Moby-Dick

Rating:
Summary: Rich, Difficult, Complicated, and Rewarding
Review: The Story: The title refers to the name given to an enormous albino sperm whale who is being hunted by Captain Ahab, the ruthless, single-minded, driven master of a whaling ship. Ahab hunts Moby Dick because, in a previous hunt, Moby Dick amputated Ahab's leg in a failed attempt by Ahab to catch the white whale. The story is told in retrospect by a crewman, Ishmael, of the ship, who was a young, somewhat naive man at the time.

This is not a novel for everyone; it takes a patient and persistent reader to tackle the rich but complicated writing style of Melville, as well as the author's penchant for going off on detailed, descriptive tangents. However, the writing style almost becomes poetic at times, and symbolism and metaphor abound. The closest thing to Melville's style I've found amongst contemporary writers is Gene Wolfe ("The Book of the New Sun", "The Book of the Short Sun", "The Book of the Long Sun"). Wolfe also borrowed from Melville the device of telling the story from the viewpoint of young, naive observers, who report what they see with little bias or editorializing, which leaves the reader to interpret the story on his/her own.

To me, this story is a detailed and adventurous tale of obsession verging on insanity. Ahab is so focused on catching and killing Moby Dick that he loses sight of his own welfare and the welfare of his men. He never questions his own motives; he is out after revenge for losing his leg, as well as out to redress the insult of a simple beast not accepting the dominion of Man. Moby Dick's defiance of Mankind's superiority and sovereignty is seen as an outrage, a matter of honor for Captain Ahab to resolve. But, why did Moby Dick bite off Ahab's leg in the first place? Ahab sees it as an act of war by the whale, a refusal to bow down to the Master of the Earth (Mankind). Might it not just as easily be an animal naturally defending itself against a predator (Mankind) invading his (Moby Dick's) domain?

Jay Nussbaum wrote a book called "Blue Road to Atlantis" which is a gem of a story that retells Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" from the fish's point of view. Mr. Nussbaum could make quite a story out of Moby Dick's point of view of this puny maniac who keeps harassing him and trying to kill him.

Rating:
Summary: The Problem of America
Review: We should dispense with the Great American Novel business that usually clouds the real issue about the literary value of this book, along with others like Twain's "Huckleberry Finn". Moby Dick is a difficult book: difficul because, like America, it tries to make sense of many things all at once. We're confronted by Ishmael, the philosopher struck by wanderlust; Queequeg,the highly-civilized savage; Ahab, the American Faustus; Starbuck, the moralist who is torn by a temptation to blow Ahab's brains out with a musket and the desire to turn him away from his revenge plot; and finally, the silent yet pervasive character after whom the book is named, the White Whale himself, who seems to be some sort of deity whose motivations are unfathomable, like the depths he inhabits. It is next to impossible to find a satisfactory treatment of all these characters at once. Keep in mind that these are just the main characters; we haven't even started talking about the others yet. Where should we start judging a book? By what standards? It would take a lifetime to figure out all the hidden real-life implications within the book. It is vanity to think we have exhausted all the avenues of criticism that this book has to offer

Rating:
Summary: Everyone Should Read This One
Review: This book represents a microcosm of society, artfully done by
Melville. He takes time to develop the characters, wonderful.

Jeffrey McAndrew
author of "Our Brown Eyed Boy"

Rating:
Summary: Finally, the edition this book deserves
Review: My comments pertain to the Norton Critical Edition of Moby Dick, second edition (published 2001) ISBN 0393972836. If this review is appended to a web-page showing some budget paperback edition, please know that I am reviewing a specific edition of the novel, not just the novel itself. The ISBN above will take you to the only edition of Moby Dick you should need, the edition that (if you're going to read the book, and not just go through the pages in order) you'd do well to get ahold of.

In fact, I'm not reviewing the novel at all, really. I believe Melville's book is America's greatest novel, and the closest thing to King Lear or Job that our nation has produced. Despite our ideals, our country has yet to embrace the full measure of Moby Dick's numinous democratic vision. At any rate, I want to remark that a reader really requires help to truly wrestle with all of this book's artistry and implications. I sure did, as did a class of 11th graders who tackled the book with me several years ago. The vast range of literary, historical, and artistic sources that Melville draws from, and the manner in which he works them deeply into the structure and meanings of his book, are staggering, and in the 2nd Norton Critical Edition, Moby Dick and its readers finally get the volume they always deserved.

Before the publication of this edition in 2001, the best choice was Harold Beaver's over-annotated (and very agenda-driven) old Penguin edition. That's the one my class and I used years ago. The previous Norton edition (which I used to supplement Beaver) was solid in its reprinting of Melville's sources and of through-the-years scholars and critics, but it was carelessly and lightly annotated. This 2001 volume, however, is fully and richly footnoted, as most of our civilization's great works require (Paradise Lost, The Divine Comedy, Shakespeare, Homer), and all of the useful illustrations and glossaries from the older Norton edition have been retained. The text of the novel itself is the painstakingly reconstructed Northwestern-Newberry text, and the editors (Hayford and Parker) are justly renowned, even groundbreaking Melville scholars. Don't be daunted by all this: due to their hard work, this great edition allows greater pleasure and ease with Melville's tremendous book.

