Moby-Dick, Second Edition (Norton Critical Editions)

by Herman Melville

book data

10868 ratings, 3.78 average rating, 1449 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		32%
4		24%
3		22%
2		11%
1		7%

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published

October 24th 2001 (first published 1851) by W. W. Norton & Company

binding

Paperback, 726 pages

setting

Unknown

isbn

0393972836 (isbn13: 9780393972832)

description

For this Sesquicentennial Norton Critical Edition, the Northwestern-Newberry text of Moby-Dick has been generously footnoted to include dozens ...more

[close] For this Sesquicentennial Norton Critical Edition, the Northwestern-Newberry text of Moby-Dick has been generously footnoted to include dozens of biographical discoveries, mainly from Hershel Parker's work on his two-volume biography of Melville. A section of "Whaling and Whalecraft" features prose and graphics by John B. Putnam, a sample of contemporary whaling engravings, as well as, new to this edition, an engraving of Tupai Cupa, the real-life inspiration for the character of Queequeg. Evoking Melville's fascination with the fluidity of categories like savagery and civilization, the image of Tupai Cupa fittingly introduces "Before Moby-Dick: International Controversy over Melville," a new section that documents the ferocity of religions, political, and sexual hostility toward Melville in reaction to his early books, beginning with Typee in 1846. The image of Tupai Cupa also evokes Melville's interest in the mystery of self-identity and the possibility of knowing another person's "queenly personality" (Chapter 119). That theme (focused on Melville, Ishmael, and Ahab) is pursued in "A Handful of Critical Challenges," from Walter E. Bezanson's classic centennial study through Harrison Hayford's meditation on "Loomings" and recent essays by Camille Paglia and John Wenke. In "Reviews and Letters by Melville," a letter has been redated and a wealth of new biographical material has been added to the footnotes, notably to Melville's "Hawthorne and His Mosses." "Analogues and Sources" retains classic pieces by J. N. Reynolds and Owen Chase, as well as new findings by Geoffrey Sanborn and Steven Olsen-Smith. "Reviews of Moby-Dick" emphasizes the ongoing religious hostility toward Melville and highlights new discoveries, such as the first-known Scottish review of The Whale. "Posthumous Praise and the Melville Revival: 1893-1927" collects belated, enthusiastic praise up through that of William Faulkner. "Biographical Cross-Light" is Hershel Parker's somber look at what writing Moby-Dick cost Melville and his family. From Foreword through Selected Bibliography, this Sesquicentennial Norton Critical Edition is uniquely valuable as the most up-to-date and comprehensive documentary source for study of Moby-Dick. [close]

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Erik rated it:

(review of isbn 0143058096)

06/18/08

I first read this when I was nineteen; I did not enjoy reading it nearly so much as I enjoyed having read it. Every summer, a friend's daughter comes home from college, and together we read books she's interested in. This summer, she said she wanted to read MOBY DICK. I was not at all interested, but I'd never say no to a student who wants to read this book.

The past three weeks of reading have been unadulterated joy. The book: I get it, now, I finally get all the fuss. Harold Bloom say...more

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J rated it:

(review of isbn 0143058096)

05/16/08

I have often said that if trapped on a desert island, I’d want Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon-Tiki as the one book with me (rim shot). Being serious, I’ve later decided that since Catch-22 suits my mood any time I pick it up, that would be my real choice. Yet every time I read Herman Melville’s towering Moby Dick, I firmly believe that no other book should suffice.

It’s one of those books you always mean to read. “Oh yes, I’ve got Moby Dick on my list and Gravity’s Rainbow and Ulysses a...more

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Izetta Autumn rated it:

(review of isbn 0143058096)

04/18/08

bookshelves: adoration-of-author, favorites, whosecanonisitanyway

Read in January, 2008

When I first attempted to read this book, I was in a first-year Creative Writing Class. At the time, I was less than enthused about reading yet another white male, after a long run of school assigned reading of only white men. So I was resistant. And perhaps rightly so. After years of not having the opportunity to read international literature and literature by people of color, to my heart's content, I needed a break. An opportunity to explore and revel.

And then I re-read Invisible Man by Ra...more

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Joseph rated it:

(review of isbn 0142437247)

06/01/08

Read in June, 2008

recommends it for: everyone

Incredible. Incomparable. Ineffable.

