale, Action & Adventure, Walfang, Moby Dick (Melville, Herman), Fiction, historical, general, Fiction, general, Moby Dick, Literatura infantil, Ahab, captain (fictitious character), Ahab, captain (fictitious character)--fiction, Whales--fiction, Whaling--fiction, Ps2384.m6 m45 1992, 813/.3, Whaling ships--fiction, Ship captains--fiction, Mentally ill--fiction, Ps2384 .m6 2001c, Shipwrecks--fiction, Sailors--fiction, Ps2384 .m6 2003b, Melville, herman , 1819-1891, Ps2384 .m6 2002, Comics & graphic novels, general, Comic books, strips, etc., Fate and fatalism, SymbolismPeople
Herman Melville (1819-1891)Places
Massachusetts, Nantucket IslandShowing 15 featured editions. View all 1116 editions?
Edition | Availability |
---|---|
01 |
aaaa
|
02 |
cccc
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
03 |
bbbb
|
04 |
eeee
|
05 |
eeee
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
06 |
bbbb
|
07 |
bbbb
|
08 |
bbbb
|
09
Moby Dick: die Jagd nach dem weissen Wal
1994, Ensslin und Laiblin
in German
- 175. - 177. Tsd.
3770901010 9783770901012
|
cccc
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
10 |
bbbb
|
11 |
eeee
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
12 |
eeee
|
13 |
bbbb
|
14 |
bbbb
|
15 |
eeee
|
Book Details
ID Numbers
Work Description
"Command the murderous chalices! Drink ye harpooners! Drink and swear, ye men that man the deathful whaleboat's bow -- Death to Moby Dick!" So Captain Ahab binds his crew to fulfil his obsession -- the destruction of the great white whale. Under his lordly but maniacal command the Pequod's commercial mission is perverted to one of vengeance. To Ahab, the monster that destroyed his body is not a creature, but the symbol of "some unknown but still reasoning thing." Uncowed by natural disasters, ill omens, even death, Ahab urges his ship towards "the undeliverable, nameless perils of the whale." Key letters from Melville to Nathaniel Hawthorne are printed at the end of this volume. - Back cover.
Excerpts
Community Reviews (0)
Feedback?July 23, 2024 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
January 31, 2024 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
December 19, 2023 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
December 19, 2023 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
October 17, 2009 | Created by WorkBot | add works page |