Rating: 
Summary: What other American work compares to Virgil and Shakespeare?
Review:
Forget everything you have heard or think you know about this book. What it decidedly is not is the story of a one-legged madman pursuing a whale for revenge.
Do not give this book to high-school students. Have them read THE AENEID, the prophet Isaiah, a few scenes of HAMLET, so that when they are forty and MOBY-DICK falls into their hands, they will recognize at least some of its underpinnings.
MOBY-DICK is as weird and far-ranging as Scripture, and stakes out the same terrority, namely heaven, hell, earth, mortality, joy, flesh, eternity, the soul. Ahab is no more mad than Edmund in KING LEAR: the real madman of MOBY-DICK is Melville himself. But he can only have been unhinged by an angel, so sweeping is the power of his imagination.
It's perverse to look on the shape and construction of MOBY-DICK as radical, innovative, foreshadowing such moderns as Joyce; it's like calling Revelations "innovative." Melville has no such aim and has no interest in technique. Indeed, he has few "literary" virtues. His language is dense, syntactically clumsy, exhausting, over-precise to the point there's no telling what precisely is being said. No human being could speak the dialogue that erupts from the mouths of its personages: it's like opera, or the dialogue in PARADISE LOST. It has a more urgent, essential motive than speech. It's the soul speaking.
MOBY-DICK is nothing so trivial as a literary experiment. It aims for wholeness, concreteness; it wants to be about everything, inside and out, and its eye is everywhere. Melville senses the sun and stars are part of his story, and equally so the bones and guts of a whale, so he makes them characters. When the convention of the first-person narrator becomes too restrictive, he lets Ishmael lapse, absorbing him and all of the Pequod into a single, unlocatable consciousness that seems to have existed before time.
The greatness of this book has nothing to do with its "qualities," but with its passion, its madness -- its genius. If ever a secular work was inspired, surely it was this one. It is beautiful not in the way books are, but as a created thing is, a horse or a river or a redwood. It makes little sense to me to call MOBY-DICK The Great American Novel, since it's hardly a novel at all; it is sui generis, acknowledging no standards but its own. If it must be a novel, then has the same standing in the canon of world literature as TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES: the supremest expression of the mind of a culture, disavowed by the culture itself.
As for this edition, it is at least handsomely printed and well bound. The foreward is profoundly irrelevant, and there are no notes, though I can't imagine any torrent of notes would be of much use in penetrating the mystery of this vision, prophecy, epic, call it what you will.
If you find yourself these days looking for reasons to be proud to be American, MOBY-DICK will give you one.
Rating:
Summary: the cold iron hand of capitalism & globalism invades
Review: Melville was fascinated by whaling. I spoke with a historican of whaling at the Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. In fact we were aboard the Morgan, the ship used in both the 1920s and 1960s films of Moby Dick. He explained to me that for the common sailor of the day, nothing was so horrific as going on a whaling voyage. The historian told me that no one who had been on such a voyage would ever go on one again, save the top officers and ship owners. Yet, Melville sailed several times chasing the whales!
Besides the personal and existential issues that this book poses, we have to also look at this as a book about the first invasions of the global personally indiscriminate capitalist economy into the early 19th century world of Ishmael. The New England villages which he comes from are small collections of independent producers who know each other, following trades or farming earth their parents have passed down. Barter on most things was just replaced in the crisis of monetization of the New England economy that followed the American revolution which led to the armed revolutions and state civil wars in New England that forced Washington and the other "founders" to establish the constitution and a strong federal government to crush the rebels who wanted to go back to the demontarized past.
Melville's character comes from a world where by and large everyone works for themself, their family, or perhaps someone they know.
Yet, Ishmael is thrown into a new world, where he is simply an employee in one of the first world industries, the whaling industry. Rather than his own master, or learning to become a master in a trade, or learning to run the family farm, he is thrown into a new world where the world market for whale oil, whale ivory, and other products command him. Instead of the regular unfolding of crops on the season and trade activity reflecting that, Ishmael's voyage follows the whales around the globe. It draws him into intimacy with people of other races, other languages, other continents in a struggle not only with the ocean, the ship, but together against the cruel lash of Ahab's commands, and the seeming irrationality to him of chasing the great White Whale.