One of the most challenging and most intense novels to which I have ever put my mind. Over the course of reading this book, I encountered resistance. When I said I was reading it, someone responded, "On purpose?" Just today, finishing it in a cafe, a couple sitting across from me spoke of the book to each other. "Have you read Moby Dick?" asked the girl. "I tried but it didn't do it for me," said the guy. Who are these people....more Incredible. Incomparable. Ineffable.

One of the most challenging and most intense novels to which I have ever put my mind. Over the course of reading this book, I encountered resistance. When I said I was reading it, someone responded, "On purpose?" Just today, finishing it in a cafe, a couple sitting across from me spoke of the book to each other. "Have you read Moby Dick?" asked the girl. "I tried but it didn't do it for me," said the guy. Who are these people.

Maybe I'm a literary snob. I don't think that's such a bad thing. If you don't become ill at the state of modern "popular" fiction, sometimes called literature but resoundingly far from it, you have not given enough time to exploring how things once were; how dedicated writers were to creating an experience; a time when craft reigned. After reading Moby Dick, I'm just dumbstruck as to what passes for literature these days.

But then maybe people don't want to be challenged anymore. Maybe books have become as much a diversion as television. Sure, books are meant to be a diversion; they are meant to be enjoyable and to pass the time in a pleasant way. Otherwise, why read? But Moby Dick is more than that and literature should be more than that. Books should change you and open you up and free you. Modern fiction is little more than reality tv. Why else would the modern reader be so obsessed with both the non-fiction and fiction memoir? We want to escape but not be challenged. We pick up a book like Moby Dick, feel pressured by it to think, and put it right back down.

Moby Dick is the American epic. There is nothing even close to it. If you think you know of a book that can rival it, let me read it and prove you wrong. This is the novel that all other novels should strive to be in spirit. How can these people turn it away?

Go back to your Palahniuks and Lethams and Eggers and everything else masquerading as something important. Don't give Moby Dick a chance, don't open your eyes, and relax deep into your easy-chair of mediocrity. Moby Dick is difficult. Moby Dick is something you won't fully understand when you try to read it in high school, in college, in your formative years, in your later years. It is something that needs multiple readings and needs to be read at a time in your life when you are most susceptible to the truths it entails. It deserves to be read now and forever.

We all have a White Whale we are chasing. The question is whether or not one may ever truly recognize it....less

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Scroutch rated it:

(review of isbn 0143058096)

03/17/08

Read in November, 2007

recommended to Scroutch by: God, Shakespeare, and Milton
recommends it for: people who read

Moby Dick is in one of my Top 10 books of all time. Maybe that doesn't mean a lot to you who do not know of my impeccable taste, but that is neither here nor there. Anyone who isn't a total asshole would recognize that Melville is a bad-ass and that Moby Dick is masterpiece.

First of all, let me just say that I love the word "monomaniacal." Second of all, allow me to confess that I would totally make out with Captain Ahab. Whale bone peg legs are fucking hot, and so is being all ch...more

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Matt rated it:

(review of isbn 0142000086)

08/19/07

You know, it feels a little ridiculous to even write a review of _Moby-Dick_, because it's _Moby-Dick_, and what's the point of reviewing it? It's _Moby-Dick_. But for what it's worth:

I think I developed a complicated relationship with this book. On the one hand, I never sat down to read it thinking, "Ooh, boy! Let's read!" It often felt more like a task or quota to fulfill than enjoyment. But, when I did sit down to read it, I usually, at some point, felt a large swell of jo...more

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Jamie rated it:

(review of isbn 0142437247)

08/03/08

Read in August, 2007

So, Herman Melville's Moby Dick is supposed by many to be the greatest Engligh-language novel ever written, especially among those written in the Romantic tradition. Meh.

It's not that I don't get that there's a TON of complexity, subtlety, and depth to this book about a mad captain's quest for revenge against a great white whale. And on the surface it's even a pretty darn good adventure story. And, honestly, Melville's prose is flowing, elegant, and as beautiful as any writing can possibly b...more So, Herman Melville's Moby Dick is supposed by many to be the greatest Engligh-language novel ever written, especially among those written in the Romantic tradition. Meh.

It's not that I don't get that there's a TON of complexity, subtlety, and depth to this book about a mad captain's quest for revenge against a great white whale. And on the surface it's even a pretty darn good adventure story. And, honestly, Melville's prose is flowing, elegant, and as beautiful as any writing can possibly be. It's magnificent, actually.

