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"Moby-Dick," Melville's masterpiece, is one of the great epics in all of literature. Ahab's idolatrous hunt for the white whale drives the narrative at a relentless pace, while Ishmael's meditations on whales and whaling, the sublime indifference of nature, and the grimy physical details of whale-oil extraction provide a reflective counterpoint. Sometimes read as a terrifying study of monomania or as a critical inquiry into the sinister effects of reducing life to symbols, "Moby-Dick" also offers colorful and comic glimpses of life aboard a whaling ship. This second volume of Melville's complete prose in The Library of America also includes two other stories of the sea: "Redburn," which relates a young man's initiation into the sailor's life, and "White-Jacket," a semi-autobiographical account of experiences in the U.S. Navy. All three are presented in the authoritative Northwestern-Newberry texts. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Redburn and White-Jacket are well worth reading ....
.... before taking on Moby-Dick. This review is not intended to sway anybody towards getting this volume for Moby-Dick. The reputation of this novel as the greatest of American literature, and its role in any number of academic courses, will pretty much decide whether someone buys it. For the record, Moby-Dick fully lives up to its reputation as a great, sometimes difficult and rewarding book. My suggestion is that going through Redburn and White-Jacket will make reading through Moby-Dick more rewarding, and this volume makes an elegant combination of the three.

"Redburn" is a highly readable coming-of-age novel with a strong autobiographical component. The protagonists suffers repeatedly from inexperience on his trip across the Atlantic, finds crushing poverty in the port city of Liverpool and returns home rather beaten up and disillusioned. This story helped me get ready for the psychological struggles, as well as the gradually unfolding tragedy, of the major characters in Moby-Dick.

"White-Jacket" was longer and took more of a concentrated effort to get through, but is an even better preparation for Moby-Dick and is an outstanding novel in its own right. The novice onboard the merchant ship of Redburn is replaced by the quiet and pragmatic survivor White-Jacket, who serves on a U.S. Navy vessel. The ways of the Navy had been rather primitive and brutal by the standards at the time, and Melville rails against the favoritism and corporal punishment in extended passages. The cast of characters is notably larger in White-Jacket than Redburn, and appear to represent actual figures in Melville's past as a sailor (Redburn seemed far more constructed as pure fiction).

"Redburn" and "White-Jacket" are great books on their own, but in this volume they serve as complimentary lead-ins to the different dimensions of Moby-Dick. As with the other Library of America volumes I've read through, I benefited from going through the entire contents in order.

Moby-Dick, as my father once said, is one of the greatest novels ever written
Melville is one of the greatest American authors ever, and Moby-Dick alone is worth the price for this book. When I read the book myself in american literature, I was amazed at the extensive detail taken into the culture of whaling, a culture that was in its twilight days; it also gave us more information about whales that some think is too much, but whatever. Even though I didn't completely understand the book (but so did everything I read in high school), I have the desire to read it again.

Brilliant Presages of Moby-Dick
While White-Jacket seems to have little overall relation to Melville's other works in the sense that it appears as a self-contained, highly enjoyable novel, Redburn is one of those central turning points in thisgreat writer's life that makes it extraordinarily important.Forget"adventure" or "romance." This is a novel ofpsychological destruction, a disasterous novel of "growing up"that displays the shattering of a young mind and the destruction of"young America."Any reader who loves Moby-Dick should devourRedburn again and again as one of Melville's most important works.

The content was very exciting.
Complicated to absorb into your mind as you read along, due to the expert writing of this this material. I had to reread just about everything at least 5 times for it to make any sense at all.I'm in the 9th grade.Daniel Barclay-son of Paul ... Read more

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A collection of eight critical essays on Melville's novel "Moby Dick" arranged in chronological order of publication. ... Read more

