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Why Read Moby-Dick?

3.65 of 5 stars 3.65 · rating details · 833 ratings · 168 reviews

The New York Times bestselling author of seagoing epics now celebrates an American classic.

Moby-Dick is perhaps the greatest of the Great American Novels, yet its length and esoteric subject matter create an aura of difficulty that too often keeps readers at bay. Fortunately, one unabashed fan wants passionately to give Melville's masterpiece the broad contemporary audien...more

Hardcover, 131 pages

Published October 20th 2011 by Viking Adult (first published January 1st 2011)

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Oct 12, 2011 Gabe rated it 4 of 5 stars

Here is that rare piece of criticism that not only gives you a deeper appreciation for its subject, but also compels you to revisit it. In 127 pages, Philbrick makes his points succinctly, supporting them with some of the "Moby-Dick"'s best passages. Among them: Ishmael's emotional and philosophical center, the irreconcilability of heartless business and religion's idealized benevolence and the difference between Ahab's "urgent, soul-singed probing into the meaning of life" and the crew's intere...more

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Jun 10, 2012 Kerrie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, lit-ra-chah

Author: I LOVE Moby-Dick!!!!
Me: Well, why don't you marry it, then?

Philbrick's obvious love for this book and everything about it is overwhelming. His enthusiasm glows through every sentence.

2 scenarios:
a) If you've never read Moby-Dick before, he makes it sounds like a truly awesome, larger-than-life book, with scenes of such high-pitched excitement that it must needs be read next to the fainting couch.

b) If you have read Moby-Dick already, the vast majority's response would be: "Wait, what? W...more

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Jun 05, 2011 Julie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 5-star-reads, first-reads, non-fiction

This review is based on an Advanced Reader's Copy - thank you Penguin Books!

I recently finished reading Moby Dick which I enjoyed, but found occasionally off topic and meandering. So many people have described MB as the ultimate American novel. Although it was good, I wasn't positive that it deserved that accolade. Unlike Moby Dick, Nathaniel Philbrick's book Why Read Moby-Dick? is short - it's really a set of essays about various characters and features of the book. But in spite of its length,...more

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Jan 29, 2013 Spencer rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: other-science-current-affairs-etc

I have not read the book "Moby-Dick". I will probably never read "Moby-Dick". But, this short book has given me a glimpse of why this book has become such a classic of American literature. I read this book, which attempts to describe the beauty and majesty of Melville's masterpiece and encourage us all to read it, primarily because it was written by one of my favorite authors, Nathaniel Philbrick. His first book was "In the Heart of the Sea", which tells the real-life story that was the motivati...more

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Jan 20, 2013 Jean rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics, general-fiction

I confess, I have never read Moby-Dick. Who among you can say that you have read the whole thing, the uncut version? Now I know what I've been missing. National Philbrick has written several prize-winning novels, many of them about the sea and he says he's read Moby-Dick "at least a dozen times.".

What a brilliant book! At only 127 pages, it's full of insight and thoughtfulness. It's a glimpse into the soul of Herman Melville, the author of Moby-Dick; it's the story of how he wrote the book and...more

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Dec 26, 2012 Mikey B. rated it 5 of 5 stars

This hi-lights the great passages found in the novel by Hermann Melville. And what a unique novel it is – there is no other story quite like it. As Mr. Philbrick suggests there are several stories or themes or myths interwoven within it – all told with an inspiring realism. All at the same time, the book is intense, tangible and magic. Melville has an uncanny ability to “flip the coin” – dwell on something from one perspective and examine it from an entirely different viewpoint. If there is any...more

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Dec 26, 2012 Colin rated it 3 of 5 stars

As a testament to Moby Dick's power (and Philbrick's skill in discussing the work), a brief vignette: I was reading Philbrick's "Why Read Moby Dick?" on the plane the other day and was so excited that I began underlining and making notes in the margins. I finished and closed the book. Then I saw the library markings on the outside and remembered where I got it.

