Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Too nautical for me, 19 Aug 2007
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 can say that I am glad I have read it, and if life were longer I might even read it again. However, I have to concede that the book is very hard work. What story there is all takes place in the last 25 pages and is an action tour-de-force, but the previous 400 or so pages are lengthy and wordy digressions on whales, whaling and all conceivable ancillary topics, which at their worst are maddeningly garrulous. The characterisation is poor, unsurprisingly given that so little of the text is devoted to the players. Ishmael, the narrator is virtually a disembodied observer who brings little of himself to the action. Ahab is the tortured megalomaniac for whom we are given no opportunity for sympathy or empathy. All the other human characters, namely the ship's crew, are mere automata. Those of a nautical bent might get excited about the details of the ship, the Pequod, which is more lovingly written than the humans or the whales, but I'm not that way inclined.
I can see this book being truly relished by hardcore literature buffs with a love of ships and the sea, but I can't help but feel that just about anyone else would find it very heavy going.
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29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A constant companion, 6 Jan 2007
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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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Why don't you come a-whaling?, 24 Jul 2008
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 climax. The fact is, this book holds true to it, and even if when reading it you feel yourself slipping: keep at it, there is some superb English and some superb thought hidden in this book.
There are two faults with this book. First, and the biggest one, is the many many chapters on the technical aspects of Whaling and Cetology. Although interesting at first, they descend into Minutiae, and even I as a person who loved the book from cover to cover skipped a few chapters of this nature, scanning for any truly important passages. Secondly, in a few scenes the dialogue can get confusing, but these are generally not key scenes- so do not worry. Just remember that nearly everyone refers to themselves in the Third-Person, and Melville's lack of "said -" becomes less vexing and confusing.
The book does, however, contain some of the best prose I have ever read- and I've read a lot of it. Poetic, almost Shakespearean, and above all soaked in atmosphere, there are times when this book just astounds you with the vividness and tenacity of its language. With phrases like "made appalling battle" it sweeps away the less complex and incredibly simple modern bestsellers like The Da Vinci Code.
At the heart of the book is an intense symbolism that would sound ludicrous to those who have not read the book, the fact that one white whale could represent so plausibly so so many things does sound far fetched, but when you read it you find so many different answers. Fate, Providence, Nature, Madness, Death, Predestination- all these things run as Ahab and the Pequod's brave and diligent crew assail Moby-Dick.
Sure to be remembered as one of the greatest books ever written even in the far far future, this novel is an experience like no other- and an incredibly individual and personally driven one too, perhaps why it is the source of so much praise and so much perplexity. This book teaches you the art of writing, and the art of allegory.
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