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Melville's seafaring masterpiece is brought to stirring life in the pages of the Marvel Illustrated line! Young sailor Ishmael signs onto the whaling ship, Pequod. Soon, he comes to question his judgment as the vessel sets sail and he meets the strange crew sailing with him. Strangest of all is the mysterious Captain Ahab, whose obsession with the great white whale who once bit off his leg may lead them all to a watery doom! It's been called the Great American Novel. And they weren't kidding! Collects Marvel Illustrated: Moby Dick #1-6. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A Mixed Bag:Stalls in Places, But Adventurous Enough
However this experiment ends, you have to give Marvel kudos for attempting to make Moby-Dick a dramatically compelling and suspenseful story. The problem, though, is that the novel already is. You just have to have the 19th Century Romantic kind of bent to enjoy it, and, in this case, I think you've got to have the right kind of creative team to produce a great comic adaptation. Roy Thomas and Pascal Alexie are right there if all you're asking for is the surface adventure of Moby-Dick. The comic starts slow, so slowly that I put it down for a week or two before coming back to it. But I was determined to make the effort to read it. After twenty-two pages the adaptation picks up the story-telling, adventurous pace tremendously. But that 22-page stretch of cold might be a little too long for most folks. But I have to honestly give Roy Thomas credit for that. He keeps the pace of the original tale (as much as you can take a 500 page metaphorically explosive, thematically dense novel and turn it into a six-issue comic series. Another thing that works for this book is the inclusion of some of Melville's tough 19th Century language, and I'm not simply talking about the nautical terminology. For those who make it to the three-day hunt of Moby-Dick, they'll be well rewarded in both entertainment and learning. The great thing about this story is that the action and entertainment keeps picking up pace as the tale strings itself out, eventually getting to the frantic pace of a rope attached to a harpoon in whale's hide that's flying off the boat at 20 nauts a minute. Okay, I'm no sailor folks. That's probably illiterate. Let's just say:This story gets going fast, very fast and wonderfully speedy, towards the ¾ mark. As to the artwork, I'm no great fan of Pascal Alexie. His artwork is half comic realismo, half manga-ish (he's got a foot in several artistic camps); and he turns all of these characters into practically young men which doesn't work for Ahab, in particular. Ahab looks like a movie actor affecting high-style mod, and he's got some giant, jet-black eyebrows that use could use to sop up your extra milk with, I think. Yuck. I also don't like his highly stylized tattooing for Queequeg. What he's done is taken a cartography map's precise designs and stuck them just as precisely on Queequeg. It's not a wit realistic, and it's not native to any race or culture. So we get a modernly cool tatted-up Queequeg instead of anything slightly realistic and/or pertaining to Melville's character. All in all, this creative team barely gets the job done. Personally I'd like to see much more evocatively subtle work for a comic version of Moby-Dick, someone like Eddie Campbell, Bill Sienkiewicz, or Moebius. And the narrative would have to pick up more of the intellectual arguments that are part of the story. The problem is that Marvel is marketing this for a young, in-school audience (probably middle school age), so some of the most intellectually and philosophically fascinating aspects of the work (like Ishmael's opening statement that he is on a suicidal bent, substituting "taking to ship" for "pistol and ball" when he wants to, like Cato, "with a philosophical flourish, throw himself on his sword") cannot be touched upon. For it's target audience, I suppose Marvel's done well. But a truly Melvillian attempt at rendering Moby-Dick into comic form still awaits us.

An Epic Tail!!!
I have not enjoyed a graphic novel more so than this. Amazing art with an epic story rounds off this wonderful collection. Great for young minds too fearful of the classic books daunting page count and fun for those revisting the tale. I very much recommend this book!

Moby Dick
WARNING:The current discriptiion and ISBN are for Marvel Comics adaption of Moby Dick not the Spider-man Newspaper strips.Do not buy before this is corrected or you will receive the wrong item. ... Read more

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Nothingwill benefit

An irresistible guide to the meat you eat human health and increase the by the world's most fun and famous chances vegan.

Customer Reviews (8)

Relevant and Eye Opening
Thought prevoking essays from top experts on the true cost of animal product consumption. It's not just personal health that these products have an adverse effect upon. It the environment, workers, our economy and many other facets of our world. Definitely worth reading, but and also an excellent book to share with friends and family members who may not be aware of these issues.

Recommended reading for all who eat
I've read several books on the topic of animal farming, and this is the most accessible. I learned much from Gristle and it changed the way I think about my food choices. It's a beautifully designed and edited book, covering a broad range of issues and perspectives, with an introduction and epilogue that help connect the dots. Highly-recommended to all those who are interested in how our food choices affect public health, animal welfare, and environmental quality.