"Why Read Moby Dick?" is a good and enthusiastic introduction to Melville's masterpiece. I've read Moby Dick three times now (and only th...more As a testament to Moby Dick's power (and Philbrick's skill in discussing the work), a brief vignette: I was reading Philbrick's "Why Read Moby Dick?" on the plane the other day and was so excited that I began underlining and making notes in the margins. I finished and closed the book. Then I saw the library markings on the outside and remembered where I got it.

"Why Read Moby Dick?" is a good and enthusiastic introduction to Melville's masterpiece. I've read Moby Dick three times now (and only the last time was for a school assignment), but I will admit that the book is as unprepossessing as its subject matter. I would also contend, however, that once you've cut down into it, it is as powerful and as complex and as mysterious as the great Leviathan of the deep.

Philbrick brings a great familiarity with Melville and with sailing to his work, and this knowledge breeds enthusiasm rather than contempt. I hope it shall encourage enthusiasm in Philbrick's readers, too.

My chief objection to Philbrick's analysis is that he places the great contradiction in America's heart at the maintenance of slavery in a land founded on the ideal of freedom. This was one of the great contradictions, but if it is THE great contradiction, it is certainly not on of Melville's obvious concerns. Further, this contradiction was resolved 150 years ago and has little personal relevance for the modern reader.

I would argue from both text and history that the great contradiction that Melville saw and explored was the tension between the predestinating Calvinist Puritanism of Melville's New England, with its strict adherence to the sovereignty of God, and the rising Romanticism--Transcendentalism and religious liberalism--that argued the sovereignty of man before other men and before God.

This theme is woven through nearly every page and allusion of Moby Dick (Prometheus, Ishmael, Ahab, Leviathan), and it baffles me that it receives a cursory treatment by Philbrick in relation to slavery, which is rarely mentioned by Melville except in cosmic terms ("Who ain't a slave?"). Further, if one is to answer "why read Moby Dick?", he can find in this theme one which is still relevant and still compelling and will still drive people to set sail from "the insular Tahiti of their souls." (less)

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Jul 25, 2012 Jeff L rated it 3 of 5 stars

Philbrick is a historian who wrote In the Heart of the Sea, about the whaleship Essex that was attacked and sunk by a sperm whale. Melville had read the narrative of this ship by one of its survivors years before. He came upon it again whilst writing Moby-Dick.

Philbrick is himself enamored of Moby-Dick. He addresses many of the issues surrounding the book, the influence of Shakespeare and the King James bible on Melville's style and ambition, Melville's friendship with Hawthorne, and the conditi...more

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Jun 14, 2012 Talia Carner rated it 5 of 5 stars

Enlightening and educational....
I listened to the book while driving, which gave me a chance to concentrate on the words and Philbrick’s arguments why Moby Dick is one of the best books in English literature, but the audio format did not permit me to mark favorite passages or go back to review specific quotes. He points out prose rich with strong descriptions of characters, emotions, events or places that I would have liked to revisit and analyze.

At the same time, Philbrick was quick to acknowl...more

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Apr 16, 2012 Sebastian rated it 3 of 5 stars

Nathaniel Philbrick's stated mission is to get the reader excited enough about Moby Dick that he or she will want to read it, either for the first time, or again for the twelfth. In my case, that mission was accomplished. Maybe next time, after reading The Art of Fielding, I'll try the Arion Press edition. Trade version, of course: I'm not Uncle Pennybags (or Guert Affenlight, for that matter) status.

Philbrick's basic enthusiasm for the book is contagious, even if his reasons for his passion ar...more

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Feb 20, 2012 Mary Overton added it

