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:''For other uses see [[Moby-Dick in popular culture]]''
:''For other uses see [[Moby-Dick in popular culture]]''
{{NovelsWikiProject Collaboration}}
{{infobox Book | <!-- See [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels]] or [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Books]] -->
{{infobox Book | <!-- See [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels]] or [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Books]] -->
| name = Moby-Dick
| name = Moby-Dick
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| series =
| series =
| subject =
| subject =
| genre = [[Adventure novel]]
| genre = [[Adventure novel]], [[Wikt:epic#Noun|Epic]], [[Sea story]]
| publisher = [[Richard Bentley]]
| publisher = [[Richard Bentley]]
| release_date = [[18 October]] [[1851]]
| release_date = [[18 October]] [[1851]]
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}}
}}


'''''Moby-Dick'''''<ref>the hyphen in the title is present in the original edition</ref> is an [[1851]] [[novel]] by [[Herman Melville]]. The novel describes the voyage of the [[whaling|whaling ship]] ''[[Pequod (Moby-Dick)|Pequod]],'' commanded by [[#Ahab|Captain Ahab]], who leads his crew on a hunt for the great [[whale]], Moby-Dick. The book's language is highly symbolic, and many [[theme (literature)|themes]] run throughout the work. The narrator's reflections, along with complex descriptions of the grueling work of whaling and the personalities of his shipmates, are woven into a profound meditation on [[society]], [[nature]], and the human struggle for meaning, happiness, and [[salvation]]. ''Moby-Dick'' is often considered the [[Embodiment|epitome]] of [[United States|American]] [[Romanticism]]. The novel frequently employs [[Shakespearean]] devices, including formal stage directions and extended [[soliloquies]] and [[asides]].
'''''Moby-Dick'''''<ref>The hyphen in the title is present in the original edition. See picture at upper right.</ref> is an [[1851 in literature|1851]] [[novel]] by [[Herman Melville]]. The novel describes the voyage of the [[whaling|whaling ship]] ''[[Pequod (Moby-Dick)|Pequod]],'' commanded by [[#Ahab|Captain Ahab]], who leads his crew on a hunt for the great [[whale]] Moby Dick. The book's language is highly symbolic, and many [[theme (literature)|themes]] run throughout the work. The narrator's reflections, along with complex descriptions of the grueling work of whaling and the personalities of his shipmates, are woven into a profound meditation on [[society]], [[nature]], and the human struggle for meaning, happiness, and [[salvation]]. ''Moby-Dick'' is often considered the [[Embodiment|epitome]] of [[United States|American]] [[Romanticism]]. The novel frequently employs [[Shakespearean]] devices, including formal stage directions and extended [[soliloquies]] and [[asides]].


The novel was first published by Richard Bentley in [[London]] on [[October 18]] [[1851]] as an expurgated three-volume edition entitled '''''The Whale''''', then as a single volume by Harper and Brothers, as '''''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale''''', in [[New York City|New York]] on [[November 14]] [[1851]]. The first line of Chapter One ("Call me [[Ishmael]].") is one of the most famous in American literature. Although the book initially received mostly negative reviews, ''Moby-Dick'' is now considered to be one of the [[Western canon|greatest novels]] in the [[English language]], and has secured Melville's reputation in the first rank of American writers.
The novel was first published by Richard Bentley in [[London]] on [[October 18]] [[1851]] in an expurgated three-volume edition entitled '''''The Whale''''', and then, in one massive volume, by [[New York City]]'s [[Harper and Brothers]] as '''''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale''''' on [[November 14]] [[1851]]. The first line of Chapter One—"Call me [[Ishmael]]."—is one of the most famous in literature. Although the book initially received mostly negative reviews, ''Moby-Dick'' is now considered one of the [[Western canon|greatest novels]] in the [[English language]] and has secured Melville's reputation in the first rank of American writers.


==Historical background==
==Historical background==
''Moby-Dick'' appeared in 1851, one year after Melville's good friend and neighbor [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]] published his bestseller ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]'' and one year before [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]]'s ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin|Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life among the Lowly]]'' appeared and caused such a stir that only the Bible would top it as the bestselling American book of the 19th century.
There were two factual occurrences that almost certainly inspired Melville's tale. One was the sinking of the [[Nantucket, Massachusetts|Nantucket]] [[Whaleship Essex|whaling ship ''Essex'']], which foundered in 1820 after it was attacked by an 80-ton [[sperm whale]] 2,000 miles (3,700 km) from the western coast of [[South America]]. First mate [[Owen Chase]], one of eight survivors, recorded the events as the ''Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex''. There was also a real-life albino sperm whale, known as [[Mocha Dick]], that lived near the island of [[Mocha (island)|Mocha]] off [[Chile]]'s southern coast, several decades before Melville wrote his book. [[Jeremiah N. Reynolds]] had written an account of Mocha Dick's battle with a ship. Mocha Dick, like Moby-Dick in Melville's story, escaped countless times from the attacks of whalers, whom he would often attack with premeditated ferocity, and consequently had dozens of harpoons in his back. Mocha Dick was eventually killed in the 1830s. Thus, it seems highly probable that Melville used Mocha Dick as the basis for his book. It has been suggested that Melville changed the name "Mocha" to "Moby" in 1846, four years before the novel was published, after meeting an old [[South Seas]] shipmate, Richard Tobias Green.


Two actual events inspired Melville's tale. One was the sinking of the [[Nantucket, Massachusetts|Nantucket]] [[Whaleship Essex|whaling ship ''Essex'']], which foundered in 1820 after it was attacked by an 80-ton [[sperm whale]] 2,000 miles (3,700 km) from the western coast of [[South America]]. First mate [[Owen Chase]], one of eight survivors, recorded the events in his 1821 ''Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex''. Already out-of-print, the book was rare even at the time.<ref>Beaver, Harold. "On the Composition of ''Moby-Dick''" (1972), 17, in ''Moby-Dick'' by Herman Melville, ed. Harold Beaver. New York: Penguin (1972; reprint 1986), 17. ISBN 0-14-43082-2.</ref> Knowing that his son-in law was looking for it, Lemuel Shaw managed to find a copy and buy it for him. When Melville received it, he fell to it almost immediately, heavily annotating it.<ref>Beaver, 17.</ref>
The third and perhaps most important element was Melville's experiences as a sailor, and in particular on his voyage on the whaler ''Acushnet'' in 1841–1842. His whaling experiences were chronicled in his popular novel ''[[Typee]]'' and its sequel ''[[Omoo]]'', and many historians believed it served as a basis for much of ''Moby-Dick''.


The other event was the killing in the 1830s of the albino sperm whale [[Mocha Dick]], a name derived from his home in the waters off the [[Chile]]an island of [[Mocha (island)|Mocha]]. Riddled with dozens of harpoons from his numerous escapes from whalers, Mocha Dick often attacked ships with premeditated ferocity. One of his battles with a whaler served as subject for an article by [[Jeremiah N. Reynolds]]<ref>Reynolds, J. N. "Mocha Dick, or The White Whale of the Pacific: A Leaf from a Manuscript Journal" (May, 1839), in Appendix to ''Moby-Dick'', ed. Harold Beaver (''op cit.''). pp. 991-1,011.</ref> in ''The Knickerbocker, New York Monthly Magazine'', which Melville would likely have come across through his literary connections or during his time in New York City.{{Fact|date=May 2007}} Significantly, Reynolds writes a [[First-person narrative|first-person narration]] that serves as a [[Frame story|frame]] for the story of a whaling captain he meets. The captain resembles Ahab and suggests a possible symbolism for whales in that, when his crew first encounters Mocha Dick and cowers from him, the captain rallies them thus: "'"Mocha Dick or the d----l [devil]," said I, "this boat never sheers off from any thing that wears the shape of a whale."'"<ref>Reynolds, J. N., 1,000.</ref> However, it has also been suggested {{Fact|date=May 2007}} that knowledge of Mocha Dick came to Melville in 1846 when he bumped into his old friend and shipmate Richard Tobias "Toby" Green (the model for Toby in ''[[Typee]]'').
The novel contains large portions that have nothing to do with the plot but are descriptive chapters on aspects of the whaling business. Melville believed that no book up to that time had portrayed the whaling business as he had first-handedly experienced it, or had done so in dry and uninspired encyclopedic prose. Melville had been greatly influenced from an early age by Romantic writers such as [[Sir Walter Scott]], [[Washington Irving]], [[Lord Byron]], [[Mary Shelly]] and others. His intention was to write a book that was compelling, emotionally and poetically vivid in the style of Romanticism, but also educational and "true of the thing"—indeed it was believed among Romanticists of this period that fiction was the ultimate vehicle for describing and recording history, such as many see film or photos today. However, Melville struggled to make his novel about the whaling industry interesting, as he wrote to [[Richard Henry Dana]] halfway through the work on [[May 1]] [[1850]]:


The most important inspiration for the novel was Melville's experiences as a sailor, in particular those during 1841-1842 on the whaler ''Acushnet''. He had already drawn on his different sailing experiences in previous novels—''Mardi'' the closest to ''Moby-Dick'' in its symbolic or allegorical aspirations—but he had never focused specifically on whaling.
{{cquote2|I am half way in the work ... It will be a strange sort of book, tho', I fear; blubber is blubber you know; tho' you might get oil out of it, the poetry runs as hard as sap from a frozen maple tree; — and to cool the thing up, one must needs throw in a little fancy, which from the nature of the thing, must be ungainly as the gambols of the whales themselves. Yet I mean to give the truth of the thing, spite of this.
|Herman Melville|from Norton Critical Edition (2002), page 532|##px|##px}}


The novel contains large chunks—most of them narrated by Ishmael—that seemingly have nothing to do with the plot but describe aspects of the whaling business. Melville believed that no book up to that time had portrayed the whaling industry in as fascinating or immediate a way as he had experienced it. Since [[Romanticism|Romantics]] such as [[Sir Walter Scott]], [[Washington Irving]], [[Lord Byron]], and [[Mary Shelley]] had greatly influenced him from an early age, he hoped to emulate them with a book that was compelling and vivid both emotionally and poetically. Early Romantics also proposed that fiction was the exemplary way to describe and record history (after all, Walter Scott had invented the [[historical novel]], and almost all of Irving's work had the trappings of history), so Melville wanted to craft something educational and definitive. However, despite his own interest in the subject, Melville at least pretended{{Fact|date=May 2007}} to struggle with it, writing to [[Richard Henry Dana]] on [[May 1]] [[1850]]:
==Critical reception==

''Moby-Dick'' received decidedly mixed reviews from critics at the time it was published. While many critics praised it for its unique style, interesting characters and poetic language, [http://www.melville.org/hmmoby.htm#Contemporary]others agreed with a critic for the ''London Athenaeum'', who described it as:
<blockquote>I am half way in the work ... It will be a strange sort of book, tho', I fear; blubber is blubber you know; tho' you might get oil out of it, the poetry runs as hard as sap from a frozen maple tree; — and to cool the thing up, one must needs throw in a little fancy, which from the nature of the thing, must be ungainly as the gambols of the whales themselves. Yet I mean to give the truth of the thing, spite of this.<ref>Herman Melville, from Norton Critical Edition (2002), 532.</ref>
:"[A]n ill-compounded mixture of romance and matter-of-fact. The idea of a connected and collected story has obviously visited and abandoned its writer again and again in the course of composition. The style of his tale is in places disfigured by mad (rather than bad) English; and its catastrophe is hastily, weakly, and obscurely managed".[http://www.melville.org/hmmoby.htm#Contemporary]
</blockquote>
After Melville's death, ''Moby-Dick'', along with his other works, went largely forgotten[http://www.bartleby.com/187/5.html] In the 1920s, British literary critics began to take notice of the novel again. [http://www.bartleby.com/187/5.html] The American author [[Carl Van Doren]] dedicated a section of his 1921 book ''The American Novel'' to Melville and ''Moby-Dick'', praising it as a pinnacle of American Romanticism.[http://www.bartleby.com/187/5.html] Today, ''Moby-Dick'' is considered to be one of the [[Western canon|greatest novels]] in the [[English language]], and has secured Melville's reputation in the first rank of American writers.


==Major themes==
==Major themes==
''Moby-Dick'' is a highly [[symbol]]ic work, and is interesting in that it also addresses issues such as [[natural history]]. Other themes include [[racism]], [[hierarchical]] [[Interpersonal relationship|relationship]]s, and [[politics]]. It also explores the potential for [[love]] to save a life, if that life wants saving.
''Moby-Dick'' is a highly [[symbol]]ic work, and is interesting in that it also addresses issues such as [[natural history]]. Other themes include [[racism]], [[hierarchical]] [[Interpersonal relationship|relationship]]s, and [[politics]].


===Symbolism===
===Symbolism===
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The white whale itself, for example, has been read as symbolically representative of [[good and evil]], as has [[Ahab]]. The white whale has also been seen as a [[metaphor]] for the elements of life that are out of our control, or [[God]].{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
The white whale itself, for example, has been read as symbolically representative of [[good and evil]], as has [[Ahab]]. The white whale has also been seen as a [[metaphor]] for the elements of life that are out of our control, or [[God]].{{Fact|date=February 2007}}


The ''Pequod''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s quest to hunt down Moby-Dick itself is also widely viewed as allegorical. To Ahab, killing the whale becomes the ultimate [[Objective (goal)|goal]] in his life, and this observation can also be expanded allegorically so that the whale represents everyone's goals. Furthermore, his vengeance against the whale is analogous to man's struggle against [[fate]]. The only escape from Ahab's vision is seen through the ''Pequod''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s occasional encounters with other ships, called gams. Readers could consider what exactly Ahab will do if he, in fact, succeeds in his [[quest]]: having accomplished his ultimate goal, what else is there left for him to do? Similarly, Melville may be implying that people in general need something to reach for in life, or that such a goal can destroy one if allowed to overtake all other concerns. Some such things are hinted at early on in the book, when the main character, Ishmael, is sharing a cold bed with his newfound friend, Queequeg:
The ''Pequod's'' quest to hunt down Moby-Dick itself is also widely viewed as allegorical. To Ahab, killing the whale becomes the ultimate [[Objective (goal)|goal]] in his life, and this observation can also be expanded allegorically so that the whale represents everyone's goals. Furthermore, his vengeance against the whale is analogous to man's struggle against [[fate]]. The only escape from Ahab's vision is seen through the ''Pequod's'' occasional encounters with other ships, called gams. Readers could consider what exactly Ahab will do if he, in fact, succeeds in his [[quest]]: having accomplished his ultimate goal, what else is there left for him to do? Similarly, Melville may be implying that people in general need something to reach for in life, or that such a goal can destroy one if allowed to overtake all other concerns. Some such things are hinted at early on in the book, when the main character, Ishmael, is sharing a cold bed with his newfound friend, Queequeg:
:... truely to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more.<br> — ''Moby-Dick'', Ch. 11
:... truely to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more.<br> — ''Moby-Dick'', Ch. 11


Ahab's pipe is widely looked upon as the riddance of happiness in Ahab's life. By throwing the [[pipe]] overboard, Ahab signifies that he no longer can enjoy simple pleasures in life; instead, he dedicates his entire life to the pursuit of his [[obsession]], the killing of the white whale, Moby-Dick.
Ahab's [[smoking_pipe_(tobacco)|pipe]] is widely looked upon as the riddance of happiness in Ahab's life. By throwing the pipe overboard, Ahab signifies that he no longer can enjoy simple pleasures in life; instead, he dedicates his entire life to the pursuit of his [[obsession]], the killing of the white whale, Moby-Dick.

A number of biblical themes occur. The book contains multiple implicit and explicit allusions to the story of [[Jonah]], in addition to the use of certain biblical names (see [[#Characters_in_Moby-Dick|below]]).

Ishmael's musings also allude to themes common among the American [[Transcendentalists]] and parallel certain themes in European [[Romanticism]] and the philosophy of [[Hegel]]. In the poetry of [[Walt_Whitman|Whitman]] and the prose writings of [[Ralph_Waldo_Emerson|Emerson]] and [[Thoreau]], a ship at sea is sometimes a metaphor for the soul.


===Whale biology and ecology===
===Whale biology and ecology===
Sections of the novel depart from the progression of the [[Plot (narrative)|plot]] entirely and discuss at great length the biology and ecology of whales and related species. Many of the claims are inaccurate —- for example, Ishmael insists that the whale is a [[fish]], although they had been [[Systema Naturae|classified]] as [[mammal]]s for almost a century (which he acknowledges dismissively).
Sections of the novel depart from the progression of the [[Plot (narrative)|plot]] entirely and discuss at great length the biology and ecology of whales and related species. Many of the claims are inaccurate —- for example, Ishmael insists that the whale is a [[fish]], although they had been [[Systema Naturae|classified]] as [[mammal]]s for almost a century (which he acknowledges dismissively). The distinction is partly semantic and depends on grouping all warm-blooded mammals together, ignoring whether they live in the water or on land.


==Plot summary==
==Plot summary==
"[[Wikt:etymology|Etymology]]" is the first of two prefaces of sorts. "Supplied by a late consumptive usher to a grammar school", the word origins are for ''whale''. Not only are Classical, Romance, and Germanic languages featured but also the usually overlooked "Fegee" ([[Fiji]]) and "Erromangoan" ([[Erromanga languages|Erromanga]]). The second preface is "Extracts", excerpts on whales culled from numerous works by "a sub-sub-librarian". Listed mostly chronologically, the quotations come from fiction, poetry, plays, anonymous sea chanties, the Bible and other religious works, legal references, histories, scientific and naturalist treatises, biographies, economic studies, philosophical texts, travelogues, reading primers, etc. The range shows a number of ways of looking at whales and the people who hunt them and use them, from [[materialist]] to [[political]] to [[Metaphysics|metaphysical]]. Only one of the extracts is authored by a woman.<ref>Smith, Elizabeth Oakes, ''The Drowned Mariner'' (1845), lines 1-5. See note 59, pg. 698, in ''Moby-Dick'', ed. Harold Beaver.</ref>
{{spoiler}}
The novel opens with "Etymology", "supplied by a late consumptive usher to a grammar school", which lays out Melville's lexicon for ''Moby-Dick''. The enigmatic start to the novel is followed by a set of ‘Extracts’ which bear the label ‘(supplied by a sub-sub-librarian).’ These are quotations and references on the subject of whales, taken from many different other pieces of literature, including [[Hamlet]], [[The Bible]], and "Thomas Edge's Ten Voyages to Spitzbergen, in Purchase". Subsequent to that, we are presented with the narrator, Ishmael, who introduces himself with the famous line "Call me Ishmael".