The author's use of Ahab and his arbirtrariness and the device of the great white whale, impose these new conditions in a way that emphasizes them and makes them stand out. Beyond the person issues, they represent the subjection of Ishmael and more and more of the world economy to blind, irrational to the average person, forces that will continue to conquer the world from Melville's time to ours, throwing us into periods of boom and bust, depression, recession, unemployment, insecurity, and world wars and rivalries. Capitalist world production, and the driven managers who it produces take command of our lives.
Melville's fascination with whaling is also shown by the many chapters which simply relate the many traditions and experience from the anciets until his day of whalers.
Rating:
Summary: greatest novel ever?
Review: I just wanted to put in my two cents here. (...) let me just say emphatically that it is. But... I would suggest that you not pick this book up lightly. It is a very stubborn work that in many ways is a precursor to the 20th century's flirtation with high literature. In many ways this book can be compared to the more stubborn works of Pynchon and Joyce in that you can read it over and over again and find an entirely new perspective in which to appreciate it every time.
I picked Moby Dick up several times only to be frustrated with its seemingly antiquated cadence and structure. Luckily for myself I found a reading group a few years back that was delving into some classics and Moby Dick happened to be one of these works. It made all of the difference in the world to have a knowledgeable leader of a reading group opening up discussions after every few chapters to discuss what we had read. After undergoing this experience and finishing the book I was and still am in awe of the majesty Melville attained in these pages.
Please, even if you are sure of yourself as a reader and scoff at my suggestion to use a reading group or class structure to enjoy this work, find a copy that will have a comprehensive `readers guide' in order to cast light on some of the complex and arcane references. This will be helpful if only to note how uniquely Melville manipulates the focus of his story and the characters contained with in.
Enjoy this book, and please don't open its pages on a whim unless you have plenty of free time, patience, and a curiosity to uncover ideas or meanings that might not be so apparent at a first reading.
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Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Book
Review: I love to read the classics. I've read many of them, but this is my overall favorite. Its tale of a man driven only by revenge (Ahab) on the whale that took his leg (Moby-Dick) is beautifully told with many intricate and important characters. The mysterious Fedallah and his crew only become more mysterious as the story goes on, as many characters call him the Devil himself. The story's climax is one of surprise and suspense. You will enjoy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Free Willy
Review: I started this book because someone had told me that it contained an excellent fight scene between a huge ferocious killer blue whale and a vicious giant squid with razor sharp tentacles. I think this would have been a really cool thing to have happened in the book, but alas, the only intense fighting that I could find in the entire book was when Captain Ahab and Captain Nemo joined forces in the secret undersea city of Atlantis to fight off the invading hordes of alien brainsuckers. Although it was written with panache and was reasonably gripping, when you're expecting razor sharp giant squid fights it's quite frankly a bit of a let-down.
Also disappointingly lacking in sex scenes. Someone told me there were definitely dirty bits in there, so I skimmed through the entire novel, as you do, looking for those dirty bits to jump out at me, but again, alas! All to no avail. Although now that I think about it, there were a lot of big manly harpoons in there, which could be kind of phallic, in the right light, if you'd been out to sea hunting whales for months with only Roger the cabin boy for intimate companionship.
Hmm, maybe, when this book was written, the social mores of the time didn't allow full-on hot hardcore John Holmes style action, so if they did want to include a bit of hows-your-father, it had to be hidden under layers of symbolism. Yeah! Less overt, but definitely there, if you know what to look for: big, hard harpoons thrusting in to soft blubbery whales, lots of spurting blowholes, the relentless heaving of the sea, lashing things together with ropes...
Hoo! This has got to be one of the most erotic, steamiest whale-hunting stories I have ever read. In fact, the more I look at it, the more dirty bits I see! Hot, hot whale-hunting action, with added scurvy and rope burns.
Recommended for kids who want to read seriously filthy books without having to resort to using a flashlight under the covers at night after everyone has gone to bed.