It's just that any enjoyment or satisfaction I got out of the book was overshadowed by the tedious, largely pointless stretches of encylopedic descriptions about the whaling industry. Melville strikes me as one of those people who would corner you at a party and talk incessantly about whaling, whaling ships, whales, whale diet, whale etymology, whale zoology, whale blubber, whale delacies, whale migration, whale oil, whale biology, whale ecology, whale meat, whale skinning, and every other possible topic about whales so that you'd finally have to pretend to have to go to the bathroom just to get away from the crazy old man. Only he'd FOLLOW YOU INTO THE BATHROOM and keep talking to you about whales while peering over the side of the stall and trying to make eye contact with you the whole time.

Look, it's not that I don't get it. Or at least some of it. I get, for example, that Ishmael's description of the absurdities of whale classification systems provide a backdrop against which to project the recurring theme of mankind's doomed quest for complete understanding of truths that are ineffable and forever hidden (sometimes literally) under the surface. I get that. I just wish the guy didn't feel like he had to take it to such absurd lengths. I do not need twenty pages about how to properly coil a harpoon line! I can see why most people don't make it through this book without judicious skimming.

Still, I feel like I accomplished something and that I can now nod sagely the next time someone makes an oblique reference to Captain Ahab, mentions the Pequod, or refers to something as "that person's Great White _______." And chances are they skimmed more than I did, anyway....less

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Colie! rated it:

(review of isbn 0143058096)

04/14/08

Read in April, 2008

recommended to Colie! by: Cara and Elizabeth
recommends it for: Anyone American. Know your lit!

The best part of reading Moby Dick is looking for unintentional innuendo. The title begs for it. So far, I believe this is my favorite chestnut: “At first he little noticed these advances; but presently, upon my referring to his last night’s hospitalities, he made out to ask me whether we were again to be bedfellows. I told him yes; whereat I thought he looked pleased, perhaps a little complimented.”
I've had similar experiences myself.

Right on. Now that I've finished the book, I ...more The best part of reading Moby Dick is looking for unintentional innuendo. The title begs for it. So far, I believe this is my favorite chestnut: “At first he little noticed these advances; but presently, upon my referring to his last night’s hospitalities, he made out to ask me whether we were again to be bedfellows. I told him yes; whereat I thought he looked pleased, perhaps a little complimented.”
I've had similar experiences myself.

Right on. Now that I've finished the book, I can speak further than my sophomoric joy of homoerotic quote hunting, for which this book has fertile grounds. It took me a while to finish, but I blame Los Angeles. I don't have the luxury of subway rides to peruse. And it's all sunny, all you want to do is be outside and do yoga. Anyway. I started and stopped MD a few times in my youth (you know, like age 13 youth) and when I picked it up again, I couldn't believe how FAST it read. Then of course it got slow in the middle... Ishmael likes to ruminate over measurements of whale bones, physical traits of Sperm v. Right Whale, Whales in art and history, which I guess is all well and good, but once that's done with and we return to the story of Stubb and Starbuck and Tashtego, Queequeg, and OF COURSE that crazy hot old man Ahab, it's a reading feeding frenzy. I'd have to say those pages read about 20 times faster, minimum. Which made me super sad that they were, in my opinion, so scare. (Scarce in a 1,000 pager.) And I was in complete disbelief when I actually completed my read: these pages zip by, and in 1.5 pages you're DONE. It's so fast, you don't even trust yourself to believe what you read really happened. I had to skip back and reread. [Avast, here be spoilers:] I thought, "No way I read that right. Is Ahab gone? The whole Pequod? WTF!!!" And then there's this half page epilogue to confirm: yep, that's all, folks. Part of me was really pissed: Ishmael, you couldn't give it JUST a little more time? It kind of felt like a poorly planned essay for the SAT, where the middle is fleshed out really completely but then the student finds he only has one minute to wrap it up. But I think Melville probably wasn't writing under that kind of time constraint. On the other hand, my feelings of loss and abandonment seemed somehow appropriate for the book, like I was left in the big open sea, sans Pequod, on a floating coffin myself. ...less

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Grahm rated it:

(review of isbn 0143058096)

07/29/07

bookshelves: currently-reading

recommends it for: everybody ever

I first read Moby Dick in college. It's ponderous, cumbersome, difficult and wordy. It's also brilliant. Most of the book is written in iambic pentameter and it creates a natural rhythm as you read, much like the ocean waves. And he's very evocative in his language. He not only paints pictures of the scenes his characters are hanging out in, but he goes into great detail explaining the backgrounds and uses of all the bits and pieces of whaling gear that make up the set.
There's an entire c...more

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Alexander rated it:

(review of isbn 0142000086)

12/28/07

Read in November, 1998

I read this in a week, on a trip to Tokyo. I started it on the plane over, finished it while I was there. There was something about the way being submerged in a foriegn language while reading it made it more intense.

