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Moby Dick: Or, the Whale (Penguin Popular Classics)
 
 

Moby Dick: Or, the Whale (Penguin Popular Classics) (Paperback)

by Herman Melville (Author) "CALL me Ishmael ..." (more)
3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (94 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 544 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics; New Ed edition (25 Jan 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0140620621
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140620627
  • Product Dimensions: 18 x 11 x 2.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (94 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 4,754 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #2 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > M > Melville, Herman
    #29 in  Books > Fiction > World > American > Classics
    #66 in  Books > Fiction > By Period > 19th Century

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk 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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
It is the horrible texture of a fabric that should be woven of ships' cables and hawsers. A Polar wind blows through it, and birds of prey hover over it." So Melville wrote of his masterpiece, one of the greatest works of imagination in literary history. In part, Moby-Dick is the story of an eerily compelling madman pursuing an unholy war against a creature as vast and dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself. But more than just a novel of adventure, more than an encyclopaedia of whaling lore and legend, the book can be seen as part of its author's lifelong meditation on America. Written with wonderfully redemptive humour, Moby-Dick is also a profound inquiry into character, faith, and the nature of perception.

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CALL me Ishmael. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

94 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (94 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A constant companion, 6 Jan 2007
By Didier (Ghent, Belgium) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
I read Moby-Dick for the first time when I was about 18, and have re-read it at least three or four times since. It is without a shadow of a doubt one of the most impressive books in Western literature, about ever so much more than the mere chase for a white whale.

It's about friendship, love, hubris, passion, the search for the meaning of life, etc. etc. Longwinded at times? Yes, definitely. Obscure? That too. Unless you're intimately acquainted with the Old Testament, Shakespeare, classical Greek drama and just about everything else in Western art it's a good idea to buy an edition that comes with ample footnotes.

But if you then take the time and effort this book deserves, it might very well be a life-changing experience as it was for me, that will sometimes make you stop and think for years afterwards.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars the great American novel, 8 Feb 2002
By A Customer
Melville's masterpiece has a persuasive claim to being not only the greatest American novel written but perhaps also the greatest novel written in the English language. If you read it and hate it then so be it. I'm not here to try and persuade the unbelievers. But if it's a book that you 'click' with then I'm sure you will reach the same conclusion. It's a novel that can be read in many ways. Is it a commentary on the precarious state of the union in pre-civil war America? Or a warning about the threats that demigogic behaviour poses to the democratic system? Or a dissection of the immorality of slavery? Or a piece of work belonging in the 'gay' literary canon (just think of the name, or the passages describing the processing of the sperm, or the intimacy of Queequeg and Ishmael at the beginning of the text? What exactly IS Queequeg doing with that little 'idol'?) Or is it about redemption, a religious book that sees salvation through death? (those who have read it will recall the manner in which Ishmael survives). The book is inexhaustible, a sure sign of it's true greatness.

I will just make this comment though: some reviewers have separated the 'whale hunt' from the so-called 'encyclopaedic' chapters on whalelore and philosophical musing. When reading the book please do not make this mistake. Both elements are inseparable. The whale hunt IS the hunt for the answer posed by the more discursive chapters. In these erudite chapters Melville poses questions that are both profound and fundamental to our notion of ourselves, both as individuals and as collective beings. And Ahab's hunt for the whale is his hunt for 'meaning' in a seemingly chaotic world. When reading this book one of the many questions you could ask yourself is how 'meaningful' any of the occurences are. IS there significance in Melville's pipe falling into the sea? or his hat being snatched by a sea bird and being dropped into the fathomless depths? Or is a 'cigar only sometimes a cigar'?

One final point: the book is full of the most beautiful poetry and turns of phrase, such as: 'That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent, or be the white whale principle, I will wreck that hate upon him'. Often the prose is elevated to extraordinarily high levels of nobility and gravitas. The penultimate paragraph of the final chapter (before the epilogue) is one of the greatest in any novel.

I wrote my Masters dissertation on Melville, so maybe I'm biased, but this book really is something else. If you want comparisons in terms of stature and inclusivity then maybe only Elliot's 'Middlemarch' and Joyce's 'Ulysses' can compare. What distinguishes Melville from these latter novelists however is the PASSION in both the author and the characters, especially Ahab who is perhaps the most strikingly dramatic, heroic and tragic figure to appear in literature since the early 1600s.