"To write timelessly about the here and now, a writer must approach the present indirectly. The story has to be about more than it at first seems.... So it is with MOBY-DICK, a novel about a whaling voyage to the Pacific that is also about America racing hell-bent toward the Civil War and so much more. Contained in the pages of MOBY-DICK is nothing less than the genetic code of America: all the promises, problems, conflicts, and ideals that contributed to the outbreak of a revolution in 1775 as...more "To write timelessly about the here and now, a writer must approach the present indirectly. The story has to be about more than it at first seems.... So it is with MOBY-DICK, a novel about a whaling voyage to the Pacific that is also about America racing hell-bent toward the Civil War and so much more. Contained in the pages of MOBY-DICK is nothing less than the genetic code of America: all the promises, problems, conflicts, and ideals that contributed to the outbreak of a revolution in 1775 as well as a civil war in 1861 and continue to drive this country's ever-contentious march into the future....
"The irony is that when MOBY-DICK was first published in the fall of 1851, virtually no one, except for the author to whom the novel was dedicated, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and his wife, Sophia, seems to have taken much notice. By the time of Melville's death in 1891, MOBY-DICK had sold a grand total of 3,715 copies." pp. 5-6

"By 1856, [Melville's] family had become worried about his sanity and health, and Melville departed, alone, on a tour of Europe and Holy Land. Soon after arriving in England, he traveled to Liverpool to visit Hawthorne.
"It was November, and the two friends went for a walk on the beach in the windy sunshine. They found a sheltered spot amid the dunes and sat down for a smoke. 'Melville, as he always does, began to reason of Providence and futurity,' Hawthorne recorded in his journal, 'and of everything that lies beyond human ken, and informed me that he had "pretty much made up his mind to be annihilated"; but still he does not seem to rest in that anticipation; and, I think, will never rest until he gets hold of a definite belief. It is strange how he persists - and has persisted ever since I knew him, and probably long before - in wandering to and fro over these deserts, as dismal and monotonous as the sand hills amid which we were sitting. He can neither believe, nor be comfortable in his unbelief; and he is too honest and courageous not to try to do one or the other. If he were a religious man, he would be one of the most truly religious and reverential; he has a very high and noble nature, and better worth immortality than most of us.'" pp.124-5(less)

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Dec 18, 2011 Renae rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Rachelle DeMunck

Shelves: arc, books-i-own, ebook

As an English major in college, I was twice asked to read Moby Dick for classes and never could manage it. It's the only classic I could never finish.

Several years removed from those experiences, I hoped I could find a new reason to perhaps pick up Melville's novel and finally succeed where I hadn't in the past. Sadly, this was not the case.

Don't mistake me: Philbrick's book is well-written, thoroughly researched, and offers unique insights into Melville's life and the forces that resulted in th...more

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Dec 17, 2011 Daryl rated it 4 of 5 stars

For the first third of this short book, I was disappointed, as it didn't seem to add any great insights to my understanding of Moby-Dick or even, as the title and first chapter suggest it will do, to entice people to read Melville's novel (and the whole premise underlying the book, by the way, seems flawed, for if you're not inclined to read Moby-Dick, surely you'll not be inclined to read a book explaining why you should read it).

Philbrick really gets rolling with the chapter on Hawthorne, and...more

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Nov 10, 2011 Tyler Jones rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: on-reading

I am conflicted. I think Why Read Moby Dick? By Nathaniel Philbrick is an important book that everyone over the age of eighteen should read, but it is also a book that I wish was better than it is.

In my opinion Moby Dick is the most important novel ever written, but I have always had difficulty explaining why I feel this way. I am grateful to Philbrick for elegantly arguing that the novel transcends the time it was written in and has relevancy, even urgency, to those us living one hundred and si...more I am conflicted. I think Why Read Moby Dick? By Nathaniel Philbrick is an important book that everyone over the age of eighteen should read, but it is also a book that I wish was better than it is.

In my opinion Moby Dick is the most important novel ever written, but I have always had difficulty explaining why I feel this way. I am grateful to Philbrick for elegantly arguing that the novel transcends the time it was written in and has relevancy, even urgency, to those us living one hundred and sixty years after its original publication. This alone makes me recommend it, although I still do not feel completely satisfied. I do not think Philbrick is convincing enough that a non-believer would be won over. Since the only people I know who want to read this book have already read Moby Dick – and loved it – it makes me think perhaps he was right to adopt a “preaching to the choir” approach, but I still wish it reached out more to the unconverted. I also found the book to be a compilation of unrelated points rather than an artful construction where each point supports a central argument.