A must-read for anyone who....well, eats food.
The information in this book is simply necessary for anyone who EATS.

I love how compact it is, because it really helps folks who don't have a great deal of time or who would be intimidated by a thick tome to connect with the information. It's alsobeautifully organized and, considering how short it is, covers an awful lot of ground, in a readable, clear, interesting prose.

One reader review pooh poohed Gristle because its arguments were supposedly more about factory farming than animal products themselves. Once I read the book, though, I saw that most of the arguments do apply to smaller-scale farming, and that our large population, craving for these products, and limited farmland render any significant "manufacture" of animal products unsustainable and ethically suspect, a point I found interesting to ponder.

I highly recommend this book.

Polemic
This book is a ridiculously one-sided diatribe.I don't eat commercially-produced meat, so 90% of this book's claims don't apply.Read "Animal Factory," instead of this nonsense.

Environmental case against meat is disproven so this book is silly
Just as this book is hitting shelves, Scientists are finding that pastured cows might actually be good for the environment. There goes one of the arguments of this book for giving up meat. I guess at least if you think twice, think twice and eat grass-fed which this book seems to ignore even exists. It's like saying don't eat lettuce because industrial lettuce has had ecoli scares when there are organics at the farmers market that are safe. Well, there are safe meats at the farmers market too!

[...]. ... Read more

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All "Special Kindle Formatted" books are scanned to insure easy and smooth reading for customers. ... Read more

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The album-matching folio from this chart-topping electronica artist. Titles are: 10-7 * Bodyrock * Down Slow * Everloving * Find My Baby * Guitar Flute and String * Honey * If Things Were Perfect * Inside * Machete * My Weakness * Natural Blues * Porcelain * Run On * Rushing * South Side * The Sky Is Broken * Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad? ... Read more

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On a previous voyage, a mysterious white whale ripped off the leg Ahab, the sea captain of the Pequod. Driven by the desire for vengeance, Ahab takes his crew on a pursuit for the elusive, omnipotent, and ultimately mystifying white whale-Moby Dick. Brimming with facts, legend and trivia, this vivid documentary of life aboard a nineteenth-century whaler, will take us all on constant adventures and horrendous mishaps!Description in Spanish:En joven Ismael se alista como marinero en un ballenero junto a un arponero llamado Queequeg. Acab, el capitan del barco, esta obsesionado con la idea de capturar a Moby Dick, la ballena blanca a la que se habia enfrentado anos atras y que le habia hecho perder una pierna, aunque esa no seria la ultima batalla. ... Read more

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The American Novel series provides students of American literature with introductory critical guides to the great works of American fiction. Each volume begins with a substantial introduction by a distinguished authority on the text, giving details of the novel's composition, publication history, and contemporary reception, as well as a survey of the major critical trends and readings from first publication to the present. This overview is followed by a group of new essays, each specially commissioned from a leading scholar in the field, which together constitute a forum of interpretative methods and prominent contemporary ideas on the text. There are also helpful guides to further reading. Specifically designed for undergraduates, the series will be a powerful resource for anyone engaged in the critical analysis of major American novels. Moby-Dick may by America's most eccentric, inventive, and compelling work of fiction, yet in recent years it has received surprisingly little attention. This collection of essays, the first in over twenty years, attempts to reconnect Melville's great work with concerns that are central to readers now as well as to recent innovations in critical studies. Richard Brodhead introduces the volume with a discussion of the book's unique place in the canon of American literature.He then recounts the novel's history from its mixed reception in the mid-nineteenth century to its present status as a classic. The five essays that follow focus on various aspects of the novel: its vision of nature, its drama of social alienation, its religious defiance, and its splendid variety of language. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent Read
The editor has collected some of the most thought provoking essays that gives the reader a good introductory taste of the numerous layers and complexities of Melville's genius. The essays presented help a modern reader appreciate Melville's weighty work and why many debate that Moby Dick is the "great American novel". If you have time to only read one text on MD, then this is no waste.
-Mac ... Read more