I found it weirdly thrilling for how it seemed to me to be this whole novel about the handsome tattooed Queequeg, and the strange beautiful relationship he and the narrator have, and then wham! The whale.

In some ways, the long aria-type chapters about whales strike me as be...more

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Amanda rated it:

(review of isbn 0142000086)

08/25/08

bookshelves: all-time-favorites, everyone-should-read, to-reread

Read in August, 2008

recommended to Amanda by: Daphna Atias

Surprisingly funny, wholly engaging, and deserving of it's lofty rank among the canon of American literature; I enjoyed every page of Melville's Moby-Dick. And although I think a book of this length intimidates a lot of people, I honestly thought the story had a lot of momentum and always looked forward to getting back into it. So don't fear the spine width.

I was warned going in that I shouldn't feel obligated to read every word, as Ishmael at times goes off on tangents about whale an...more Surprisingly funny, wholly engaging, and deserving of it's lofty rank among the canon of American literature; I enjoyed every page of Melville's Moby-Dick. And although I think a book of this length intimidates a lot of people, I honestly thought the story had a lot of momentum and always looked forward to getting back into it. So don't fear the spine width.

I was warned going in that I shouldn't feel obligated to read every word, as Ishmael at times goes off on tangents about whale anatomy and taxonomy and such, but I did read every word -- there was a lot of humor in even the more tedious sections of the narrative. I'm sure you know the bones (pun intended) of the story by now: "Call me Ishmael", Captain Ahab, a monomaniacal hunt across the oceans of the world for a violent white whale named Moby Dick, pagan cannibal harpooners. And how we all have our white whales we chase. But even coming in with the embedded cultural understanding of What Moby-Dick Means, it's also just a damn good story, and written awfully damn well at that.

The first fourth-ish of the book Ishmael is still on land. In fact, we begin in Manhattan and travel north to Nantucket, where from eventually the Pequod will set her ill-omened sail. The landed part of the book is probably the most humorous, as it is only at sea that Ishmael really gets into some of the textbooky stuff about whaling. But that's one of the great things about Moby-Dick, that, (1) even these parts are entertaining and (2) beyond being a great story, it's also a wonderful artifact of the "American fishery" (and America in general) in the mid-nineteenth century, something I'm sure most twenty-first century Americans think little of. After reading Moby-Dick I feel closer to the past on the East Coast (which I now call home).

Melville also demonstrates a particular deftness for form, something I wasn't even expecting but was impressed by. As the Pequod nears her fate, the narrative begins to split and shift: Ishmael as a first-person essentially fades away, some entire chapters are (possibly internal) monologues of crew members, some chapters contain stage direction and other theatrical elements. It keeps it interesting and is done in a way that works naturally with the story and what is taking place on board the boat.

In sum: God damn, it was good, and so funny, and well-written, and I already want to read it again. Recommended for everyone....less

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Rebecca rated it:

(review of isbn 0142437247)

06/17/08

Read in May, 2008

Um. This is the weirdest, most outrageous book I've ever read. Using words like "classic" and "epic" and "desert-island-book" is just way too banal for this enormous, bizarre, utterly insane novel. I was in turn amused, bored, outraged, irritated, and charmed, but mostly blood-thirsty for the business of KILLING WHALES to begin.

Ishmael, in the first paragraph, says, "I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world." Are...more

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W rated it:

(review of isbn 0520045483)

02/23/08

"Call me Ishmael"--God will listen. Strange name for a pretty godless rant, which is really one of the top four books in America. The bible story has Abraham chasing Hagar and their son, Ishmael, out of camp in favor of Sarah and Isaac (one of the two saddest stories in the the bible), so the questionable confidence in a Christian god is always challenged.