The critical articles include almost every review from the book's initial publication, plus more recent explorations of Melville's composition of the book and also of many interpretive angles. There is also a nice selection of Melville's seafaring sources, another good article listing all the books which he drew on (including both familiar classics and obscure resources), Melville's letters from the period, numerous voices from the 19th century pre-Moby-Dick debate about Melville's stance on Christianity, and a recent discovery--a self-portrait by a South Pacific islander, a portrait that may have been Melville's source for Queequeg. That image graces this exemplary edition's cover.

I rank this among the top titles of the Norton Critical Edition series, up there with their volumes on Heart of Darkness, Paradise Lost, The Jungle, Shelley, Great Expectations, Oroonoko, and the new Macbeth and Othello volumes. In short, this new edition allows us a nearly complete experience with Moby Dick, which is the best service a scholarly edition of this novel can provide, and it is the only way to really read the book. Spring for a few more bucks and get the right copy of Moby Dick.

Rating:
Summary: Open your mind
Review: Last year I decided to expand my intellectual horizons by reading a series of American literary classics. Moby Dick was the first book on my list. It took me three months to finish this legendary story and, looking back on it now, I must say that it was worth every minute. To others who are considering this effort I say this: buttress your stamina and open your mind. This is not John Grisham or Tom Clancy. You will be reading high literature and you will be required to think. If you do so, Ishmael, Ahab and crew will open a window to some of mankind's most profound questions: Is it better to fight evil or promote virtue? Where is the line between honorable justice and blind vengeance? Do bad things happen because the universe is evil or just indifferent? The true pleasure to be derived from reading this book can be found by closing its pages every so often and reflecting on the questions that it will raise in your mind. A completely different experience than breezing through the latest best-seller, but much more rewarding.

Be aware that Moby Dick is many types of books in one. It is part adventure story, part sermon, part history of whaling, part encyclopedia of whale anatomy, part metaphysical allegory. Expect it to change periodically as you move through it, be receptive to each part, and don't try to compartmentalize it as any one particular type of work.

Rating:
Summary: Sooo slow... but great!
Review: This book moves along at a pretty slow pace but at the same time manages to keep you stuck to the pages somehow. If you've got the time and the vocabulary then i suggest picking up this classic novel.

Rating:
Summary: Moby Dick
Review: I thought Moby Dick was a great novel, and I liked Herman Melville's style of writing. The overall plot is great. The book starts out with a very famous line," Call me Ishmael" read by the main character of the book, Ishmael. He is the narrorator of the novel and I think he is a very interesting guy to read about. He is a sailor who has sailed a lot, but never on a whaling ship. Then he stays at a whaler's inn, and rooms with a harpooner from the south pacific named Queequeg. He was my favorite character in the book. He is covered in tattoos and has strange habits and rituals. When they first meet, Queequeg is very hostile, infact the first words he says to Ishmael are "Who-ee debil you?" "Speak-ee, or dam-me, I kill-ee!" when he doesn't know that Ishmael is sleeping in his hotel room. But through out the novel Ishmael gets to know him, and learns that Queequeg is a very nice guy and they become very close friends when they decide to look for work on the same whaling ship. There are many other character in the novel, especially when they go out to sea, on the Pequod ship. That is the whaling ship they join, led by captain Ahab. He is the ship captain; he lost his leg on his last journey to sea, in a situation with a sperm whale. His peg leg that he uses to stand on is made from the bone of a whales jaw. He explains with saying " Aye, it was that cursed White Whale who gave me this dead stump I stand on now. And I'll chase him round the Cape of Good Hope and round Cape Horn and round the flames of Hell before I give up. And this is what ye have shipped for, men, to chase that White Whale over all sides of the earth until he spouts black blood and rolls over! What say ye, men? Are ye brave enough to join hands in it now?" This speech gets everyone on the ship pumped up and ready to kill the whale. The rest of the book is great, they hunt the white whale with many turns and subplots. I enjoyed reading the book a lot and thought it was one of the best I have ever read.

Rating:
Summary: MOBY
Review: I thought that Moby Dick was an all around inspiring novel that everyone should read. All though I had to high of expectations for the book, which made me not enjoy it as well as I thought I would. All though the sensational job of Keir Dullen the narrorator made me feel that I was on the ship, and that I was actually along side Captain Ahabs hunting the white whale. Through out the whole book captain Ahab's and his crew is in search of Moby Dick the white whale. They travel half way around the ocean in search of him and hopefully can hunt and kill him. All though you don't actually read about Moby Dick being seen in the book till the end which emphasizes his presence a lot more and make's it more interesting to read, and also more exciting.

Rating:
Summary: Long winded at times, but beautiful
Review: Although it took me a while to get through this book, I am very glad that I read it. As a warning, Melville can be very long-winded and wordy at times. You will find that he could have said what he wanted to with far fewer words, while still using the colorful language he is known for. But then again, the feeling that this book is so long may in fact be on purpose to really give the reader the sense of how long whaling voyages were in those days.

But even with those seeming flaws, the book is very rewarding. Melville's writing really is beautiful. He is able to bring alive Captain Ahab and his obession for revenge that has become so popular. The other passengers on the ship also come alive as Melville uses colorful dialogue and humor. And as you are taken on the journey with Ishmael, you learn a great deal about whaling.

If you have the time and patience, I recommend this book to you. If you start it, stick with it - you will be glad you did. Now that I have finished it, I look forward to reading it again (because I know which parts I can skip past and which parts I want to read again more thoroughly).

Rating:
Summary: Everyone Should Read This One
Review: This book represents a microcosm of society, artfully done by
Melville. He takes time to develop the characters, wonderful.

Jeffrey McAndrew
author of "Our Brown Eyed Boy"