Then comes Chapter 1, "Loomings", when Ishmael, with a mixture of chattiness, seriousness, and humor, begins to talk to the reader about his temperament, the call of the sea, and his contention that every man wants at least once in his life to leave the land behind for the ocean.
Ishmael has set his mind to join a whaling vessel, and he arrives in the town of [[New Bedford, Massachusetts]]. He seeks lodging at an inn called the Spouter (the keeper of which is Peter Coffin), where he is lodged with a mysterious harpooner. This harpooner, a tattooed cannibal named [[Queequeg]], quickly becomes a friend to Ishmael.


Aiming to join a whaling crew, Ishmael heads for [[Nantucket]], the older of the two U.S. centers of the whaling industry. Time problems force him to stop for the night in the newer, more powerful whaling center of [[New Bedford, Massachusetts]]. Lacking money, he lodges at the Spouter Inn. The innkeeper, Peter Coffin, puts him in a room with the mysterious tattooed cannibal [[Queequeg]], a harpooner. The two quickly become fast friends; Ishmael even humorously calls the relationship a "marriage", and he joins Queequeg in worshipping his idol god.
The two decide to enlist together in the crew of the ''Pequod'', a ship held jointly by three men, known as Captain Peleg, Captain Bildad and Captain Ahab. As Ishmael and Queequeg sign their names (Queequeg copies down a peculiar mark that’s tattooed on his arm), they have yet to meet Captain Ahab who will be commanding the ship. Captains Peleg and Bildad are left behind on shore with a purely financial interest in the voyage.


The two decide to enlist together on the ''Pequod'', a whaler owned by three captains: Peleg, Bildad, and Ahab. Ishmael and Queequeg have yet to meet their captain when they sign [[Articled clerk|ship's articles]], Queequeg drawing a peculiar mark identical to one of his tattoos. Soon enough they discover that Ahab is captain for this voyage, which Peleg and Bildad hope will reap a substantial financial windfall.
As the ship sets sail, we are introduced to the other main characters: the three mates, Starbuck, Flask and Stubb, and the two remaining harpooners, Dagoo and Tashtego. Ahab, however, remains unseen. We are told that he is below decks and is not feeling well. After several days, Ishmael finally spots the one-legged Ahab standing on the quarter-deck.


As the ship sets sail, other main characters are introduced: the three mates, Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask; and the three remaining harpooners, Dagoo, Tashtego, and Fedallah. For several days, though, an ill Ahab stays below decks, completely out of sight from the common sailors. Ahab finally emerges and plants himself on the quarter-deck, leading Ishmael to ponder his captain's missing leg and the ivory replacing it.
Ahab broods and behaves erratically. He paces the deck, the ivory heel of his false leg making a thudding noise. When Stubb suggests to Ahab that something be done to dampen the sound, Ahab flies into a rage and calls Stubb a dog. When Stubb objects to this insult, he says “Then be called ten times a donkey, and a mule, and an ass, and begone, or I’ll clear the world of thee!”


The extremely enigmatic Ahab broods and behaves erratically. He paces the deck, thudding his ivory heel. Stubb suggests that he dampen the sound, but Ahab, furious, calls him a dog. When Stubb objects to the insult, Ahab says, “Then be called ten times a donkey, and a mule, and an ass, and begone, or I’ll clear the world of thee!”
The peculiar attitude of Ahab continues. He throws his pipe off the ship. He asks his crew to yell more loudly if they should spot a white whale. At length, Ahab draws the crew together and announces that a [[gold]] coin will be awarded to the crewman who first spots a ‘white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked jaw.’ He then hammers a nail through the coin and into the ship's mast. Saying "God hath struck a cord on this here coin!"


Ahab's eccentricities multiply and intensify. He throws his pipe off the ship. He asks his crew to yell more loudly if they spot a white whale. Then he tells the crew that a [[gold]] [[doubloon]] will go to the crewman who first spots a "white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked jaw". He then nails the coin to the ship's mast, saying, "God hath struck a cord on this here coin!"
Tashtego, it turns out, has heard of this white whale before. He gives the creature a name, saying that some call him “Moby-Dick.” Starbuck reveals that Moby-Dick is the whale who took Captain Ahab’s leg. The Captain is finally pressed to reveal that in his mind there is no purpose to this voyage other than Ahab’s own vengeance against Moby-Dick.


It turns out Tashtego has heard of this white whale, which he says some call "Moby Dick". Starbuck reveals that Moby Dick took Captain Ahab’s leg. With pressure on him mounting, Ahab admits that for him the voyage of the ''Pequod'' has no other purpose than to have his vengeance on Moby Dick.
Over the main part of the story, we are presented with many scenes of the everyday whaling life. The ''Pequod'' lowers its boats, which then chase after and harpoon whales. In a series of dramatic adventures with various whales, and (often humorous) encounters with other whaling vessels, Melville paints a scene of life on board a whaling ship in the mid-19th century.


Over the course of the story, the reader is presented with numerous apparent digressions giving scenes and details of whales, the whaling industry, and everyday whaling life. These digressions—sometimes funny, sometimes eerie, and sometimes a combination—often shed light on the ocean of symbolisms and profundities Melville gathers, delves into, plays with, and sometimes strains to surface from. On the other hand, there is always a forward-driving adventure story highlighting various whale sightings, whale hunts, and encounters (again, sometimes spooky or humorous) with other whalers. The combination of more typical plot elements with many other exploratory and curious styles and registers allows Melville to encapsulate and expand on the localized and cosmic significances of a way of life already in decline.
Towards the conclusion of the novel, the Peqoud, nearing the waters of Moby-Dick, encounters a ship called the ''Rachel''. The master of the ''Rachel'' quickly rows over to the Peqoud, begging for assistance to find one of its whaling-crews, lost in the previous day's fight. When it is revealed that the whale that caused the disappearance was Moby-Dick, Ahab flatly denies the ''Rachel'' captain's request, despite being told that one of the captain's sons is on the lost boat.


The journey comes to its dramatic and tragic end when the ''Pequod'', sailing despite dark portents, catches sight of Moby-Dick. For three days, the ''Pequod'' does battle with the white whale. Moby-Dick shatters the ''Pequod''’s boats, and finally charges the ship itself. The ''Pequod'' is sunk, and Ahab and all the crew disappear under the waves. Ishmael is the only survivor of the tragedy, and is left floating on the surface of the ocean for two days, in a coffin that Queequeg had built for himself and that served as the ship's improvised life buoy, and is through luck found and rescued by the still-searching ''Rachel''.
Toward the end of the novel, the ''Pequod'' nears Moby Dick's territory and encounters the ''Rachel'', the master of which quickly rows over to the ''Pequod''. He begs Ahab for help in finding a whaling-crew lost in the previous day's hunt, a crew that includes the son of the ''Rachel'' captain. When Ahab hears that the whale involved in the crew's disappearance was Moby Dick, he flatly refuses to help the ''Rachel'' so he can take up his own search for the whale.

The journey comes to its dramatic and tragic end when the ''Pequod'', sailing despite dark portents, sights Moby Dick. For three long days the ship battles the white whale. Moby Dick shatters the ''Pequod''’s hunting boats and then charges the ship itself, sinking it. Ahab and all the crew drown except for Ishmael, who uses the coffin Queequeg built for himself as a buoy. By pure luck, the still-searching ''Rachel'' sails by and rescues Ishmael.


==Characters in Moby-Dick==
==Characters in Moby-Dick==
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In the novel's first sentence, the narrator famously declares, "Call me Ishmael." It is unclear whether this is his actual name or an [[pseudonym|alias]]. His role as a narrator varies widely. Initially, his is the only narrative, but after the ''Pequod'' leaves port, he repeatedly fades and comes back to full prominence.
In the novel's first sentence, the narrator famously declares, "Call me Ishmael." It is unclear whether this is his actual name or an [[pseudonym|alias]]. His role as a narrator varies widely. Initially, his is the only narrative, but after the ''Pequod'' leaves port, he repeatedly fades and comes back to full prominence.


The name '[[Ishmael]]' also appears in the Bible as that of the first son of [[Abraham]] in the [[Old Testament]]. The [[bible|biblical]] Ishmael was born to Abraham and his wife's ([[Sarah]]) maidservant [[Hagar (Bible)|Hagar]], because Abraham and Sarah believed Sarah to be infertile. Hagar gave birth to son Ishmael, then 14 years later a 90 year old Sarah was granted a son ([[Isaac]]) by God. Sarah observed 17 year old Ishmael teasing Isaac and urged Abraham to expel Hagar and her son Ishmael. This proposal upset Abraham; but God commanded him to comply with Sarah's request and so Abraham ordered Hagar and Ishmael to leave.
The name '[[Ishmael]]' also appears in the Bible as that of the first son of [[Abraham]] in the [[Old Testament]]. The [[bible|biblical]] Ishmael was born to Abraham and his wife's ([[Sarah]]) maidservant [[Hagar (Bible)|Hagar]], because Abraham and Sarah believed Sarah to be infertile. Hagar gave birth to son Ishmael, then 14 years later 90 year old Sarah was granted a son ([[Isaac]]) by God. Sarah was jealous of Hagar and urged Abraham to expel Hagar and her son Ishmael. This proposal upset Abraham; but God commanded him to comply with Sarah's request and so Abraham ordered Hagar and Ishmael to leave.