Speaking of Moby Dick, I am reminded of Maxwell Perkins habit of giving his best writers: Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Wolfe, copies ...more

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Rob rated it:

(review of isbn 0143058096)

01/29/08

bookshelves: classics

Read in June, 2007

recommends it for: Masochists

Moby Dick is probably two or three books that, if separated, could be good - Ahab's whaling story, a book on the anatomy of whales, and the narrator's tale of largely religious self exploration - and it's easy to see how someone could love it.

But I don't - frankly, I find the mix frustrating. With Ahab's story, which was the most interesting part to me, every time it gets a bit of momentum the narrator interrupts with a chapter along the lines of 'More About The Whale's Eye' that completely...more

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Justin rated it:

(review of isbn 0143058096)

06/10/07

Read in June, 2007

recommends it for: Whale Lovers/Whale Haters

I really didn't know what to expect from this book other than what comes down the pike (i.e. crazy man with one leg captains a whaling ship and wants to seek revenge on the whale that bit his leg off). For one, I'll just say that this book is much more a celebration of whales--or, more specifically, the sperm whale--than it is a book about killing whales. I mean, don't get me wrong: If the whole idea of catching and slicing up whales make you squeamish, you will probably be horrified by more tha...more I really didn't know what to expect from this book other than what comes down the pike (i.e. crazy man with one leg captains a whaling ship and wants to seek revenge on the whale that bit his leg off). For one, I'll just say that this book is much more a celebration of whales--or, more specifically, the sperm whale--than it is a book about killing whales. I mean, don't get me wrong: If the whole idea of catching and slicing up whales make you squeamish, you will probably be horrified by more than a few passages in the book, not to mention the fact that the sole purpose of the voyage being undertaken in the book is to do exactly that (kill whales). But if you put yourself back in the time when the book was written and try to not judge too harshly by today's killing-whales-is-really-really-bad (which I agree with) standards, then, yeah, you'll see Melville really set out to put whaling and, by extension, the sperm whale, on the map. Pages and pages are dedicated to an exhaustible understanding of the whale itself.

The other thing I wasn't expecting in this book was the overwrought prose. I guess it shouldn't have surprised me, considering when the book was written, but, to some extent, it did. Not that it was always a bad thing. When I had time to really sit down with this book, I rather enjoyed a lot of the more poetic passages. Here's an example of Ishmael describing Moby Dick (the whale) for the first time:

On each soft side--coincident with the parted swell, that but once leaving him, then flowed so wide away--on each bright side, the whale shed off enticings. No wonder there had been some among the hunters who namelessly transported and allured by all this serenity, had ventured to assail it; but had fatally found that quietude but the vesture of tornadoes. Yet calm, enticing calm, oh, whale! thou glidest on, to all for who the first time eye thee, no matter how many in that same way thou may'st have bejuggled and destroyed before.

This paragraph perfectly captures the peacefullness and destructive force that Moby Dick, and the sea itself at large, represent. Hemingway wrote a story about an old man and a fish, but he could (nor would) never do justice to all the poetic majesty of the sea and seafaring life.

However, what Hemingway could do was sublimely represent the masculine and stoic grace of the sort of characters who did lead seafaring lives. And I guess that's where the contrast lies (and where I'm also sort of torn about who writes a better seafaring story in the Melville-vs.-Hemingway title fight I just made up): more than once I thought about how, due to the prose, Ishmael comes off sounding more like a prancing, lisping, effete, Little Lord Fauntleroy describing (and ascribing) the most fanciful things to what were probably very stoic and burly men in the most flowery prose. On the one hand, if you can get over that, then, yes, the prose often is quite beautiful and, again, much much better at touching the rightful majesty of the sea. But, yeah, on the other hand, reading Moby Dick, you get the feeling that most of the sailors on any given ship-of-fools at that time probably didn't talk in the way Melville ascribes to them (unless it was an especially well-read ship-of-fools) and, at the very least, that the old, grumpy Ahab didn't speak in parables more fitting to Homer than a whaling ship.

But Melville probably has more in common with Homer than Hemingway as far as what each was trying to accomplish with their respective stories. Both Melville and Homer want to inject a large amount of poetry and eminence into what are essentially professions that require neither poetry nor eminence (whaling and warring, respectively). Hemingway uses understatement to, as I said earlier, do justice to the terse, stoic nature of the men who populate his books.