Rating:
Summary: A great American Novel
Review: It has been more than two months since I finished this book which is certainly not among the easiest to review. Just like Hugo tried in "les miserables" and Tolstoy did successfully in "war and peace" Melville clearly wanted to go beyond the boundaries of the novel and put the story of Ahab's crusade in the broader context of life. The result of this hybrid between a classic novel and a whaling encyclopedia lacks the sophisticated integration of Tolstoy's classic, but clearly showed new ways in approaching the American novel that still resonate in the works of writers like Pynchon and Foster Wallace. Melville was a master story teller and immediately pulls you in with his introductory chapters. Ahab is "brewing" in the background, while the novel starts on its first of many excursions. These encyclopedia chapters that in total make up at least half of the book have clear pros and cons. The pros first. All the details about whaling, whales, whalers and boats provide a lot of context that adds depth to the story. Taking them out of the main story line worked well for me. While I was not fond at all of Patrick O'Brien's overly lauded Master and Commander, where the story line suffers from permanent indigestion due to overloading on small shipping details, Melville's approach is far more effective. Another pro is the effect of the timing of the significant events throughout the novel. Based on his own experience Melville tries to evoke the time span of a journey (almost) around the world. A flipside con of course is that the sense of urgency of Ahab's quest gets interrupted continuously and that the novel repeatedly looses steam and requires perseverance from its readers. Yet, this book deserves its place among the must reads of the world literature. It has loads of humanity, philosophy and humor. Ahab is among the most famous characters in literature and with good reason and is the perfect archetype of those leaders that don't think twice about demanding the ultimate sacrifice from their subordinates.
Rating:
Summary: An American classic.
Review: Last semester in college I had the opportunity, for the first time, to read various chapters from Herman Melville's "Moby Dick". I became so enthralled with what I had read I decided to purchase the novel as soon as possible. I just so happened to pick up Penguin's 150th Anniversary Edition. All in all I am quite pleased with this edition from the cover to the pages that are printed clearly and crisply. Moby Dick may not be everyone's cup of tea, it can be rather long and tedious to get through as Melville likes to lecture almost as much as tell a story. But from the first line "Call me Ishmael" it's hard not to be sucked into the story as we follow Ishmael on his journey across the sea with the nefarious Captain Ahab. The story centers around Ahab's quest to find and destroy the White Whale. Of course Ishmael plays just as important of a part. Melville's use of language is spectacular and he truly did write a classic novel. This is a fascinating tale of adventure that shouldn't be missed.
Rating:
Summary: A serious book that demands a serious reader
Review: Moby Dick belongs to the first rank of world literature. Melville read widely and deeply within the Western tradition, and brought it all together in his complex masterpiece. Within the framework of a simple tale of obsession, Melville offers commentary on the corpus of philosophy, history, theology, and literature that is our inheritance. All of these themes swirl around the central question of the novel: should we affirm the world, with all of its evil, or should we defy it? Ahab, memorably, chooses defiance, and staking his all on that defiance, literally disappears, all flags flying, into the whirlpool. The effect is stunning. Along the way we meet different approaches to the central question embodied in the crew of the Pequod and the various ships she encounters on her long journey. Melville offers no one answer, but rather a piercing observation of the various human reactions to the problem of evil. Nathanial Hawthorne said of Melville that his curse was that he could neither believe nor disbelieve in God. In Moby Dick, we are drawn into the fury of Melville's wrestling match with God, and whether we believe, or don't believe, surely we are enriched by Melville's passionate struggle. The strongest expression of the struggle is Ahab, the epic figure who believes, but refuses to submit to the gods or to the fates. Is he the hero of the piece or the villain? However you view him, you won't forget him. As memorable as some of the scenes in this novel are, it is a long novel, and there are many detours. For those who are well-versed in both literature and philosophy the long stretches of commentary on whales, and whaling, and whalers, and all of that are actually commentaries on the Western canon. Not a line is wasted. The infamous chapter on Cetology is about whales, yes; but it is even more a commentary on epistemology (and a hysterically funny one, at that). The book begins as a novel, and moves on to explore other forms of literature -- most notably dramatic tragedy and the epic. In doing so, Melville makes an overt bid to be counted as one of the great writers in the Western tradition; and I, for one, think he succeeds. The novel is a complex tapestry, in which all of the pieces, even the seemingly meaningless ones, come together into that central whirlpool that brings Moby Dick to a close. It is a work that can be read again, and again, and again. There are great sections that are exciting and accessible to all. But for a more casual reader, there are long stretches that will seem pointless and incomprehensible.