The name has come to symbolize [[orphan]]s, [[exile]]s, and social [[outcast]]s—in the opening paragraph of ''Moby-Dick'', Ishmael tells the reader that he has turned to the sea out of a feeling of [[alienation from human society]]. In the last line of the book Ishmael also refers to himself symbolically as an orphan. Ishmael has a rich literary background (he has previously been a [[schoolteacher]]), which he brings to bear on his shipmates and events that occur while at sea.
The name has come to symbolize [[orphan]]s, [[exile]]s, and social [[outcast]]s—in the opening paragraph of ''Moby-Dick'', Ishmael tells the reader that he has turned to the sea out of a feeling of [[alienation from human society]]. In the last line of the book Ishmael also refers to himself symbolically as an orphan. Ishmael has a rich literary background (he has previously been a [[schoolteacher]]), which he brings to bear on his shipmates and events that occur while at sea.
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===Ahab===
===Ahab===
Ahab is the tyrannical captain of the ''Pequod'' who is driven by a [[monomania]]cal desire to kill Moby-Dick, the whale to whom he lost his leg. Ahab believes he is fated to kill Moby-Dick, and lives for this purpose alone. Ahab's name comes directly from the Bible. When Ishmael first encounters the name he responds "When that wicked king was slain, the dogs, did they not lick his blood?" (''Moby-Dick'', Chapter 16) The character Elijah (the namesake of the [[prophet#Prophets in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible)|Biblical prophet]], [[Elijah]], who portends Ahab's fate) warns Ishmael and Queequeg that by signing on to Ahab's ship they have effectively signed away their [[soul]]s. Ahab ultimately dies over his obsession to kill Moby-Dick.
Ahab is the tyrannical captain of the ''Pequod'' who is driven by a [[monomania]]cal desire to kill Moby Dick, the whale to whom he lost his leg. Ahab believes he is fated to kill Moby Dick, and lives for this purpose alone. Ahab's name comes directly from the Bible (see [[Books_of_Kings|1 Kings 18-22]]). When Ishmael first encounters the name he responds "When that wicked king was slain, the dogs, did they not lick his blood?" (''Moby-Dick'', Chapter 16) The character Elijah (the namesake of the [[prophet#Prophets in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible)|Biblical prophet]], [[Elijah]], who portends Ahab's fate) warns Ishmael and Queequeg that by signing on to Ahab's ship they have effectively signed away their [[soul]]s. Ahab ultimately dies over his obsession to kill Moby Dick.


===Moby-Dick===
===Moby Dick===
Moby Dick is a [[mottled]] (with a white hump) [[sperm whale]] of extraordinary ferocity, but is also possessed of ineffable strength, mystery, and power. The color white is explored in the chapter "The Whiteness of the Whale". It calls into question the meaning of the chapters on [[cetology]]. The symbolism of the whale is not clear; many things, including nature, providence, fate, and even [[God]], have been suggested.
Moby Dick is a [[mottle]]d [[sperm whale]] with a white hump, of extraordinary ferocity and size, but is also possessed of ineffable strength, mystery, and power. The color white is explored in the chapter "The Whiteness of the Whale". It calls into question the meaning of the chapters on [[cetology]]. The symbolism of the whale is not clear; many things, including nature, providence, fate, and even [[God]], have been suggested.


Melville spelled the whale's name without a hyphen, but in the title of the first edition a hyphen is present.
Melville spelled the whale's name without a hyphen, but included one in the book's title.

In popular culture, Moby Dick is often depicted as being an albino whale.


===Mates===
===Mates===
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Starbuck is alone among the crew in objecting to Ahab's quest, declaring it [[Insanity|madness]] to want [[revenge]] on an animal that lacks [[reason|the capacity to understand such human concepts.]] Starbuck advocates continuing the more mundane pursuit of whales for their oil. He lacks the support of the crew in his opposition to Ahab, and is unable to persuade them to turn back. Despite his misgivings, he feels himself bound by his obligations to obey the captain.
Starbuck is alone among the crew in objecting to Ahab's quest, declaring it [[Insanity|madness]] to want [[revenge]] on an animal that lacks [[reason|the capacity to understand such human concepts.]] Starbuck advocates continuing the more mundane pursuit of whales for their oil. He lacks the support of the crew in his opposition to Ahab, and is unable to persuade them to turn back. Despite his misgivings, he feels himself bound by his obligations to obey the captain.


Starbuck was an important [[Quaker]] family name on [[Nantucket Island]], and there were several actual whalers of this period named Starbuck, as evidenced by the name of [[Starbuck Island]] in the southern Pacific whaling grounds.
Starbuck was an important [[Quaker]] family name on [[Nantucket Island]], and there were several actual whalers of this period named Starbuck, as evidenced by the name of [[Starbuck Island]] in the southern Pacific whaling grounds. The coffeehouse chain, [[Starbucks]], is named after him.


'''Stubb''' is the second mate of the ''Pequod'', who always seems to have a pipe in his mouth and a smile on his face. "Good-humored, easy, and careless, he presided over his whaleboat as if the most deadly encounter were but a dinner, and his crew all invited guests." (''Moby-Dick'', Ch. 27)
'''Stubb''' is the second mate of the ''Pequod'', who always seems to have a pipe in his mouth and a smile on his face. "Good-humored, easy, and careless, he presided over his whaleboat as if the most deadly encounter were but a dinner, and his crew all invited guests." (''Moby-Dick'', Ch. 27)
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'''Fedallah''' is the harpooner on Ahab's own boat. He is of [[India|Indian]] [[Zoroastrian]] ("[[Parsi]]") descent. Due to descriptions of him having lived in China, he probably might be among the great wave of [[Parsi]] traders that made their way to [[Hong Kong]] and the far east during the mid 19th century. At the time when the ''Pequod'' sets sail, Fedallah is hidden on board, and he emerges with the boat's crew later on, to the surprise of the crew. Fedallah is often referred to in the text as Ahab's 'Dark Shadow.'
'''Fedallah''' is the harpooner on Ahab's own boat. He is of [[India|Indian]] [[Zoroastrian]] ("[[Parsi]]") descent. Due to descriptions of him having lived in China, he probably might be among the great wave of [[Parsi]] traders that made their way to [[Hong Kong]] and the far east during the mid 19th century. At the time when the ''Pequod'' sets sail, Fedallah is hidden on board, and he emerges with the boat's crew later on, to the surprise of the crew. Fedallah is often referred to in the text as Ahab's 'Dark Shadow.'
:[T]all and swart, with one white tooth evilly protruding from its steel-like lips. A rumpled Chinese jacket of black cotton funereally invested him, with wide black trowsers of the same dark stuff. But strangely crowning this ebonness was a glistening white plaited turban, the living hair braided and coiled round and round upon his head.<br> — ''Moby-Dick'', Ch.48
:[T]all and swart, with one white tooth evilly protruding from its steel-like lips. A rumpled Chinese jacket of black cotton funereally invested him, with wide black trowsers of the same dark stuff. But strangely crowning this ebonness was a glistening white plaited turban, the living hair braided and coiled round and round upon his head.<br> — ''Moby-Dick'', Ch.48

=== And a few others ===

'''Pip''' (nicknamed "Pippin," but "Pip" for short) is an African-American ("negro") boy from [[Tolland County]], [[Connecticut]] who is "the most insignificant of the Pequod's crew". Because he is physically slight, he is made a ship-keeper, i.e., a sailor who stays in the whaler to keep it going while its hunting boats go out. Ishmael contrasts him with the "dull and torpid in his intellects"—and white—Dough-Boy, describing Pip as "over tender-hearted" but "at bottom very bright, with that pleasant, genial, jolly brightness peculiar to his tribe". Ishmael goes so far as so chastise the reader: "Nor smile so, while I write that this little black was brilliant, for even blackness has its brilliancy; behold yon lustrous ebony, panelled in king's cabinets."<ref name ="The Castaway">All quotes are taken from Chapter 93, "The Castaway".</ref>

The after-oarsman on Stubb's boat becomes injured, though, so Pip is reassigned to Stubb's hunting crew. The first couple of times out, Pip does not acquit himself well, in fact causing Stubb and Tashtego to lose a whale. Tashtego and the rest of the crew are furious; Stubb chides him "officially" and "unofficially". Stubb even raises the specter of slavery: "a whale would sell for thirty times what you would, Pip, in Alabama". When he goes out again, Pip jumps overboard and is left stranded in the "awful lonesomeness" of the sea while Stubb's and the others' boats are dragged along by their harpooned whales. By the time he is rescued, he has become (at least to the other sailors) "an idiot", "mad". Ishmael, however, thinks Pip has had a mystical experience, "So man's insanity is heaven's sense." Pip and his experience are so crucial because they serve as adumbration, in Ishmael's words "providing the sometimes madly merry and predestinated craft with a living and ever accompanying prophecy of whatever shattered sequel might prove her own."<ref name="The Castaway"/>

'''The crew as a whole''' is exceedingly international, reflecting the makeup of both the U.S. and the world population. Chapter 40, "Midnight, Forecastle," highlights, in its stage-play style, the striking variety in the sailors' origins. A partial list of the speakers includes sailors from France, Iceland, Holland, the Azores, Sicily and Malta (Italy), China, Denmark, Portugal, India, England, Spain, and Ireland. Considering that this variety is in only one part of the ship—the forecastle—there is no telling how many other nationalities are on board.