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Moby Dick is the tale of one man's fatal obsession and his willingness to sacrifice his life and that of his crew to achieve his goal. The story follows the fortunes of Captain Ahab and the eccentric crew of a whaling ship, The Pequod. The ship is on its last voyage in pursuit of Moby Dick - the great white whale which wounded Ahab in the past is his quarry now. The battle with the elements, the sea, the dangerous confrontations of the whale hunts are embodied in the thrilling narration of the survivor Ishmael. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Moby Dick: An Ocean of Richness
Herman Melville's 1851 novel defies pat description. As myth, it explores the human condition through odd, larger-than-life characters and a consistent, rip-roaring sense of parody. As poetry, Melville ties disparate objects --rigging, an ivory leg, whale blubber, a diverse representation of humanity--into a unified whole, then smashes it to pieces through the great leviathan, Moby Dick, a parable of a complex, wonderful and infinitely dangerous God.

In a letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne, Melville called his book wicked, and I think Melville carried a genuine sense of guilt and reserve about his book through the remainder of his life. The book was provocative in its day, and the fun he pokes at Christendom bewildered his contemporaries. But this novel is Christian to the core, preaching the Golden Rule, lambasting hypocritical barbarism, and valuing of all God's creation. This includes the whale, whom as a man sensitive to animal suffering, Melville defends with great pathos and sympathy without succumbing to an unchristian-likecondemnation of the whaler who is, after all, behaving as the Almighty made him, if not as intended. Melville leaves final judgment to God alone.

The novel is dark comedy, and it's often ferociously funny. A memorable set piece is the early and sensational encounter between white Christian Ishmael, the omniscient narrator, and Queequeg, a heathen from the remote island of Kokovoko who, paradoxically to the American, "seemed taken of a spirit that would dare a thousand devils." Ishmael sees the humanity in the stranger, "Savage though he was"--and despite the tattoos--for as Ishmael the Christian can't help observing, "You cannot hide the soul." After fending off an axe attack, this white, 19th century whaler settles down for a night in bed with a brown islander, concluding its better to "sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian." This is said with a great deal of affection and tolerance. "I'll try a pagan friend, thought I, since Christian kindness has proved but a hollow courtesy," notes the protagonist. The following morning, Ishmael finds the island native's "arm thrown over me in the most loving and affectionate manner. You had almost thought I had been his wife," then proceeds to describe a tomahawk "sleeping by the savage's side, as if it were a hatchet-faced baby." They are a "cosy, living pair" now. After paying tribute to Queequeg's wooden idol with a Presbyterian's respect for a Christian God's will that is, after all, "to do to my fellow man what I would have my fellow man to do me," the unlikely newlyweds trot into society "with heart's honeymoon," as "bosom friends," attracting stares and tisks galore. It's very funny stuff, especially coming from a Victorian writer, who clearly is telling his fellow citizens just where to go--and where they're likely going.

Later Melville dives into deeper satire, painting a gorgeous and tragic portrait of the whale and its pathetic plight: one not unlike our own, as Melville reminds us. As mankind butchered these majestic beasts, "thousands of sharks, swarming round the dear Leviathan, smackingly feasted on its fatness ... scooping out huge globular pieces of the whale of the bigness of a human head." The crew can't resist feasting on these "fritters" themselves, although this "great prize ox of the sea" is "too fat to be deliciously good." The enterprise of extracting oil for lamplights, Melville says, is often unprofitable for its investors - a loose coalition of managers, widows and orphans - but the slaughter goes on nonetheless.

At the end of the novel, Melville launches his greatest ridicule, where white Christendom is exposed as its own worst enemy, and where the practice of Christianity, per se, stands in the way of Judeo-Christian benefits. "Now, there is this noteworthy difference between savage and civilized; what while a sick, civilized man may be six months convalescing, generally speaking, a sick savage is almost half-well within a day." Christians, when visiting Pacific islands, will drink from a ceremonial bowl as an uncouth guest drinks from a finger bowl, while pagans earn great value as harpooners and saviors in the West, and when the proverbial ship goes down, swirling into the infinite blackness of sea and death, Westerners cry out for their terminal lives, not believing, while pagans honorably accept their lot with a sense of fate, wisdom and courage.