For someone looking for something a bit more accessible, "Billy Budd" and "Bartleby the Scrivener" are two Melville works that are shorter and more plot-driven. Yet both have the same complexity of thought that is so magnificently presented in Moby Dick. Still, if you are up to the challenge, Melville will reward you in spade
Rating:
Summary: How to Read Moby Dick
Review: Moby Dick is a challenge to the most patient and insightful of readers. It is, I believe, well worth the effort. You need to look for the humor in the book to get through it. The situations Melville describes are quite often ludicrous! Visualize! Imagine! Ishmael had the dimensions of a whale tatooed on his forearm! You also need to remember that the whale is treated--even if ironically--as God. Thus, the scholasticism surrounding the treatment in the book. It's funny if you read something like chapter 32 as a theological treatise. It also gives you permission to skim or bipass these chapters. Good luck! I know you can do it.
Rating: 
Summary: Moby Dick Reharpooned
Review: Moby dick is a classic adventure novel about killing a white whale. The plot of the novel is a review of the whaling industries terrible points told in a sardonic manner. It also looks at the resons for revenge and how revenge is an endless cycle and thus it is completely pointless. The book has a way of telling people things so that the point reveals things to a mind predisposed to think well of whaling by being only a simple adventure book but tells a story much deeper to someone coming with an open mind; that is the reader feels touch of distant harm.
The book is spattered with numerous characters that combine to make the one good thing about whaling because it brings people together. The main character, Ishmael, is a wandering intellectual sailor that has decided to join a crew for the specific purpose of seeing how to be a whaler. He goes on to describe that the noble art of whaling practised by numerous heroes all of whom exist only in ancient myths. Another important character is Ishmael's friend Queeque a savage idoler who becomes an instant favourite with Ishmael after they spend a night in the same bed. This large harpooner acts as an old hand bound for his home after seeing with disgust the christians. The final character is Ahab a moody old captain obsessed with the killing of a white whale ever since that same whale took away his leg. For this ultimate revenge against all whales Ahab swear the crew to this quest risking the ship and the lives of all those aboard.
The author utilizes both wit and stark realistic examples to convey his point. With these tools alone Melville irrevocably scratches his point in the mind of his reader. There is very little else that is utilized but the style also has a seemingly pointless chapters which actually lull the reader into a sense of false agreement with whaling, so that Melville's point becomes all the more real and shocking in the eyes of the reader.
This book is perfect for anyone that enjoys an adventure novel in which there are many points that make people think. People who enjoy novels by Jack London and orson scott Card will find this book particularily enjoyable. Because of both the adventure and the statements on the nature of human beings. The book also makes an interesting read for someone who enjoyed the three musketteers.
The Book the most like this one is Jack London's white Fang. However instead of being told from an animals perspective of humans different ways. Moby Dick tells the story of mans legacy from a lowly man seeing things from the inside of a society that rules over animals with iron Javalins. Another difference is that while white fang focuses on the goodness of man; Moby Dick is based primarily on revenge, and other of mens darker things with only a faint spatterring of light.
The Whale Differs from most books because it tells a story that is full of two meaning depending on what the reader already thinks about the book. Melville uses this book to try and make people realise the good and bad things of whaling and how in this time it was nessecary to sweep away the feelling of bad ways that the idolers had to untie a few people to tell the truth against ancient prejudices.
I feel That this is a great book that should be read by everyone. however in spots it becomes exceedingly dull and makes the reader want to fall asleep, but these spots are few that thave no importance to the rest of the novel. In short this book can be slow, but those who persevere there is a great novel waiting to be told. I caution all however to not supect that it is just about Moby Dick.
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