==Critical reception==
=== Melville's expectations ===
In a letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne written within days of ''Moby-Dick's'' American publication, Melville made a number of revealing comments:

<blockquote>... for not one man in five cycles, who is wise, will expect appreciative recognition from his fellows, or any one of them. Appreciation! Recognition! Is [[Jove]] appreciated? Why, ever since Adam, who has got to the meaning of his great allegory—the world? Then we pigmies must be content to have our paper allegories but ill comprehended. I say your appreciation is my glorious gratuity.<ref>Melville, Herman. ''Correspondence'', ed. by Lynn Horth. Evanston, IL and Chicago: Northwestern University Press and The Newberry Library (1993), 212. Paperback ISBN 0-8101-0995-6. Horth tentatively dates the letter November 17, 1851.</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>A sense of unspeakable security is in me this moment, on account of your understanding the book. I have written a wicked book, and feel spotless as the lamb. Ineffable sociabilities are in me. I would sit down and dine with you and all the gods in old Rome's Pantheon. It is a strange feeling—no hopefulness is in it, no despair. Content—that is it; and irresponsibility; but without licentious inclination. I speak now of my profoundest sense of being, not of an incidental feeling.<ref>''Correspondence'', 212.</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>You did not care a penny for the book. But, now and then as you read, you understood the pervading thought that impelled the book—and that you praised. Was it not so? You were archangel enough to despise the imperfect body, and embrace the soul.<ref>''Correspondence'', 212-213.</ref></blockquote>

=== Contemporary ===
''Moby-Dick'' received decidedly mixed reviews from critics at the time it was published. Since the book first appeared in England, the American literary establishment took note of what the English critics said, especially when these critics were attached to the more prestigious journals. Although many critics praised it for its unique style, interesting characters and poetic language [http://www.melville.org/hmmoby.htm#Contemporary], others agreed with a critic for the highly regarded ''London Athenaeum'', who described it as
:"[A]n ill-compounded mixture of romance and matter-of-fact. The idea of a connected and collected story has obviously visited and abandoned its writer again and again in the course of composition. The style of his tale is in places disfigured by mad (rather than bad) English; and its catastrophe is hastily, weakly, and obscurely managed".[http://www.melville.org/hmmoby.htm#Contemporary]

The problem was that Peter Bentley botched the English edition, most significantly in leaving out the epilogue. For this reason, many of the critics faulted the book on what little they could grasp of it, namely its purely formal grounds: after all, how could the tale have been told if no one survived to tell it? Thus the generally bad reviews from across the ocean made American readers skittish about picking up the tome.

Still, a handful of American critics saw much more in it than most of their U.S. and English colleagues. Perhaps the most perceptive review came from the pen of Evert Duyckinck, who was the friend of Melville who introduced him to Hawthorne.

=== Underground ===
Within a year after Melville's death, ''Moby-Dick'', along with ''Typee'', ''[[Omoo]]'', and ''[[Mardi]]'', was reprinted by Harper & Brothers, giving it a chance to be rediscovered. However, only New York's literary underground seemed to take much interest, just enough to keep Melville's name circulating for the next 25 years in the capital of American publishing. During this time, a few critics were willing to devote time, space, and a modicum of praise to Melville and his works, or at least those that could still be fairly easily obtained or remembered. Other works, especially the poetry, went largely forgotten.[http://www.bartleby.com/187/5.html]

Then came [[World War I]] and its consequences, particularly the shaking or destruction of faith in so many aspects of Western civilization, all of which caused people concerned with culture and its potential redemptive value to experiment with new aesthetic techniques. The stage was set for Melville to find his place.

=== The Melville Revival ===

With the burgeoning of Modernist aesthetics (see [[Modernism]] and [[American modernism]]) and the war that tore everything apart still so fresh in memory, ''Moby-Dick'' began to seem increasingly relevant. Not only did many of Melville's techniques echo those of Modernism: kaleidoscopic, hybrid in genre and tone, monumentally ambitious in trying to unite so many disparate elements and loose ends. His new readers also found in him an almost too-profound exploration of violence, hunger for power, quixotic goals, and reckless disregard for the fate of one's fellows. Although many critics of this time still considered ''Moby-Dick'' extremely difficult to come to grips with, they largely saw this lack of easy understanding as an asset rather than a liability.{{Fact|date=May 2007}}

In 1917, American author [[Carl Van Doren]] became the first of this period to proselytize about Melville's value.{{Fact|date=May 2007}}

In the 1920s, British literary critics began to take notice. In his idiosyncratic but landmark ''[[Studies in Classic American Literature]]'', novelist, poet, and short story writer [[D. H. Lawrence]] directed Americans' attention to the great originality and value of many American authors, among them Melville. Perhaps most surprising is that Lawrence saw ''Moby-Dick'' as a work of the first order despite his using the original English edition. [http://www.bartleby.com/187/5.html]

In his 1921 study, ''The American Novel'', [[Carl Van Doren]] returns to Melville with much more depth. Here he calls ''Moby-Dick'' a pinnacle of American Romanticism.[http://www.bartleby.com/187/5.html]

=== Post-Revival ===
The next great wave of ''Moby-Dick'' appraisal came with the publication of [[F. O. Matthiessen]]'s ''[[American Renaissance (literature)|American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman]]''.<ref>Selby, Nick, author and editor. ''Herman Melville, Moby-Dick'' (Columbia Critical Guides series). New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. pp. 51-52. ISBN 0-231-11538-5.</ref> Published in 1941, the book proposed that Emerson, Whitman, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Melville were the most prominent figures of a flowering of conflicted (and mostly ''pre''-Civil War) literature important for its promulgation of democracy and the exploration of its possibilities, successes, and failures. Since Matthiessen's book came out shortly before the entry of the U.S. into [[World War II]], the end of which found the U.S. in possession of the [[atomic bomb]] and thus a superpower, critic Nick Selby argues that
:… ''Moby-Dick'' was now read as a text that reflected the power struggles of a world concerned to uphold democracy, and of a country seeking an identity for itself within that world.<ref>Selby, 53.</ref>

=== Current ===


==Selected Adaptations==
==Selected Adaptations==
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* [[Moby Dick (TV movie)|''Moby Dick'']], a 1998 television movie starring [[Patrick Stewart]] as Ahab and [[Gregory Peck]] as Father Mapple (a [[Golden Globe]]-winning performance) ([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120756/ IMDb link])
* [[Moby Dick (TV movie)|''Moby Dick'']], a 1998 television movie starring [[Patrick Stewart]] as Ahab and [[Gregory Peck]] as Father Mapple (a [[Golden Globe]]-winning performance) ([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120756/ IMDb link])


==Popular Culture==
==''Moby-Dick'' in popular culture==
''For a complete listing of adaptations and cultural references, see:'' {{Main|Moby-Dick in Popular Culture}}
In the book, [[first mate]] Starbuck never makes or has anything to do with [[coffee]]; the closest he gets is during a [[gam]] with a desperate German captain, who, due to a disastrous time at sea, brings with him a container to the Pequod with which to receive [[sperm oil]]. As the crew see the captain approach, they remark:

:"What has he in his hand there?" cried Starbuck, pointing to something wavingly held by the German. "Impossible!--a lamp-feeder!"

:"Not that," said Stubb, "no, no, it's a coffee-pot, Mr. Starbuck; he's coming off to make us our coffee, is the Yarman; don't you see that big tin can there alongside of him?--that's his boiling water. Oh! he's all right, is the Yarman."