While I greatly enjoyed the passages about Melville’s friendship with Nathanial Hawthorne, I don’t see how they strengthen the argument Moby Dick is a great book. On the one hand he writes (correctly, I think) that Melville’s genius was having the prescience to create a novel that would become more relevant with the passing of time. Exactly! Why then does he spend so much time discussing the historical context the novel was written in? To repeat: Moby Dick transcends the Nineteenth Century and its many messages are more important in 2011 than they were in 1851. So less about what some editor in New York in 1851 had to say and more about what a cab driver in Calgary in 2011 can learn from the book.

Philbrick also makes the common mistake of portraying Moby Dick as The Great American Novel. Moby Dick is so much more than that! It’s not only about America but all humankind – the relationship of all humanity to God and Nature - and it needs to be read by all of us who are the crew of this fragile boat called Earth.

In short, Philbrick did not go far enough.

Ultimately, for all its universality, Moby Dick is a book that speaks to its readers individually. By reading Why Read Moby Dick I learned what the novel has to say to Nathaniel Philbrick, and while some of it overlaps with my own experience of the book, it may or may not have anything to do with what Moby Dick has to say to you.
So, should you read Why Read Moby Dick? Yes, you should. But it’s even more important that you read Moby Dick.
(less)

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Jun 25, 2012 Chris Blocker rated it 3 of 5 stars

Love for a book is a special kind of love. It makes you do odd things, like order personalized license plates for your car, tattoo your body, or devote your entire life to research. It was my love of a book that lead me to this book. No, I don't love Moby Dick—though I do think it is a wonderful story and certainly one to learn from—no, the story I love is East of Eden by John Steinbeck. In researching EoE I learned of the books that Steinbeck considered great influences to his masterpiece; the...more

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Apr 19, 2012 Edward rated it 3 of 5 stars

Like many readers, I would pick Herman Melville's MOBY DICK as the best American novel of all time. I've got to throw in a quick caveat here--I really don't know whether Melville somehow anticipated contemporary (ours, not his) tastes, or whether his work is really big enough (my preference) to deserve its reputation.

Philbrick's book offers a tentative nod in this direction. He provides a quick introduction to the mainstreams of Melville criticism, but a true student of Melville will find these...more

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Mar 09, 2012 Jack rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Why read Why Read Moby-Dick*

Because it's quick.

At only 129 page split into 28 chapters, it's nothing like Melville's behemoth. It's an appreciation rather than a scholarly work, so the prose is clear and free of jargon.

Because you'd like a little insight into Melville.

Philbrick spends about half of the book discussing Melville's life around the time he was writing Moby-Dick, about what he was trying to accomplish, how he felt about it while it was in progress, and some of his thoughts after. (Mu...more

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Jan 12, 2012 Meghan rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a phenomenal reading of Moby Dick that unwinds important themes that my too-long-out-of-college brain missed. I worry, though, that people will read it and feel they have read the real thing. Yes, everybody should read Moby Dick. But for the love of god, save Philbrick's extended essay for afterward.

Some favorite sections:

"In our age, we all love whales and wish them nothing but the best, but you’ve got to hand it to this castrated, one-legged, fifty-eight-year-old lapsed Quaker; he doe...more This is a phenomenal reading of Moby Dick that unwinds important themes that my too-long-out-of-college brain missed. I worry, though, that people will read it and feel they have read the real thing. Yes, everybody should read Moby Dick. But for the love of god, save Philbrick's extended essay for afterward.

Some favorite sections:

"In our age, we all love whales and wish them nothing but the best, but you’ve got to hand it to this castrated, one-legged, fifty-eight-year-old lapsed Quaker; he doesn’t mess around. Like Melville with his Whale, he has the audacity to take Moby Dick by the jaw."

"For me, Moby-Dick is like the Oldsmobile my grandparents owned in the 1970s, a big boat of a sedan with loosey-goosey power steering that required constant back-and-forth with the wheel to keep the car pointed down the highway. Melville’s novel is that wandering, oversized automobile, each non sequitur of a chapter requiring its own course correction as the narrative follows the erratic whims of Melville’s imagination toward the Pacific. The sheer momentum of the novel is a wonder to behold, barreling us along, in spite of all the divergences, toward the White Whale."

