- Paperback: 242 pages
- Publisher: Abacus; New edition edition (5 Oct 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0349112339
- ISBN-13: 978-0349112336
- Product Dimensions: 19.7 x 12.6 x 1.9 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 679,610 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Near the beginning of Tim Severin's account of his search for a great white whale, he tells the story of a marine biologist who joined a 1980 expedition of his to spot whales. Riding in a bosun's chair high up on the mast of an Arab sailing vessel, the biologist scanned the ocean with binoculars. He spotted whales--
"but not nearly as many as did two members of the crew far below him on the deck. Again and again one or other would call up to the masthead and draw the lookout's attention to a whale he had not yet noticed ... When the time came for him to leave the ship ... he confessed with a wry smile that the one thing he had really learned was [to] be more sceptical of the observations of marine biologists."
Severin's search takes him around the Pacific and particularly to the Marquesas, where the technique of hunting whales by hand armed only with home-made bill- hooks has not yet been entirely forgotten. Conversations with old whalers bring him closer to true whale lore than any biological treatise. Not that Severin is interested in scoring cheap points. Rather, In Search of Moby Dick is an eloquent demonstration of how much valuable knowledge is locked up in the practices and stories of indigenous people--working people whose very lives and livelihoods, after all, depend upon it.
Melville's Moby Dick was fashioned from the stories and reports of whalers of his day. Severin begins his own hunt in the belief that there is no smoke without fire. He is not disappointed. --Simon Ings --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'With Melville-like dexterity, Severin stitches together this story of his global search for the "real" Moby Dick and his creator . . . Well worth reading' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Severin is one of the few men living who can genuinely be called an explorer . . . [His] quest has the epic quality of Melville's novel and his conclusions go far beyond the bounds of most travelogues . . . A remarkable investigation' DAILY EXPRESS 'An extraordinary explorer' INDEPENDENT 'Tim Severin is one of the last of the old-style explorers ... His deeds speak to us of the purity of achievement in an age where experience has become blunted by comfort and complacency' THE TIMES 'One of the refreshing things about Tim Severin is that one believes what he says.' LITERARY REVIEW 'His observations are sharp and sympathetic, to whale and people alike, and the result is an intriguing account of a passing world.' WANDERUST 'Vivid travel writing, maritime folklore and insight into the lives of people who depend on the ocean keep the pages turning.' FOCUS 'Unlike Ahab he has survived to tell the tale and a good tale it is: a great adventure story interleaved with diverting historical anecdotes.' TIME OUT 'Near the beginning of Tim Severin's account of his search for a great white whale, he tells the story of a marine biologist who joined a 1980 expedition of his to spot whales. Riding in a bosun's chair high up on the mast of an Arab sailing vessel, the biologist scanned the ocean with binoculars. He spotted whales-- "but not nearly as many as did two members of the crew far below him on the deck. Again and again one or other would call up to the masthead and draw the lookout's attention to a whale he had not yet noticed ... When the time came for him to leave the ship ... he confessed with a wry smile that the one thing he had really learned was [to] be more sceptical of the observations of marine biologists." Severin's search takes him around the Pacific and particularly to the Marquesas, where the technique of hunting whales by hand armed only with home-made bill- hooks has not yet been entirely forgotten. Conversations with old whalers bring him closer to true whale lore than any biological treatise. Not that Severin is interested in scoring cheap points. Rather, In Search of Moby Dick is an eloquent demonstration of how much valuable knowledge is locked up in the practices and stories of indigenous people--working people whose very lives and livelihoods, after all, depend upon it. Melville's Moby Dick was fashioned from the stories and reports of whalers of his day. Severin begins his own hunt in the belief that there is no smoke without fire. He is not disappointed.' - Simon Ings, AMAZON.CO.UK REVIEW
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First Sentence
With an off-cut of heavy canvas, Owen Chase was hastily nailing a temporary patch over a hole in the bottom of his whaleboat. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
With an off-cut of heavy canvas, Owen Chase was hastily nailing a temporary patch over a hole in the bottom of his whaleboat. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Very interesting book. The author writes about his journey around the world to find the real world foundations of the the book. In the end White Whales do exist and one gets to meet various different characters who still hunt whales with their bare hands
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
A FASCINATING SEARCH FOR THE ROOTS OF A MYTH
21 May 2000
Format:Hardcover
Tim Severin has a gift for creating wonderfully colorful reasons for writing a book -- he sailed in a skin-covered coracle to establish the background to the fable of St. Brendan, and navigated a dhow to recreate the voyages of Sindbad the Sailor, in just two of his odysseys. In this one, he searches for the mythic roots of the great white whale that provided the theme and tumultuous climax of Melville's classic, Moby-Dick. In a journey that spans the vast reaches of the Pacific, he first of all explores the island in the Marquesas where Melville deserted the whaleship Acushnet, travels to Tonga in search of the tattooed harpooner, Queequeg, and then moves on to the Timor Straits and the Flores Sea,in particularly haunting passages that describe his encounters with primitive whale-shark and sperm whale hunters, where harvesting great animals from the teeming tropical waters can mean the difference, for clans and families living on the edge of want, between survival and death.
This book is a page-turner. I sat down after breakfast on a lazy weekend morning, and could not put it down until supper time, when every page had been read. His quest rings with a sense of sincerity. Nothing here is contrived. Tim Severin shares with us the difficulties -- and great blessings -- of discerning the links between truth and myth.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Finding Moby
28 Dec 2000
Format:Hardcover
Herman Melville based his gigantic masterpiece _Moby Dick_ on fact. This is one of the most fascinating parts of that magnificent book. As mystical and symbolic as the parts and the whole may be, they are all firmly grounded in fact, in the world of nineteenth century whaling as it was. Facts crowd into the chapters, even the most novelistic ones. Tim Severin has made a career of replicating historic vessels, using them to trace the supposed routes of their historic sailors, and then writing about the results. In _In Search of Moby Dick: The Quest for the White Whale_ (Basic Books), he does not plunder Melville's great work, but actually expands it. Using _Moby Dick_ and other Melville texts, he has gone on an adventure to find the white sperm whale, and although he never brings home the fabulous creature, he does indeed find it in ways that demonstrate that even a century and a half after the white whale entered literature, he still exists as fact as well as fable.
Severin's curious quest takes him first to the island Melville described in his bestseller _Typee_, and then to islands where Melville never visited, but where there are still whalemen who still harpoon whales. The descriptions of the dangers of the hunts on which Severin accompanied the islanders are vivid and memorable. He finds, intriguingly, that the island legends of the white whale are in many ways the same as those of Melville's whalemen. He conveys vividly the excitement of the hunt, both of physical prey by contemporary whalemen and his own search for Moby Dick. The islanders know there is a white whale out there. Ahab was not able to destroy him, and the islanders revere and respect him. Severin's vibrant book shows that the whale hunters will surely pass away before Moby Dick, secure in legend and literature, is ever finally caught, or finally known.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Something's Missing Here
16 July 2001
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I enjoyed the book, and would recommend it. It has been well reviewed by others here on this page.
I was disappointed to find that the still pictures the author took and the drawings by Patturson mentioned in the credits were not found in the paperback De Capo Press book. I guess one has to buy the hardback. I found it a bit odd that the author often referred to Melville's copying (plagurizing) passages of other texts in the production of his book Moby Dick, but did not mention that in the times of its publication it was not uncommon to plagurize other books. Maybe he just didn't know.
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