:"Go along with you," cried Flask, "it's a lamp-feeder and an oil-can. He's out of oil, and has come a-begging."<br> — ''Moby-Dick'', Ch. 81




==Notes==
==Notes==
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* Online texts
* Online texts
** {{gutenberg|no=2701|name=Moby-Dick}}
** {{gutenberg|no=2701|name=Moby-Dick}}
** [http://books.google.com/books?&id=cyokAAAAMAAJ ''Moby-Dick; or, The Wale''] (1892). Boston: L.C. Page & Company. From [[Google Books]], scanned book.
** [http://books.google.com/books?&id=cyokAAAAMAAJ ''Moby-Dick; or, The White Whale''] (1892). Boston: L.C. Page & Company. From [[Google Books]], scanned book.
** [http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=moby%20dick%20AND%20mediatype%3Atexts ''Moby-Dick; or, The Wale'' in 2 volumes] (1922). London: Constable. From [[Internet Archive]], scanned book.
** [http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=moby%20dick%20AND%20mediatype%3Atexts ''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' in 2 volumes] (1922). London: Constable. From [[Internet Archive]], scanned book.
** [http://www.online-literature.com/melville/mobydick/ ''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale''], from The Literature Network, with search features.
** [http://www.online-literature.com/melville/mobydick/ ''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale''], from The Literature Network, with search features.
** [http://www.amlit.com/mobydick/chap0.html ''Moby Dick; or, The Whale''], clean text HTML version.
** [http://www.amlit.com/mobydick/chap0.html ''Moby Dick; or, The Whale''], clean text HTML version.
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Revision as of 05:49, 1 June 2007

For other uses see Moby-Dick in popular culture
Moby-Dick
Title page, first edition of Moby-Dick
AuthorHerman Melville
Original titleThe Whale
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreAdventure novel, Epic, Sea story
PublisherRichard Bentley
Publication date
18 October 1851
Media typePrint (Hardback and Paperback)
ISBNNA Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character

Moby-Dick[1] is an 1851 novel by Herman Melville. The novel describes the voyage of the whaling ship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab, who leads his crew on a hunt for the great whale Moby Dick. The book's language is highly symbolic, and many themes run throughout the work. The narrator's reflections, along with complex descriptions of the grueling work of whaling and the personalities of his shipmates, are woven into a profound meditation on society, nature, and the human struggle for meaning, happiness, and salvation. Moby-Dick is often considered the epitome of American Romanticism. The novel frequently employs Shakespearean devices, including formal stage directions and extended soliloquies and asides.

The novel was first published by Richard Bentley in London on October 18 1851 in an expurgated three-volume edition entitled The Whale, and then, in one massive volume, by New York City's Harper and Brothers as Moby-Dick; or, The Whale on November 14 1851. The first line of Chapter One—"Call me Ishmael."—is one of the most famous in literature. Although the book initially received mostly negative reviews, Moby-Dick is now considered one of the greatest novels in the English language and has secured Melville's reputation in the first rank of American writers.

Historical background

Moby-Dick appeared in 1851, one year after Melville's good friend and neighbor Nathaniel Hawthorne published his bestseller The Scarlet Letter and one year before Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life among the Lowly appeared and caused such a stir that only the Bible would top it as the bestselling American book of the 19th century.

Two actual events inspired Melville's tale. One was the sinking of the Nantucket whaling ship Essex, which foundered in 1820 after it was attacked by an 80-ton sperm whale 2,000 miles (3,700 km) from the western coast of South America. First mate Owen Chase, one of eight survivors, recorded the events in his 1821 Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex. Already out-of-print, the book was rare even at the time.[2] Knowing that his son-in law was looking for it, Lemuel Shaw managed to find a copy and buy it for him. When Melville received it, he fell to it almost immediately, heavily annotating it.[3]

The other event was the killing in the 1830s of the albino sperm whale Mocha Dick, a name derived from his home in the waters off the Chilean island of Mocha. Riddled with dozens of harpoons from his numerous escapes from whalers, Mocha Dick often attacked ships with premeditated ferocity. One of his battles with a whaler served as subject for an article by Jeremiah N. Reynolds[4] in The Knickerbocker, New York Monthly Magazine, which Melville would likely have come across through his literary connections or during his time in New York City.[citation needed] Significantly, Reynolds writes a first-person narration that serves as a frame for the story of a whaling captain he meets. The captain resembles Ahab and suggests a possible symbolism for whales in that, when his crew first encounters Mocha Dick and cowers from him, the captain rallies them thus: "'"Mocha Dick or the d----l [devil]," said I, "this boat never sheers off from any thing that wears the shape of a whale."'"[5] However, it has also been suggested [citation needed] that knowledge of Mocha Dick came to Melville in 1846 when he bumped into his old friend and shipmate Richard Tobias "Toby" Green (the model for Toby in Typee).

The most important inspiration for the novel was Melville's experiences as a sailor, in particular those during 1841-1842 on the whaler Acushnet. He had already drawn on his different sailing experiences in previous novels—Mardi the closest to Moby-Dick in its symbolic or allegorical aspirations—but he had never focused specifically on whaling.

The novel contains large chunks—most of them narrated by Ishmael—that seemingly have nothing to do with the plot but describe aspects of the whaling business. Melville believed that no book up to that time had portrayed the whaling industry in as fascinating or immediate a way as he had experienced it. Since Romantics such as Sir Walter Scott, Washington Irving, Lord Byron, and Mary Shelley had greatly influenced him from an early age, he hoped to emulate them with a book that was compelling and vivid both emotionally and poetically. Early Romantics also proposed that fiction was the exemplary way to describe and record history (after all, Walter Scott had invented the historical novel, and almost all of Irving's work had the trappings of history), so Melville wanted to craft something educational and definitive. However, despite his own interest in the subject, Melville at least pretended[citation needed] to struggle with it, writing to Richard Henry Dana on May 1 1850:

I am half way in the work ... It will be a strange sort of book, tho', I fear; blubber is blubber you know; tho' you might get oil out of it, the poetry runs as hard as sap from a frozen maple tree; — and to cool the thing up, one must needs throw in a little fancy, which from the nature of the thing, must be ungainly as the gambols of the whales themselves. Yet I mean to give the truth of the thing, spite of this.[6]

Major themes

Moby-Dick is a highly symbolic work, and is interesting in that it also addresses issues such as natural history. Other themes include racism, hierarchical relationships, and politics.

Symbolism

All of the members of the Pequod's crew have biblical-sounding, improbable or descriptive names, and the narrator deliberately avoids specifying the exact time of the events and some other similar details. These together suggest that perhaps we should understand the narrator—and not just Melville—to be deliberately casting his tale in an epic and allegorical mode.

The white whale itself, for example, has been read as symbolically representative of good and evil, as has Ahab. The white whale has also been seen as a metaphor for the elements of life that are out of our control, or God.[citation needed]

The Pequod's quest to hunt down Moby-Dick itself is also widely viewed as allegorical. To Ahab, killing the whale becomes the ultimate goal in his life, and this observation can also be expanded allegorically so that the whale represents everyone's goals. Furthermore, his vengeance against the whale is analogous to man's struggle against fate. The only escape from Ahab's vision is seen through the Pequod's occasional encounters with other ships, called gams. Readers could consider what exactly Ahab will do if he, in fact, succeeds in his quest: having accomplished his ultimate goal, what else is there left for him to do? Similarly, Melville may be implying that people in general need something to reach for in life, or that such a goal can destroy one if allowed to overtake all other concerns. Some such things are hinted at early on in the book, when the main character, Ishmael, is sharing a cold bed with his newfound friend, Queequeg:

... truely to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more.
— Moby-Dick, Ch. 11

Ahab's pipe is widely looked upon as the riddance of happiness in Ahab's life. By throwing the pipe overboard, Ahab signifies that he no longer can enjoy simple pleasures in life; instead, he dedicates his entire life to the pursuit of his obsession, the killing of the white whale, Moby-Dick.

A number of biblical themes occur. The book contains multiple implicit and explicit allusions to the story of Jonah, in addition to the use of certain biblical names (see below).

Ishmael's musings also allude to themes common among the American Transcendentalists and parallel certain themes in European Romanticism and the philosophy of Hegel. In the poetry of Whitman and the prose writings of Emerson and Thoreau, a ship at sea is sometimes a metaphor for the soul.

Whale biology and ecology

Sections of the novel depart from the progression of the plot entirely and discuss at great length the biology and ecology of whales and related species. Many of the claims are inaccurate —- for example, Ishmael insists that the whale is a fish, although they had been classified as mammals for almost a century (which he acknowledges dismissively). The distinction is partly semantic and depends on grouping all warm-blooded mammals together, ignoring whether they live in the water or on land.

Plot summary

"Etymology" is the first of two prefaces of sorts. "Supplied by a late consumptive usher to a grammar school", the word origins are for whale. Not only are Classical, Romance, and Germanic languages featured but also the usually overlooked "Fegee" (Fiji) and "Erromangoan" (Erromanga). The second preface is "Extracts", excerpts on whales culled from numerous works by "a sub-sub-librarian". Listed mostly chronologically, the quotations come from fiction, poetry, plays, anonymous sea chanties, the Bible and other religious works, legal references, histories, scientific and naturalist treatises, biographies, economic studies, philosophical texts, travelogues, reading primers, etc. The range shows a number of ways of looking at whales and the people who hunt them and use them, from materialist to political to metaphysical. Only one of the extracts is authored by a woman.[7]

Then comes Chapter 1, "Loomings", when Ishmael, with a mixture of chattiness, seriousness, and humor, begins to talk to the reader about his temperament, the call of the sea, and his contention that every man wants at least once in his life to leave the land behind for the ocean.

Aiming to join a whaling crew, Ishmael heads for Nantucket, the older of the two U.S. centers of the whaling industry. Time problems force him to stop for the night in the newer, more powerful whaling center of New Bedford, Massachusetts. Lacking money, he lodges at the Spouter Inn. The innkeeper, Peter Coffin, puts him in a room with the mysterious tattooed cannibal Queequeg, a harpooner. The two quickly become fast friends; Ishmael even humorously calls the relationship a "marriage", and he joins Queequeg in worshipping his idol god.

The two decide to enlist together on the Pequod, a whaler owned by three captains: Peleg, Bildad, and Ahab. Ishmael and Queequeg have yet to meet their captain when they sign ship's articles, Queequeg drawing a peculiar mark identical to one of his tattoos. Soon enough they discover that Ahab is captain for this voyage, which Peleg and Bildad hope will reap a substantial financial windfall.