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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Moby Dick: Two Books in one!, 7 April 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Moby Dick (Mass Market Paperback)
It's an allegory. No! It's an encyclopedia entry! Herman Melville tells a gripping, affecting tale of an obsessed Captain's quest for a white whale. Told by Ishmael, a member of Captain Ahab's crew, the novel recounts one man's obsession with a whale. However, the philosophical implications of his obsession soon become evident. Whiteness is equated with purity and goodness, as well as absence and death. Ahab's quest for revenge eventually causes his destruction as well as the destruction of those on board the Pequod. Did God send the whale to tempt Ahab, or save him? Is Ahab Jonah, waiting to be swallowed whole and reborn? Is the whale God? Is the whale Satan? Ahab and Ishmael grapple with these questions, and Melville challenges the reader to do so as well. All of this sounds like a compelling read; it is. However, it is only half the story. The other half, unfortunately, comes in the form of more information than anyone ever wanted to know about whales, whale hunting and whale habits. In one chapter, types of whales are chronicled. In another, the method of collecting ambergris from whales is detailed. The information, while presented well, is completely out of context. It would have been better suited as an appendix or introduction to the novel. Instead, it breaks up the flow of the narrative and pulls the reader out of Ahab's thrall. The story of Moby Dick hypnotizes and captivates us as surely as it does the Captain, but Melville is not content to let us drift along with the Pequod. Instead, we have to endure an Encyclopedia Brittanica full of information on whales. Moby Dick is a great novel and it is a fascinating factual chronicle. Unfortunately, the two do not peacefully coexist. I emerged from my reading experience frustrated. Melville could have easily given us the best of both worlds. Instead, he chops up Moby Dick and feeds him to his readers in bits and pieces, causing us to shift gears continuously. Keeping us on our toes, perhaps? Maybe, but it does not q!uite work. I only wish that great literature had a fast forward button.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars A difficult book to read
I thought I knew the story of "Moby Dick" from films and comics but wanted to read the 'real thing' myself.
I found this a very difficult book to read. Read more
Published 1 month ago by R. Cook

5.0 out of 5 stars Genius
The genius of the author is that the very process of reading Moby Dick mirrors the story.
This is a book that will stay with me. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Benjamin Snow

4.0 out of 5 stars A classic
There are moents in this book of pure beuaty, one that springs to mind is when they take the small boat into the frenzy of whales. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Elliott

4.0 out of 5 stars Ultimately, really worth the effort
I tried to read Moby Dick about 20 years ago and gave up.
Recently I was lent Nathaniel Philbrick's factual account of the sinking of 'The Essex' ('In the heart of the sea'... Read more
Published 4 months ago by P. Holden

2.0 out of 5 stars It made me want to jump ship!
In my quest to read all the literary classics, I do have to keep reminding myself that just because something is a "classic" I'm not necessarily going to enjoy it... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Femmielala

5.0 out of 5 stars Why don't you come a-whaling?
It's a classic allegory, but Moby-Dick is an arduous experience. I once read a summary that this book is only truly capable of being judged when read all the way through to its... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Robert Croton

1.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't even deserve one star, it's that bad
The author seems to think it far more appropriate to let us all know what a well-educated fellow he is by the use of overblown pompous classical waffling, than to tell the story... Read more
Published 12 months ago by D. R. Cantrell

5.0 out of 5 stars a bit drawn out but amazing prose
Wow! Every aspiring writer should give this a read...or then again maybe they shouldn't since it may be too depressing to read something this good. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Paul J. Fitzgerald

3.0 out of 5 stars Good for whaling information, bad for storytelling
In short, the story is about a man chasing down a whale in an act of revenge. It's not a complicated story, it's well written and to this extent I liked it. Read more
Published 21 months ago by The Lance

3.0 out of 5 stars Too nautical for me
The prose is so vivid that the only comparison that comes to mind is Shakespeare. Some sentences or paragraphs are so finely wrought as to hit you between the eyes, and as such I... Read more
Published 23 months ago by John Ferngrove

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