Synopses & Reviews
"What's the use of elaborating what, in its very essence, is so short-lived as a modern book? Though I wrote the Gospels in this century, I should die in the gutter."
— Herman Melville, in a letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1851
One hundred-fifty years have passed since Herman Melville wrote his masterpiece. Yet Moby-Dick endures as an indisputable literary classic that continues to speak to readers today. Join Captain Ahab, an eerily compelling madman, as he pursues an unholy war against a creature as vast and dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself. In his monomaniacal quest, Ahab focuses his distilled hatred and suffering — and that of generations before him — against one single creature, and pursues it relentlessly.
More than just a novel of adventure, more than an encyclopedia of whaling lore and legend, this is a haunting, mesmerizing, and important social commentary populated with several of the most unforgettable and enduring characters in literature. Written with wonderfully redemptive humor, Moby-Dick is a profound and timeless inquiry into character, faith, and the nature of perception.
Review:
"In our own moment of horror and heroism, [Moby Dick] is a book more salient than ever — unflinchingly honest about the human capacity for hate and brutality, yet filled with an undiscourageable love of humanity." Andrew Delbanco, The New York Times Book Review
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
Synopsis:
Captain Ahab is an eerily compelling madman who focuses his distilled hatred and suffering (and that of generations before him) into the pursuit of a creature as vast, dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself.
Synopsis:
Written with wonderfully redemptive humor,
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.
Introduction by Andrew Delbanco. Explanatory Commentary by Tom Quirk.
About the Author
Born in New York City in 1819, Herman Melville died in 1891, at which point his work had been largely forgotten. He has since been recognized as one of America’s greatest writers. His metaphysical whaling novel, Moby Dick, is one of literature’s most enduring works of art. His shorter works, including Billy Budd, Bartleby, the Scrivener and Benito Cereno, are considered classics of the form.
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