As the ship sets sail, other main characters are introduced: the three mates, Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask; and the three remaining harpooners, Dagoo, Tashtego, and Fedallah. For several days, though, an ill Ahab stays below decks, completely out of sight from the common sailors. Ahab finally emerges and plants himself on the quarter-deck, leading Ishmael to ponder his captain's missing leg and the ivory replacing it.

The extremely enigmatic Ahab broods and behaves erratically. He paces the deck, thudding his ivory heel. Stubb suggests that he dampen the sound, but Ahab, furious, calls him a dog. When Stubb objects to the insult, Ahab says, “Then be called ten times a donkey, and a mule, and an ass, and begone, or I’ll clear the world of thee!”

Ahab's eccentricities multiply and intensify. He throws his pipe off the ship. He asks his crew to yell more loudly if they spot a white whale. Then he tells the crew that a gold doubloon will go to the crewman who first spots a "white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked jaw". He then nails the coin to the ship's mast, saying, "God hath struck a cord on this here coin!"

It turns out Tashtego has heard of this white whale, which he says some call "Moby Dick". Starbuck reveals that Moby Dick took Captain Ahab’s leg. With pressure on him mounting, Ahab admits that for him the voyage of the Pequod has no other purpose than to have his vengeance on Moby Dick.

Over the course of the story, the reader is presented with numerous apparent digressions giving scenes and details of whales, the whaling industry, and everyday whaling life. These digressions—sometimes funny, sometimes eerie, and sometimes a combination—often shed light on the ocean of symbolisms and profundities Melville gathers, delves into, plays with, and sometimes strains to surface from. On the other hand, there is always a forward-driving adventure story highlighting various whale sightings, whale hunts, and encounters (again, sometimes spooky or humorous) with other whalers. The combination of more typical plot elements with many other exploratory and curious styles and registers allows Melville to encapsulate and expand on the localized and cosmic significances of a way of life already in decline.

Toward the end of the novel, the Pequod nears Moby Dick's territory and encounters the Rachel, the master of which quickly rows over to the Pequod. He begs Ahab for help in finding a whaling-crew lost in the previous day's hunt, a crew that includes the son of the Rachel captain. When Ahab hears that the whale involved in the crew's disappearance was Moby Dick, he flatly refuses to help the Rachel so he can take up his own search for the whale.

The journey comes to its dramatic and tragic end when the Pequod, sailing despite dark portents, sights Moby Dick. For three long days the ship battles the white whale. Moby Dick shatters the Pequod’s hunting boats and then charges the ship itself, sinking it. Ahab and all the crew drown except for Ishmael, who uses the coffin Queequeg built for himself as a buoy. By pure luck, the still-searching Rachel sails by and rescues Ishmael.

Characters in Moby-Dick

The crew-members of the Pequod are carefully drawn stylizations of human types and habits; critics have often described the crew as a "self-enclosed universe".

Ishmael

Main article: Ishmael (Moby-Dick)

In the novel's first sentence, the narrator famously declares, "Call me Ishmael." It is unclear whether this is his actual name or an alias. His role as a narrator varies widely. Initially, his is the only narrative, but after the Pequod leaves port, he repeatedly fades and comes back to full prominence.

The name 'Ishmael' also appears in the Bible as that of the first son of Abraham in the Old Testament. The biblical Ishmael was born to Abraham and his wife's (Sarah) maidservant Hagar, because Abraham and Sarah believed Sarah to be infertile. Hagar gave birth to son Ishmael, then 14 years later 90 year old Sarah was granted a son (Isaac) by God. Sarah was jealous of Hagar and urged Abraham to expel Hagar and her son Ishmael. This proposal upset Abraham; but God commanded him to comply with Sarah's request and so Abraham ordered Hagar and Ishmael to leave.

The name has come to symbolize orphans, exiles, and social outcasts—in the opening paragraph of Moby-Dick, Ishmael tells the reader that he has turned to the sea out of a feeling of alienation from human society. In the last line of the book Ishmael also refers to himself symbolically as an orphan. Ishmael has a rich literary background (he has previously been a schoolteacher), which he brings to bear on his shipmates and events that occur while at sea.

Ishmael resembles Melville in several ways (as well as the narrator of Melville's White-Jacket). They are well-educated and reflective; Ishmael sees his shipmates as avatars of human nature and society, and tells his story by couching it in a wealth of philosophical observation, (largely occurring during sections in which Ishmael takes an almost-omniscient viewpoint, conflating himself with his author).

Ahab

Ahab is the tyrannical captain of the Pequod who is driven by a monomaniacal desire to kill Moby Dick, the whale to whom he lost his leg. Ahab believes he is fated to kill Moby Dick, and lives for this purpose alone. Ahab's name comes directly from the Bible (see 1 Kings 18-22). When Ishmael first encounters the name he responds "When that wicked king was slain, the dogs, did they not lick his blood?" (Moby-Dick, Chapter 16) The character Elijah (the namesake of the Biblical prophet, Elijah, who portends Ahab's fate) warns Ishmael and Queequeg that by signing on to Ahab's ship they have effectively signed away their souls. Ahab ultimately dies over his obsession to kill Moby Dick.

Moby Dick

Moby Dick is a mottled sperm whale with a white hump, of extraordinary ferocity and size, but is also possessed of ineffable strength, mystery, and power. The color white is explored in the chapter "The Whiteness of the Whale". It calls into question the meaning of the chapters on cetology. The symbolism of the whale is not clear; many things, including nature, providence, fate, and even God, have been suggested.

Melville spelled the whale's name without a hyphen, but included one in the book's title.

In popular culture, Moby Dick is often depicted as being an albino whale.

Mates

Starbuck, the young first mate of the Pequod, is a thoughtful and intellectual Quaker.

Uncommonly conscientious for a seaman, and endued with a deep natural reverence, the wild watery loneliness of his life did therefore strongly incline him to superstition; but to that sort of superstition, which in some organization seems rather to spring, somehow, from intelligence than from ignorance... [H]is far-away domestic memories of his young Cape wife and child, tend[ed] to bend him ... from the original ruggedness of his nature, and open him still further to those latent influences which, in some honest-hearted men, restrain the gush of dare-devil daring, so often evinced by others in the more perilous vicissitudes of the fishery. "I will have no man in my boat," said Starbuck, "who is not afraid of a whale." By this, he seemed to mean, not only that the most reliable and useful courage was that which arises from the fair estimation of the encountered peril, but that an utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward.
— Moby-Dick, Ch. 26

Starbuck is alone among the crew in objecting to Ahab's quest, declaring it madness to want revenge on an animal that lacks the capacity to understand such human concepts. Starbuck advocates continuing the more mundane pursuit of whales for their oil. He lacks the support of the crew in his opposition to Ahab, and is unable to persuade them to turn back. Despite his misgivings, he feels himself bound by his obligations to obey the captain.

Starbuck was an important Quaker family name on Nantucket Island, and there were several actual whalers of this period named Starbuck, as evidenced by the name of Starbuck Island in the southern Pacific whaling grounds. The coffeehouse chain, Starbucks, is named after him.

Stubb is the second mate of the Pequod, who always seems to have a pipe in his mouth and a smile on his face. "Good-humored, easy, and careless, he presided over his whaleboat as if the most deadly encounter were but a dinner, and his crew all invited guests." (Moby-Dick, Ch. 27)

Flask is the third mate of the Pequod.

A short, stout, ruddy young fellow, very pugnacious concerning whales, who somehow seemed to think that the great Leviathans had personally and hereditarily affronted him; and therefore it was a sort of point of honor with him, to destroy them whenever encountered.
— Moby-Dick, Ch. 27

Harpooners

Queequeg is a savage cannibal from a fictional island in the South Seas, and is the son of the chief of his tribe. He befriends Ishmael in New Bedford, Massachusetts before they leave port. Queequeg is a skilled harpooner on Starbuck's boat. He exhibits both civilized and savage behavior.

Tashtego is described as a savage, a Native American harpooner. The personification of the hunter, he has turned from hunting land animals to hunting whales. Tashtego is the harpooner on Stubb's harpoon boat.

Daggoo is a gigantic African harpooner with a noble bearing and grace, on Flask's harpoon boat.

Fedallah is the harpooner on Ahab's own boat. He is of Indian Zoroastrian ("Parsi") descent. Due to descriptions of him having lived in China, he probably might be among the great wave of Parsi traders that made their way to Hong Kong and the far east during the mid 19th century. At the time when the Pequod sets sail, Fedallah is hidden on board, and he emerges with the boat's crew later on, to the surprise of the crew. Fedallah is often referred to in the text as Ahab's 'Dark Shadow.'

