Moby-Dick (Bantam Classics) by Herman Melville (Epub)

Description

First published in 1851, Herman Melville’s masterpiece is, in Elizabeth Hardwick’s words, “the greatest novel in American literature.” The saga of Captain Ahab and his monomaniacal pursuit of the white whale remains a peerless adventure story but one full of mythic grandeur, poetic majesty, and symbolic power. Filtered through the consciousness of the novel’s narrator, Ishmael, Moby-Dick draws us into a universe full of fascinating characters and stories, from the noble cannibal Queequeg to the natural history of whales, while reaching existential depths that excite debate and contemplation to this day.

User’s Reviews

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.” From the Publisher No American masterpiece casts quite as awesome a shadow as Melville’s monumental Moby Dick. Mad Captain Ahab’s quest for the White Whale is a timeless epic–a stirring tragedy of vengeance and obsession, a searing parable about humanity lost in a universe of moral ambiguity. It is the greatest sea story ever told. Far ahead of its own time, Moby Dick was largely misunderstood and unappreciated by Melville’s contemporaries. Today, however, it is indisputably a classic. As D.H. Lawrence wrote, Moby Dick “commands a stillness in the soul, an awe . . . [It is] one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world.” From the Inside Flap No American masterpiece casts quite as awesome a shadow as Melville’s monumental Moby Dick. Mad Captain Ahab’s quest for the White Whale is a timeless epic–a stirring tragedy of vengeance and obsession, a searing parable about humanity lost in a universe of moral ambiguity. It is the greatest sea story ever told. Far ahead of its own time, Moby Dick was largely misunderstood and unappreciated by Melville’s contemporaries. Today, however, it is indisputably a classic. As D.H. Lawrence wrote, Moby Dick “commands a stillness in the soul, an awe . . . [It is] one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world.” From the Back Cover No American masterpiece casts quite as awesome a shadow as Melville’s monumental “Moby Dick. Mad Captain Ahab’s quest for the White Whale is a timeless epic–a stirring tragedy of vengeance and obsession, a searing parable about humanity lost in a universe of moral ambiguity. It is the greatest sea story ever told. Far ahead of its own time, “Moby Dick was largely misunderstood and unappreciated by Melville’s contemporaries. Today, however, it is indisputably a classic. As D.H. Lawrence wrote, “Moby Dick “commands a stillness in the soul, an awe . . . [It is] one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world.”

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ I don’t see what the problem is. Why are some reviewers whining about the size of the book? I mean, it’s perfectly fine. The measurements are also listed, if you read the product page. I actually laughed at the Derp/Derpina who posted a photo of the book next to a tape measure showing the measurements of this book…no DUH, Einstein. Those same measurements are listed in the product description! LOL! Anyway, the hardcover is the same size as those little books Barnes & Noble used to sell. It came in mint condition and is absolutely lovely. I think they’d make great gifts! Also, if you are wondering why some customers have different hardback versions, it’s because they bought it by selecting the “more buying options” link below the listing.

⭐ I tried. I really tried. Multiple times. But the page after page describing all the different types of whales in the most minute of detail, and the sentences that stretch so long that by the end of them I’d realize I couldn’t figure out for the life of me what point he was trying to make. I finally decided life is to short to torture myself with a book I’m just not enjoying, and I moved on. Maybe I’ll try again in another 10 years.

⭐ The hardcover option is VERY TINY, almost too tiny to hold. Especially considering it’s 765 pages. This would be a wonderful purchase if it was just normal-sized.

⭐ A very enjoyable listen. Well narrated and takes a long time to get through, my two main requirements for an audiobook :). I tried reading this when I was young (luckily never given it as an assignment) and it is a tough read. Herman Melville was a master of the poetic phrase and it is beautiful to listen to but a trudge to read imho. A true American classic of the dangers of revenge and mob mentality. It also provides a time-machine like glimpse into the powerful American whaling industry and once again demonstrates the American concept (for good or bad) that whatever the world does we will outstrip it. I was especially pleased with the authors (narrators) view on the belief that mankind could never kill enough whales to endanger their numbers in the ocean and provides an interesting analogy separating their killing from the American Buffalo. Sadly, little did he know of where technology and seafaring were headed just a few decade later. I spent .99 for the kindle book and got the audio for free so I count it as money well spent.