"Ishmael’s transformation echoes what was happening to the northern portion of the United States when Melville was working on Moby-Dick. During the fall of 1850 and the winter of 1851, Boston became the epicenter of outrage over the Fugitive Slave Law, and Melville’s father-in-law, Judge Lemuel Shaw, was the reluctant focal point. Although Shaw hated slavery, he also loved his country and its laws, which it was his duty to uphold. So it was Shaw who ordered that a slave who’d made his way to Boston be turned over to his Southern captors. Riots and general bedlam erupted, with Shaw being hanged in effigy after the decision. New England gentlemen who had once viewed the South from the safety of their own mastheads had finally been drawn into slavery’s pernicious vortex. What to do? Nothing, of course. As Starbuck discovers, simply being a good guy with a positive worldview is not enough to stop a force of nature like Ahab, who feeds on the fears and hatreds in us all. “My soul is more than matched,” Starbuck laments, “she’s overmanned; and by a madman!” Just like Starbuck, America’s leaders in the 1850s looked at one another with vacant, deer-in-the-headlights stares as the United States, a great and noble country crippled by a lie, slowly but inevitably sailed toward its cataclysmic encounter with the source of its discontents."(less)

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Feb 20, 2012 Clara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Philbrick fulfilled his purpose with this nifty book, at least with me: he made me want to read Moby Dick. I've tried to do so in the past and lost interest. I admit this, even though I'm an English major who was told all through college that this was one of the masterpieces of American literature (and American literature was my area of concentration). So Philbrick's feat is not an insignificant one.

He achieves this by providing context: 1) context to the America of the time during which Melvill...more

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Nov 01, 2011 Kathleen Valentine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Whether or not you have read Moby Dick, this brief but thorough examination is filled with facts, opinions, and background material that can provide a compelling introduction to those who have not read it or a satisfying supplement to those who have. I've read Moby Dick, I've listened to the audio book, I've seen the movies, and I've argued with people who find it tedious and over-wrought. I, personally, love Moby Dick. This book, like its inspiration, is one I'll read again just to absorb the w...more

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Nov 15, 2012 Harry Roger Williams III rated it 4 of 5 stars

I listened to the audiobook edition first, nicely read by author Philbrick. Then I checked out the print version to read the following quote from page 111 at the Library's "Booked For Lunch" program.
"As Melville has already shown in chapter 99, 'The Doubloon,' in which just about every member of the Pequod's crew provides his own interpretation of what is stamped on the gold coin nailed to the mast, in the end a doubloon is just a doubloon. So don't fall into the Ahab trap of seeing Moby Dick as...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Anne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics, non-fiction, read-2012

Philbrick's enthusiasm for reading Moby-Dick, especially aloud, is infectious. I'm listening to it as a playaway book, after having read it years ago (but never for a class). Philbrick has lots of short essays as chapters and they would be great to read just after doing a specific chapter in MD.

I liked this one about the sea, especially in light of my recent reading of The Soundings.
"We Americans love our wilderness: that empty space full of beckoning dreams, the unknown land into which we can...more Philbrick's enthusiasm for reading Moby-Dick, especially aloud, is infectious. I'm listening to it as a playaway book, after having read it years ago (but never for a class). Philbrick has lots of short essays as chapters and they would be great to read just after doing a specific chapter in MD.