[T]all and swart, with one white tooth evilly protruding from its steel-like lips. A rumpled Chinese jacket of black cotton funereally invested him, with wide black trowsers of the same dark stuff. But strangely crowning this ebonness was a glistening white plaited turban, the living hair braided and coiled round and round upon his head.
— Moby-Dick, Ch.48

And a few others

Pip (nicknamed "Pippin," but "Pip" for short) is an African-American ("negro") boy from Tolland County, Connecticut who is "the most insignificant of the Pequod's crew". Because he is physically slight, he is made a ship-keeper, i.e., a sailor who stays in the whaler to keep it going while its hunting boats go out. Ishmael contrasts him with the "dull and torpid in his intellects"—and white—Dough-Boy, describing Pip as "over tender-hearted" but "at bottom very bright, with that pleasant, genial, jolly brightness peculiar to his tribe". Ishmael goes so far as so chastise the reader: "Nor smile so, while I write that this little black was brilliant, for even blackness has its brilliancy; behold yon lustrous ebony, panelled in king's cabinets."[8]

The after-oarsman on Stubb's boat becomes injured, though, so Pip is reassigned to Stubb's hunting crew. The first couple of times out, Pip does not acquit himself well, in fact causing Stubb and Tashtego to lose a whale. Tashtego and the rest of the crew are furious; Stubb chides him "officially" and "unofficially". Stubb even raises the specter of slavery: "a whale would sell for thirty times what you would, Pip, in Alabama". When he goes out again, Pip jumps overboard and is left stranded in the "awful lonesomeness" of the sea while Stubb's and the others' boats are dragged along by their harpooned whales. By the time he is rescued, he has become (at least to the other sailors) "an idiot", "mad". Ishmael, however, thinks Pip has had a mystical experience, "So man's insanity is heaven's sense." Pip and his experience are so crucial because they serve as adumbration, in Ishmael's words "providing the sometimes madly merry and predestinated craft with a living and ever accompanying prophecy of whatever shattered sequel might prove her own."[8]

The crew as a whole is exceedingly international, reflecting the makeup of both the U.S. and the world population. Chapter 40, "Midnight, Forecastle," highlights, in its stage-play style, the striking variety in the sailors' origins. A partial list of the speakers includes sailors from France, Iceland, Holland, the Azores, Sicily and Malta (Italy), China, Denmark, Portugal, India, England, Spain, and Ireland. Considering that this variety is in only one part of the ship—the forecastle—there is no telling how many other nationalities are on board.

Critical reception

Melville's expectations

In a letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne written within days of Moby-Dick's American publication, Melville made a number of revealing comments:

... for not one man in five cycles, who is wise, will expect appreciative recognition from his fellows, or any one of them. Appreciation! Recognition! Is Jove appreciated? Why, ever since Adam, who has got to the meaning of his great allegory—the world? Then we pigmies must be content to have our paper allegories but ill comprehended. I say your appreciation is my glorious gratuity.[9]

A sense of unspeakable security is in me this moment, on account of your understanding the book. I have written a wicked book, and feel spotless as the lamb. Ineffable sociabilities are in me. I would sit down and dine with you and all the gods in old Rome's Pantheon. It is a strange feeling—no hopefulness is in it, no despair. Content—that is it; and irresponsibility; but without licentious inclination. I speak now of my profoundest sense of being, not of an incidental feeling.[10]

You did not care a penny for the book. But, now and then as you read, you understood the pervading thought that impelled the book—and that you praised. Was it not so? You were archangel enough to despise the imperfect body, and embrace the soul.[11]

Contemporary

Moby-Dick received decidedly mixed reviews from critics at the time it was published. Since the book first appeared in England, the American literary establishment took note of what the English critics said, especially when these critics were attached to the more prestigious journals. Although many critics praised it for its unique style, interesting characters and poetic language [1], others agreed with a critic for the highly regarded London Athenaeum, who described it as

"[A]n ill-compounded mixture of romance and matter-of-fact. The idea of a connected and collected story has obviously visited and abandoned its writer again and again in the course of composition. The style of his tale is in places disfigured by mad (rather than bad) English; and its catastrophe is hastily, weakly, and obscurely managed".[2]

The problem was that Peter Bentley botched the English edition, most significantly in leaving out the epilogue. For this reason, many of the critics faulted the book on what little they could grasp of it, namely its purely formal grounds: after all, how could the tale have been told if no one survived to tell it? Thus the generally bad reviews from across the ocean made American readers skittish about picking up the tome.

Still, a handful of American critics saw much more in it than most of their U.S. and English colleagues. Perhaps the most perceptive review came from the pen of Evert Duyckinck, who was the friend of Melville who introduced him to Hawthorne.

Underground

Within a year after Melville's death, Moby-Dick, along with Typee, Omoo, and Mardi, was reprinted by Harper & Brothers, giving it a chance to be rediscovered. However, only New York's literary underground seemed to take much interest, just enough to keep Melville's name circulating for the next 25 years in the capital of American publishing. During this time, a few critics were willing to devote time, space, and a modicum of praise to Melville and his works, or at least those that could still be fairly easily obtained or remembered. Other works, especially the poetry, went largely forgotten.[3]

Then came World War I and its consequences, particularly the shaking or destruction of faith in so many aspects of Western civilization, all of which caused people concerned with culture and its potential redemptive value to experiment with new aesthetic techniques. The stage was set for Melville to find his place.

The Melville Revival

With the burgeoning of Modernist aesthetics (see Modernism and American modernism) and the war that tore everything apart still so fresh in memory, Moby-Dick began to seem increasingly relevant. Not only did many of Melville's techniques echo those of Modernism: kaleidoscopic, hybrid in genre and tone, monumentally ambitious in trying to unite so many disparate elements and loose ends. His new readers also found in him an almost too-profound exploration of violence, hunger for power, quixotic goals, and reckless disregard for the fate of one's fellows. Although many critics of this time still considered Moby-Dick extremely difficult to come to grips with, they largely saw this lack of easy understanding as an asset rather than a liability.[citation needed]

In 1917, American author Carl Van Doren became the first of this period to proselytize about Melville's value.[citation needed]

In the 1920s, British literary critics began to take notice. In his idiosyncratic but landmark Studies in Classic American Literature, novelist, poet, and short story writer D. H. Lawrence directed Americans' attention to the great originality and value of many American authors, among them Melville. Perhaps most surprising is that Lawrence saw Moby-Dick as a work of the first order despite his using the original English edition. [4]

In his 1921 study, The American Novel, Carl Van Doren returns to Melville with much more depth. Here he calls Moby-Dick a pinnacle of American Romanticism.[5]

Post-Revival

The next great wave of Moby-Dick appraisal came with the publication of F. O. Matthiessen's American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman.[12] Published in 1941, the book proposed that Emerson, Whitman, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Melville were the most prominent figures of a flowering of conflicted (and mostly pre-Civil War) literature important for its promulgation of democracy and the exploration of its possibilities, successes, and failures. Since Matthiessen's book came out shortly before the entry of the U.S. into World War II, the end of which found the U.S. in possession of the atomic bomb and thus a superpower, critic Nick Selby argues that

… Moby-Dick was now read as a text that reflected the power struggles of a world concerned to uphold democracy, and of a country seeking an identity for itself within that world.[13]

Current

Selected Adaptations

For a complete listing of adaptations and cultural references, see:

Main article: Moby-Dick in Popular Culture

Film and television adaptations

Popular Culture

For a complete listing of adaptations and cultural references, see:

Main article: Moby-Dick in Popular Culture

Notes

  1. ^ The hyphen in the title is present in the original edition. See picture at upper right.
  2. ^ Beaver, Harold. "On the Composition of Moby-Dick" (1972), 17, in Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, ed. Harold Beaver. New York: Penguin (1972; reprint 1986), 17. ISBN 0-14-43082-2.
  3. ^ Beaver, 17.
  4. ^ Reynolds, J. N. "Mocha Dick, or The White Whale of the Pacific: A Leaf from a Manuscript Journal" (May, 1839), in Appendix to Moby-Dick, ed. Harold Beaver (op cit.). pp. 991-1,011.
  5. ^ Reynolds, J. N., 1,000.
  6. ^ Herman Melville, from Norton Critical Edition (2002), 532.
  7. ^ Smith, Elizabeth Oakes, The Drowned Mariner (1845), lines 1-5. See note 59, pg. 698, in Moby-Dick, ed. Harold Beaver.
  8. ^ a b All quotes are taken from Chapter 93, "The Castaway".
  9. ^ Melville, Herman. Correspondence, ed. by Lynn Horth. Evanston, IL and Chicago: Northwestern University Press and The Newberry Library (1993), 212. Paperback ISBN 0-8101-0995-6. Horth tentatively dates the letter November 17, 1851.
  10. ^ Correspondence, 212.
  11. ^ Correspondence, 212-213.
  12. ^ Selby, Nick, author and editor. Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (Columbia Critical Guides series). New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. pp. 51-52. ISBN 0-231-11538-5.
  13. ^ Selby, 53.

References

  • Hershel Parker and Harrison Hayford, ed. (2002). Moby Dick / Herman Melville. Norton Critical Edition. ISBN 0-393-97283-6

Editions

  • Melville, H., The Whale. London: Richard Bentley, 1851 3 vols. (viii, 312; iv, 303; iv, 328 pp.) Published October 18 1851.
  • Melville, H., Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1851. xxiii, 635 pages. Published probably on November 14 1851.
  • Melville, H. Moby-Dick, or The Whale. Northwestern–Newberry Edition of the Writings of Herman Melville 6. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern U. Press, 1988. A scholarly edition with full textual apparatus. This text has been reprinted in other editions.

External links

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