This is because we Western folk don't practice our own beliefs, Melville is saying. This was blistering commentary then, as it is now, and because of the ironic and sarcastic packaging of his message, Melville can be easily misunderstood today. He is both politically incorrect and politically correct at the same time, and this books remains misunderstood and underappreciated to this day: as Jesus flipped over tables in the temple, Melville sets out to please no master except God, truth and justice. This book is a masterpiece, ending with passages of stunning and poetic complexity.

A few words on this abridged edition. Great Britain's Orion Books Ltd. has done a superb job of boiling the novel down to this page-turning, witty and lively narrative. I flew through the book for my third time in record time, a validation of the publisher's "In Half the Time" pitch. Important elements are missing, however, including the famous "whiteness of the whale" chapter. And some of the most beautiful passages in the novel, where Melville unleashes glorious defenses of the stricken whale, are given short shrift, leaving this edition a tad cold and ruthless--not Melville's intention. But the story shines through on the strength of Melville's prose, nonetheless, and Orion does a good job of preserving the novel's Shakespearean elements.

I would say this edition is ideal for the layman, harried reader or repeat reader--anyone who doesn't have the time or patience to plod through the unabridged version--but for the serious reader, I recommend the complete novel. One complete edition that I highly recommend is Bantam's Moby-Dick (Bantam Classics), which includes hilariously clueless reviews from Melville's contemporaries. These texts add an important and relevant context for the story. Would critics receive the novel with comparable naivety today, and would Moby-Dick even find a publisher in today's world of corporation-dominated publishing? Bantam includes D. H. Lawrence's breakout review, as well, wherein the English writer opines that Moby-Dick "commands a stillness in the soul, as awe.... [It is] one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world." And it is.

Although Moby-Dick may be the scourge of school age reading lists, it's great fun, and this edition is eminently readable. I recommend it.

My Titles
Shadow Fields
Snooker Glen ... Read more

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ReadHowYouWant publishes a wide variety of best selling books in Large and Super Large fonts in partnership with leading publishers. EasyRead books are available in 11pt and 13pt. type. EasyRead Large books are available in 16pt, 16pt Bold, and 18pt Bold type. EasyRead Super Large books are available in 20pt. Bold and 24pt. Bold Type. You choose the format that is right for you.

This is Volume Volume 1 of 2-Volume Set.To purchase the complete set, you will need to order the other volumes separately: to find them, search for the following ISBNs: 9781425047641

This is a classic adventurous novel by Herman Melville with metaphysical conjecture. The novel follows the experiences of the author in vast seas with the dramatic narration. A story of all-consuming obsession; everything about the book is whale-like in its vastness, its richness and its power. Captivating due to its philosophical depths!

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A world-famous classic novel is the basis for this brand-new, dramatically illustrated book. Transformed from Herman MelvilleÂ's original text into a graphic novel, this and other Graphic Classics editions make good introductions for young readers to the imaginative riches of literature. These books contain many extra features, including brief biographies of their authors, a list of each authorÂ's important works, a glossary, and an index. Suitable for classroom use as introductions to literature for junior and senior high school students, these graphic novels entertain young readers while introducing them to the works of renowned literary artists. Full-color illustrations throughout. This classic sea adventure tells the story of Captain Ahab, commander of the whaling ship Pequod, and his hunt for the mighty and ferocious white whale. ... Read more

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A masterpiece of storytelling and symbolic realism, this thrilling adventure and epic saga pits Ahab, a brooding sea captain, against the great white whale that crippled him. More than just the tale of a hair-raising voyage, Melville's riveting story passionately probes man's soul.A literary classic first published in 1851, Moby-Dick represents the ultimate human struggle.

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Customer Reviews (1)

fascinating work

This literary wonder has stood the test of time.It captivated me immediately and I couldnt wait to read each page.The language was a bit distracting at first, but then the words begin to sing like a song. ... Read more

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In Herman Melville's classic tale of revenge, Ishmael tells his story of becoming a whaler on the Pequod.When Ishmael and his unexpected friend Queequeg join Captain Ahab's hunt for Moby Dick, the voyage of a lifetime turns into tragedy.The adventures of sailing the seas on the hunt for the great white whale is retold in the Calico Illustrated Classics adaptation of Melville's Moby Dick. ... Read more

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Herman Melville's classic novel, first published in 1861. One of world literature's great poetic epics. Melville recounts the Promethean quest of Captain Ahab, who, having lost a leg in an earlier battle with the White Whale, is determined to catch the beast and destroy it. By the time readers meet Ahab, he is a vengeful, crazed, and terror-provoking figure, for Moby Dick has come to represent for him all the evil in the world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A classic to be read at least once
Moby Dick rightfully can lay claim to being one of the greatest American novels ever written. I think people should sit down and read this novel at least once in their life.