I liked this one about the sea, especially in light of my recent reading of The Soundings.
"We Americans love our wilderness: that empty space full of beckoning dreams, the unknown land into which we can disappear, only to return years later, wiser, careworn, and rich. Most of us think of the West as this hinterland of opportunity, but Melville knew that the original wilderness was the "everlasting terra incognito" of the sea. Even today, long after every terrestrial inch of the planet has been surveyed and mapped, only a small portion of the sea's total volume has been explored by man. Back in 1850, Melville commented that "Columbus sailed over numberless unknown worlds to discover his one superficial western one." p. 55

From a "mighty, messy book" chapter. "Even the beginning of the book is a magnificent mess. Contrary to what many people assume, Moby-Dick starts not with Ishmael but with "Etymology," a listing of obscure quotations and translations supposedly collected by "a late consumptive usher to a grammar school." As if that's not enough, Melville follows "Etymology" with "Extracts," a seemingly endless compilation of whale-related passages that takes up a full 13 pages in the Penguin edition of the novel. From the beginning, Melville is challenging the reader with both his scholarship and his wit. By the time you reach chapter 1, you know you are in for a most quirky and demanding ride.
There is an inevitable tendency to grow impatient with the novel, to want to rush and even skip over what may seem like yet another extraneous section and find out what, if anything, is going to happen next to Ahab and the Pequod. Indeed, as the plot is left to languish and entire groups of characters vanish without a trace, you might begin to think that the book is nothing more than a sloppy, self-indulgent jumble. But Melville is conveying the quirky artlessness of life through his ramshackle art. "Careful disorderliness," Ishmael assures us, "is the true method."
For me, Moby-Dick is like the Oldsmobile my grandparents owned in the 1970's, a big boat of a sedan with loosey-goosey power steering that required constant back-and-forth with the wheel to keep the car pointed down the highway. Melville's novel is that wandering, oversized automobile, each non sequitur of a chapter requiring its own course correction as the narrative follows the erratic whims of Melville's imagantion toward the Pacific. The sheer momentum of the novel is a wonder to behold, barreling us along, in spite of all the divergences, toward the White Whale." p. 65-66

Philbrick also talks a lot about the relationship between Melville and Hawthorne. From what I read here (I plan to at least skim a biography of Melville and/or Hawthorne as well), they were very different personalities and Melville sort of latched on to Hawthorne in a way that Hawthorne may not have welcomed.
"in his letters to Hawthorne, Melville provides snapshots of his psyche during and after the composition of his masterpiece. The same propulsive poetry that animates Moby-Dick runs through these missives, many of them wildly manic in their inanimate revelations of what Melville was thinking about as his novel galloped, paused, then galloped again toward publication. I would go so far as to insist that reading Moby-Dick is not enough. You must read the letters to appreciate the personal and artistic forces that made the book possible." p. 107(less)

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Apr 30, 2012 Anni rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 29, 2011 Becky rated it 5 of 5 stars

Page 61: "Melville's example demonstrates the wisdom of waiting to read the classics. Coming to a great book on your own after having accumulated essential life experience can make all the difference." I found this to be the case when I read Les Miserables for the first time after I was grown, had finished college, and was married. I truly treasured the insights I was able to gain through the reading which touched many of the things I had thought deeply about in the years since leaving my home t...more Page 61: "Melville's example demonstrates the wisdom of waiting to read the classics. Coming to a great book on your own after having accumulated essential life experience can make all the difference." I found this to be the case when I read Les Miserables for the first time after I was grown, had finished college, and was married. I truly treasured the insights I was able to gain through the reading which touched many of the things I had thought deeply about in the years since leaving my home town.
Page 75: Ishmael's poetry takes something as prosaic as a piece of rope and turns it into a continuously evolving metaphor of the human condition......"All men live enveloped in whale-lines. All are born with halters round their necks; but it is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death, that mortals realize the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life."
Page 78: "Melville's ultimate view of humanity......The job of government, of civilization, is to keep the shark at bay.....Without some form of government, evil will prevail.......Here lies the source of the Founding Fathers' ultimately unforgivable omission. They refused to contain the great, ravening shark of slavery"
Page 105: "In the end, even the fiercest of tyrants is done in, not by his own sad, used-up self, but by his enablers, the so-called professionals, who keep whispering in his ear."
Page 111: "This is the fundamental reason we continue to read this or any other literary classic. It's not the dazzling technique of the author; it's his or her ability to deliver reality on the page."
Page 114: "In our age, we all love whales and wish them nothing but the best, but you've got to hand it to this castrated, one-legged, fifty-eight-year-old lapsed Quaker; he doesn't mess around. Like Melville with his Whale, he has the audacity to take Moby Dick by the jaw."......
"Instead of a man, Ahab is a piece of topography, a fractured continent echoing hurt and pain."
Page 127: Melville was a question and was still questioning until the day he died. Maybe that is why we still read him as this speaks so much to all who ever question what this life is all about and builds on the dichtomy of hope and dispair that accompany most of us on the journey of life.(less)

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Feb 05, 2012 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars

Fabulous!

