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Original Essays | May 3, 2013

Emily St. John Mandel: IMG The Festivals

2 comments By Emily St. John Mandel

When it happens, it feels like winning the lottery. An email arrives out of the blue, from one of my publishers or a festival director or a member... Continue »
  1. $11.20 Sale Trade Paper add to wish list

    The Lola Quartet

    Emily St. John Mandel 9781609530990
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Moby-Dick (Bantam Classic)

by

Moby-Dick (Bantam Classic) Cover

ISBN13: 9780553213119
ISBN10: 0553213113
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

Only 1 left in stock at $3.50!

 

Review-A-Day

"I'm embarking on a 'classics year,' where I'm going to try to read a lot of those books that I know I should have read a long time ago. You know the ones — those books that we can all quote from and make references to, even though we've never actually cracked open a copy. I started last year by finally reading Darwin's main books....Then, when I interviewed Stephen Pinker, he mentioned having recently enjoyed Moby-Dick and recommended it to me for the biology aspects. So I made the plunge. And you know what? It went quicker than I expected, and it's got some interesting observations about people beyond the obvious insights about obsession and vengeance. Doug Brown, Powells.com (read the entire Powells.com review)

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

"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.

From Our Staff:

Don't let the size and reputation of this book scare you away from one of the most satisfying, exciting, and enlightening books you will ever come across! Melville's Moby Dick is, hands down, my all-time favorite book, and the first recommendation I give to anyone who asks me what they should read next.
Recommended by our staff at Powells.com

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

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:

"[Moby Dick] is one of the most moving myths ever imagined on man's fight against evil and on the irresistible logic which ends up by pitting the just man first against creation and the creator and later against his equals and against himself." Albert Camus

Synopsis:

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."

Synopsis:

In this adaptation of Melville's masterpiece, McCaughrean recounts the tale of the obsessed Captain Ahab, as he pursues the great white whale--a creature as vast and dangerous as the sea itself. 55 illustrations, 25 in color.
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About the Author

Elizabeth Hardwick (1916–2007) is the author of many books and essays, including Herman Melville (Penguin Lives), American Fictions, and Seduction and Betrayal: Women and Literature.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
_sophh, April 12, 2008 (view all comments by _sophh)
I, as a young teenager (fourteen to be exact); had to read a couple of Classic Novels of English Literate for year 9 English. This is one of the few books I picked to read. I found this book confusing as the language used; comparable to Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' language used as an omnious writer. At the beginning of the novel of Moby Dick, I must admit it seemed very confusing to a mind of a teenager, but throughout the plot (with some help with plot summaries online ;)) I managed to get through the novel and understand the meaning of the book - that it was not just a novel about a mad man hunting down a whale but much more!
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780553213119
Subtitle:
or The Whale
Editor:
Walcutt, Charles Child
Editor:
Walcutt, Charles Child
Author:
Melville, Herman
Editor:
Walcott, Charles C.
Author:
Walcott, Charles C.
Publisher:
Bantam Classics
Location:
Toronto
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Fiction
Subject:
Classics
Subject:
American
Subject:
Novels and novellas
Subject:
Sea & Ocean
Subject:
Sea stories
Subject:
Ahab, Captain
Subject:
Whales and whaling
Subject:
Romance Norte Americano
Subject:
Whales
Subject:
Psychological fiction
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Copyright:
1967
Edition Number:
Bantam Classic ed.
Edition Description:
Mass market paperback
Series:
Bantam Classic
Series Volume:
3457
Publication Date:
February 1981
Binding:
MASS MARKET
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
704
Dimensions:
6.97x4.26x1.13 in. .74 lbs.
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Related Subjects


Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z
Fiction and Poetry » Popular Fiction » Nautical Fiction

Moby-Dick (Bantam Classic) Used Mass Market
0 stars - 0 reviews
$3.50 In Stock
Product details 704 pages Bantam Classics - English 9780553213119 Reviews:
"Review A Day" by , "I'm embarking on a 'classics year,' where I'm going to try to read a lot of those books that I know I should have read a long time ago. You know the ones — those books that we can all quote from and make references to, even though we've never actually cracked open a copy. I started last year by finally reading Darwin's main books....Then, when I interviewed Stephen Pinker, he mentioned having recently enjoyed Moby-Dick and recommended it to me for the biology aspects. So I made the plunge. And you know what? It went quicker than I expected, and it's got some interesting observations about people beyond the obvious insights about obsession and vengeance. (read the entire Powells.com review)
"Review" by , "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."
"Review" by , "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."
"Review" by , "[Moby Dick] is one of the most moving myths ever imagined on man's fight against evil and on the irresistible logic which ends up by pitting the just man first against creation and the creator and later against his equals and against himself."
"Synopsis" by , 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."
"Synopsis" by , In this adaptation of Melville's masterpiece, McCaughrean recounts the tale of the obsessed Captain Ahab, as he pursues the great white whale--a creature as vast and dangerous as the sea itself. 55 illustrations, 25 in color.
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