Also, Melville is funny. Seriously. But not seriously funny. Just funny.
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Rachel rated it:

(review of isbn 0192833855)

07/09/07

bookshelves: fiction

Read in October, 2004

I am endlessly irritated by the inclusion of Moby Dick on 8th Grade English class syllabi.

Just because you CAN slog through 800 pages about whale hunting at 14, doesn't mean you should.

Moby Dick was a life changing book...but until you've had your own white whale, until you've foolishly imperiled yourself and the people who care about you in the name of something that will only screw you in the end, how can you possibly get anything from this book?

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Joe rated it:

(review of isbn 0451510143)

11/13/08

Hated it the first time I read. Having to teach it to high school kids year after year, I continue to find new things and love it more each time I return to it. I really think Melville was ahead of his time with this one.

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DiAn rated it:

(review of isbn 1593080182)

10/27/08

Read in October, 2008

Moby Dick written by 19th century novelist Herman Melville and has always been a favorite of the 21st century. Born in 1819 in New York City, Melville launched his career with two short novels. Despite his recognition in the 21st century, All of Melville’s works failed to achieve triumph during his career and he himself was almost completely forgotten by his death in 1891. Moby Dick is narrated in first and third person by Ishmael, a young man in search of adventure. After making friends with ...more Moby Dick written by 19th century novelist Herman Melville and has always been a favorite of the 21st century. Born in 1819 in New York City, Melville launched his career with two short novels. Despite his recognition in the 21st century, All of Melville’s works failed to achieve triumph during his career and he himself was almost completely forgotten by his death in 1891. Moby Dick is narrated in first and third person by Ishmael, a young man in search of adventure. After making friends with a foreigner and signing up as a member of the Pequod whaling ship, Ishmael is taken on a wild journey to slay the great whale, Moby Dick. With dangers high and spirits low, the crew of the Pequod must learn to face the limits before death comes knocking at its door.
The key points that makes Moby Dick a good read is its strong, descriptive language and its exceptional plot twists. Throughout the novel, Melville uses a variety of descriptive styles that brings the characters and setting to life. For example, Pequod co-captain Peleg is described as “brown and brawny, like most old seamen, and heavily rolled up in blue pilot-cloth, cut in the Quaker style […:]. [He had the most:] minutest wrinkles interlacing round his eyes, which must have arisen from continual sailings in many hard gales, and always looking to windward; […:]. Such eye-wrinkles are very effective in a scowl” (103). Melville’s deep description of Peleg gives the reader a strong sense of Peleg’s physical countenance and also a formidable foresight on his personality. Melville’s use of personification also adds a powerful tone to the exciting and unique plot twists of the novel. In Melville’s fantasy world of Moby Dick, anything is bound to happen. The story seems peaceful, carefree and adventurous to the unsuspicious reader at first. However, as the story develops, the first small signs of death, darkness and dread begin to leak out through the pages. After reaching the climax of the novel, the reader is drowned in a sea of murkiness, death, destruction and disaster alongside a manic captain throwing away life to kill death. Melville’s vivid imagery and imaginative setting makes Moby Dick a riveting and mesmeric novel.
Although Moby Dick is an extremely well written maritime novel, there is still one flaw that turns the novel into a boring read. Melville’s greatest strength is also his greatest weakness. Despite the strong imagery he uses in the novel, Melville sporadically integrates extremely long and complicated passages that provide little clarity on his thoughts. For example, while recounting the waking of Ishmael one morning, Melville creates an entire paragraph on the description about seeing one’s own hand. He states, “My arm hung over the counterpane, and the nameless, unimaginable form or phantom to which the hand belonged, seemed closely seated by my bedside. For what seemed ages piled on ages, I lay there, frozen with the most awful fears, not daring to drag away my hand; yet ever thinking that if I could but stir it one single inch, the horrid spell would be broken. I knew not how this consciousness at last glided away from me; […:]. Nay, to this very hour, I often puzzle myself with it” (53). Throughout the novel, Melville’s uses of long and incoherent descriptions take away from the overall brilliance of the novel.
Moby Dick can be an excellent or diffident read depending on the reader’s preference. In spite of its one weakness, Moby Dick is an interesting as well as didactic novel that will greatly increase the reader’s perspectives about literature. For those who enjoy adventurous novels that are both entertaining and moralizing, Moby Dick is nothing less than a must-read book.

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Matt rated it:

Moby-Dick, Second Edition (Norton Critical Editions)

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