⭐ I forced myself to read this famous old book. The writing style was treacherous. I skipped over numerous paragraphs to reach the end, at first guiltily, then not so much. It’s more than a tale of chasing Moby Dick, it is a wordy description of whaling, and also Moby Dick is likened to God, maybe the devil. Whales are compared to leviathan, the biblical sea monster, but I disagree with that. Leviathan could come in a whale form, but not only as a whale in my opinion. There is the inevitable and embarrassing racism in this “classic” tale, although it was milder in this book as the author attempted to seem open minded but not without an air of superiority. Ugh. The writing style is awkward, I do not consider it superior, along with some other old books I have read. I did not enjoy it. Sorry. I felt a little badly reading that Herman Melville wasn’t recognized until after death, that happens too much, but I am not giving it three stars for pity. I wonder if Moby Dick is famous because of the biblical connotations, which makes Moby Dick the book like leviathan also. I feel the ghost of Herman Melville will attack me. Some of the prose was noteworthy but reading it was a drag.

⭐ Well, I promised my brother I would read this- well I finally did it. There is a lot to this book. I really want to read some things written about this to help me digest it. Meville’s language and writing is beautiful. He extensively researched this book. It made me want to read current books regarding whale behavior and anatomy. The whaling business was horrific, violent, terrible on so many levels. I wonder if whales remember the horror. Horrible, sometimes humans are just incredibly terrible to our precious beautiful world.There were so many stories within the story: the story of the bird stealing Ahab’s hat, the story of the blacksmith who (I believe) got drunk and couldn’t help when his family was burglarized. So, many stories. I think the length of it is meant to help you understand and feel the length of the voyages, 3-4 years at sea!My final thought, at this point, (there may be more later) is that the book is 136 chapters and Moby Dick shows up in the last three.Just a note: I have read 2 books on the sinking of the whaleship the Essex, that Melville based his story on.

⭐ I actually like the compact size. Some people like these little books, some don’t, but Moby-Dick is a weighty tome, and having a copy that is hardback but still isn’t painful to hold for long periods is nice. Macmillan used to publish these as simply the “Collector’s Library” and sold them on speciality racks at Barnes and Noble outlets. They’ve slightly changed the name of the series, and the covers and dust jackets are different, but they are clearly still using the same printing plates.Which for me is the rub. Because while scholars have gone back and forth between the correct spelling of the title being Moby-Dick or Moby Dick, with the former being preferred since the 1960’s, the name of the whale itself is always printed Moby Dick. No hyphen.Except here. Someone went all anal-retentive and hyphenated the whale’s name throughout the book. No other edition has ever done this, including the first printings in England and America. In fact, the only reason the _title_ is hyphenated is because that’s how Melville’s brother spelled it when alerting the American publishers of Herman Melville’s wish to change the book’s name. No one knows why the hyphen is there in his brother’s letter, when it it never used in the text itself, but that’s what the publisher went with and how it appears on title page for the first American edition. All anyone knows is that Herman Melville let it stand and never complained about it.Long and short of it: Moby-Dick is the name of the book, Moby Dick is the name of the whale, and the Collector’s Library/Macmillan Collector’s Library doesn’t understand the difference. For me, frustrating.