The novel, told through the eyes of the observant yet enigmatic Ishmael, follows the whaling adventures of the Pequod, a whaling ship captained by the strange and obsessive Captain Ahab. Ishmael and his harpooner friend, Queequeg, embark on the Pequod expecting the normal whaling adventures--but they get much more than they bargained for from Captain Ahab who is singularly obsessed with killing the mighty sperm whale, Moby Dick. What follows is a superbly crafted novel that deftly mixes high seas adventure with symbolism and philosophy.

Melville is a master at telling this story and his three main characters (Ishmael, Ahab and Queequeg) are finely developed and intriguing throughout. His particularly stunning portrayal of Ahab remains one of the great literary accomplishments. On the surface, this book is a fantastic adventure story with twists and turns that will leave first-time readers on the edge of their seats. Further readings will reveal the extensive symbolism and philosophical meanings hidden throughout the storyline.

The main distraction throughout the novel is the painstaking detail Melville pays to the whaling industry. He meticulously describes the last minute details of every single task on the ship. This can be quite annoying and tedious in places, though these parts are easily glossed over by those who are uninterested.

I think most people ought to read this book at least once. The surface level story is more than worthwhile the first time around. More serious readers will find further readings more fruitful as the deeper layers of Moby Dick are peeled away reading after reading. ... Read more

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First time in paperback: "A riveting traveler's adventure....Original, audacious, and exuberant-signature Severin." -New York Times.

Herman Melville's classic novel Moby-Dick immortalized the idea of a mammoth sperm whale roaming the seas, wreaking havoc on all that crossed its path. But could such a creature actually exist, then or now? To find out, the acclaimed adventure writer and explorer Tim Severin set off to the islands of the South Pacific in search of one of our most iconic modern myths. From the Marquesas Archipelago, where the twenty-one-year-old Melville deserted his whaling ship in 1842, through the Philippines, Tonga, and Indonesia, Severin follows a trail of ocean legend and lore to the last surviving islanders who hunt the great whale by hand, shadowing a victorious hunt from Stone Age boats and uncovering tantalizing evidence of the existence of a Great White Whale. In this captivating account of his voyage, Severin traces not only the origins of Melville's legendary literary creation but also something of the spiritual relationship between the islanders and the creatures of the sea, the hunter and his prey.Amazon.com Review
Historian and adventurer Tim Severin has made a career ofretracing epic voyages. He crossed the Atlantic inan open boat of stretched leather to test whether a sixth-centuryIrish monk could have made a fabled journey to North America, andlater explored the SpiceIslands of eastern Indonesia to see how the archipelago has"evolved" since 19th-century naturalist Alfred Wallace first surveyedit. The quest for the white whale, however, lands Severin in differentterritory: the shifting currents of fiction. Following tenuousevidence of pale sperm whales, Severin embarks for the South Pacificand the birthing grounds of Melville's masterpiece. On NukuHiva, the setting for Typee, he finds thatthe island harbors "many of the sources that Melville had raided toembellish his own, rather thin, experiences." Also thin is anyevidence of a white whale, so he moves on to Pamilican, a dirt-poorlittle scrape where the locals subsist on jerry cans of imported freshwater and by "jumping" the sea's bounty. Their principal prey is thewhale shark, the largest fish in the sea. Artists of the jump actuallywrestle these plankton eaters underwater by hand, hooking the beastswith a massive grappling hook before coming up for the fight onboard. One ancient hunter speaks vaguely of having jumped a whitewhale shark, but there are also rumors of giant white manta rays andother fantastic creatures.