I finally read Moby-Dick less than three months ago, and was taken by the book's beautiful language as Ishmael tells the tale the Pequod and mad Ahab's pursuit of the whale, with the odd juxtaposition of the detailed information about whaling. So, I was curious what Nathaniel Philbrick would bring to the table.

This short book was enlightening. Philbrick succinctly discusses why Melville's masterpiece is a combination allegory for then and now and a history lesson. The Melville biograp...more

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Apr 17, 2013 Simon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Nathaniel Philbrick’s Why Read Moby Dick? is a short primer for Melville’s classic novel. It begins with an introduction to the author’s life and times, so that one can better appreciate both the circumstances that inspired the work and how it was initially received. Philbrick next discusses the significance of the principal characters and environments. In his guide, he works to elucidate quiet points, clarify references, and broaden the scope and detail of the novel for the reader so as to enco...more

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Apr 24, 2013 Carl Williams rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

A wonderful little—as in short—book, full of interpretation, and character analysis and discussion of the novel’s plot and Melville’s wanderings away from it to explore other topics. There is a glimpse of Melville the 19th century author, and of his personal life. There’s an exploration of Melville's friendship with Nathaniel Hawthorne, which seems to have been ultimately (Hawthorne apparently spent some time initially trying to avoid Melville.) pleasant enough for both but vastly important to M...more

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Mar 11, 2012 Al rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: odds-and-ends

I got this book in the mail last night, started it, and finished it this morning. I enjoyed it and was intrigued enough by Philbrick's enthusiasm for Moby Dick that I intend to read Moby Dick again, this year. The book was an easy read and extremely interesting...however, I was annoyed by Philbrick's forays into what I consider presentism. I honestly can't agree that Melville compared the survival of the whales to the impending decimation of the buffalo. (p. 93) I also was a bit irritated about...more

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Feb 29, 2012 Chazzbot rated it 3 of 5 stars

It's hard to fault Philbrick's intentions in this slim, earnest monograph, and his writing on Melville's classic is persuasive, incorporating numerous lengthy quoted passages and biographical details of Melville's life. But this paperback-sized, 131-page book carries a $25 price tag, and one wonders if its length wouldn't be better suited to an introduction for a new edition of the novel. It also seems unlikely that anyone who isn't actually interested in the novel would pick up this volume in t...more

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May 13, 2012 Steve rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: lit-crit

I enjoyed this introduction (or for me, re-introduction) to Moby Dick, which is one of my all-time favorite novels. The reason I'm only rating this 3 stars, is that Philbrick only scratches the surface of the novel. Philbrick populates his short book, with a lot of short chapters. Many of these chapters (such as "Ahab," "Poetry," "Hawthorne," etc.), which run on average about 3-5 pages, could easily be expanded into much longer discussions. In fact, some of these chapters could easily be books t...more

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About Nathaniel Philbrick

Philbrick was Brown’s first Intercollegiate All-American sailor in 1978; that year he won the Sunfish North Americans in Barrington, RI; today he and his wife Melissa sail their Beetle Cat Clio and their Tiffany Jane 34 Marie-J in the waters surrounding Nantucket Island.

After grad school, Philbrick worked for four years at Sailing World magazine; was a freelancer for a number of years, during whic...more

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Books by Nathaniel Philbrick

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The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn

Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery, the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842

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“Melville's example demonstrates the wisdom of waiting to read the classics. Coming to a great book on your own after having accumulated essential life experience can make all the difference.” — 1 person liked it

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