⭐ Ever read a book because your teacher assigned it as required reading? Either you read the whole thing and can’t remember a tenth of it today, or you read the back of the book and figured that’s enough to write a book report. Moby Dick was not required reading when I was in school four decades ago, but I’ve had this book on my must-read list for many years. As the human species, I’m afraid we have devolved to the point where all stories must be fast paced, succinct, and concise. When today’s readers pick up many classic works, they will become lost in the verbose, wandering narratives and obscure vernacular of the time in which they were written. Some SENTENCES take half a page or more. Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad that I read this classic, but I’m more enthused I’ve crossed Moby Dick off my list. Won’t be doing a reread. Ever. The historical fiction writers of today, like Conn Iggulden would have made the Great White Whale jump from the pages, and we would feel the whaler’s world around us, steeping us in the experience. It also would have been a 5 hour page turner, instead of having my own Pequod becalmed for two weeks in the doldrums of Melville’s narrative, anxious for fresh trades to sweep me to the next novel. I am 53 years old. There are too many books I want to read than I have time left here for. If you are impatient, and want action and adventure in a historical context, perhaps like me, Melville is just not for you.

⭐ Sadism. That’s why they made you read this in school. Someone wanted you to jump off a bridge.This book is mostly meandering idiocy and a loosely tied together story about a man watching another man obsessed with a whale.This was supposed to be the textbook example of foreshadowing but what he really does is just beat you over the head with a sledgehammer to tell you things that are going to happen after 700 years worth of reading what color the inside of a whale’s head is over… And over… And over again. (Hint… He doesn’t know. He doesn’t actually know anything about anything to do with whales. Herman Melville was a con in life and just snagged things from people and other books…)Most of the information contained in this book is just the author, through his character, referencing things he read in other books.It’s just thw epitome of terrible and I hate myself for having even tried.

⭐ Lost in the deserts of the Southern Peruvian coast there is a a city called Ilo, in its harbor you’ll find a float of hundred of boats belonging to artisanal fishermen; they invest thousands of dollars (what means much in Peru) in campaigns into the deep sea, trips that last months. They go, but is a bet: they, people that almost have nothing, sometimes come back with nothing.Moby Dick should be a story like that, with even more impact, but any impact it has gets destroyed by Melville. He writes about the obsession of Ahab with the white whale, but that obsession gets dwarfed by Melville’s own obsession to light the reader up with many chapters of biological, medical, historical, and any possible and unwanted data about whales. It dilutes so much the story that to the moments I got to captain Ahab (30% of progress of the book), or Moby Dick (85%) honestly… it feels not epic as a monster being hunted by an equally monstrous man, instead it feels as ludicrous as a man trying to catch a little mouse in his kitchen. If you are a professional writer I’d say this book is fundamental, it has all I can imagine in literary technique, it is unique not only for its time but today too. Among the parts I enjoyed were the Quakers that because the sea life turned into bloody warriors, the way the bible seems to take a strict turn in so harsh men, the loneliness. Moby Dick is objectively very well written, but subjectively I didn’t enjoy it.Another classic American author wrote a story about the testimony of a man that travels from a whaling ship in Nantucket and has to face an imminent horror, it is Poe’s “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket.” It is not as well written as Moby Dick but in my opinion it success in transmit what Moby Dick could not: in the fear of the white color in both books this horror is faced at the end of the story but Poe gets to prepare the reader gradually for the unreal, Melville instead turn what is special in something just rare (of course in fairness that could be his purpose); in the vastness of the world, the Earth in Moby Dick seems quite small, almost easy to navigate, in Poe’s story you feel you are reaching exotic places; and lastly in the surprise of the ending, in Moby Dick (could be because the story is worldwide famous though) instead the end seems to be known since the beginning. The boring aspect is maybe because Melville is so factually correct that there is almost no place for fantasy. For example his exposition of Lima city is quite accurate, but it is a boring city so the contribution to the story is boring too. In the end I am not sorry to have read it, I marked seven different parts that are spectacular, but as a whole it didn’t work for me.The AmazonClassics edition is very good. It has a professional formatting, excellent typography and I did not detect mistakes. There is X-Ray that is useful although in this book not much because everything is explained :S Fortunately the thickness of this book is not increased with introductions or lectures. It is yours alone to discover.

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