The centerpiece of the book is a visitto the little-known island of Lamarala, the "last community on earthwhere men still regularly hunt sperm whales by hand." An old-timerwith 60 years of whaling notched into his harpoon explainsenthusiastically that the white whale "has visited us manytimes. Sometimes it can be a wicked fellow." Severin's grippingfirsthand account of an actual hunt gives credence to a 1993 report of34 Lamaralese fishermen being towed out to sea for four days by a bigbull sperm whale. But does he find Moby-Dick's kin? In a manner ofspeaking. What surfaces in these pages is not so much the white whaleas the idea of the white whale--a creature bathed in mysteryand the people that speak knowingly of it, all of whom give meaning tothe sea. --Langdon Cook ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

not terrible, but not exactly what it presents itself to be
Before I describe what this book is, I should describe what it is NOT, because I feel that it is definitely (and perhaps deliberately) mistitled, and if I had known was it was, I probably would never have chosen to read it.

I bought this book without bothering to riffle through it, being under the impression that it was an investigation into whatever facts lay behind the Moby Dick legend upon which Melville based his well-known novel.Although Severin partially covers this angle in the last (and definitely most engrossing) chapter, this is certainly NOT what this book is about on the whole.

Severin himself touches on this [p. 52]:"The animal Melville had in mind was probably inspired by reading a short story in an American magazine, The Knickerbocker, in 1839.The piece was called `Mocha Dick or the White Whale of the Pacific' and it was a yarn about a big bull sperm whale regularly encountered off the coat of Chile.The animal was said to be `as white as wool', though whether because it was an albino or from old age was not known."

But this is virtually the only mention Severin makes of this mysterious beast.

So what is it about?For a period of about a year and a half the author roamed through Oceania staying and talking with various whale-hunting communities, for the most part learning about their lifestyles but occasionally exploring the subject of a white sperm whale, which, as Severin is eager to demonstrate, is not limited to Western literature, but makes an appearance in the myths and legends of societies far different from our own.

Unfortunately, the lifestyles of these primitive whaling communities, for the most part, do not make for interesting reading (the section on Lamalera is especially yawn-inducing), and several times during my reading I wondered why I was even bothering to finish it.

Other sections leave you with a bad taste in your mouth, such as when Severin digs up and exposes Melville's many exaggerations.Every author's worst nightmare!Here's a sample:

"[In Typee], Melville describes how the natives of Taipivai were very keen to tattoo their sailor visitor.They point out that his white skin would make such a perfect canvas for their art.Mehevi also wants him to be tattooed, and suggests suitable patterns.The tattooer-in-chief pursues Melville about the village waving his instruments, the sharp-toothed combs and tapping mallet.Yet somehow Melville avoids the operation, and he does not explicitly state how.It is another example of Melville building up suitably colourful ordeals while `living among the cannibals', but then sidling away from any clear explanation of how he emerged intact.Certainly Melville had no tattoos to display when he returned to new England and told an intrigued audience about his `four months' on the Marquesas, though tattoos were already common enough among Western sailors of his day."

Just what every writer needs.A good deal of the book consists of ill-spirited detective work of this kind, most of which is not even germane to Severin's stated purposes.

Conclusion:if you are looking for extra information on the facts behind white whale legends of the mid 1800's, don't look here.The closest book I know of that addresses the question of whether a white whale actually existed (an actual white whale, not just an ordinary black, though perhaps unusually aggressive, sperm whale-like the one that famously smashed up the Essex) would be Norton's "Moby Dick as Doubloon," and even that book only touches on the matter.

Having said that, the book is far from awful.The writing style is brisk and deft, and what Severin has learned on his travels/studies can on occasion be absorbing.It's just that you should know what you're getting into.

Moreover, the soft cover edition is handsomely printed, though it could really have used some maps.

I should also note that this book can boast a top-notch first paragraph.Don't let that fool you, though.

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Severin's varied accounts of South Pacific whaling compliment Melville's novel wonderfully. His book provides excellent supplemental reading to support Melville's classic AND add to the lore of the sea. Like the novel, Severin concludes his searching by recording a whale hunt that has incredible action and danger.
What fascinated me in this short book was his description of the whiteness of the whale. Nature allows white for only a few examples of whiteness and they are esteemed highly; their significance has spiritual and metaphysical associations. Severin states that whiteness and the sea are common, but in the whale, the shark, the manta ray and in other species, the contrast in seeing a white member "contradicts" our assumptions. I endorse this book for several reasons: Severin's anthropological recording is astute; he carefully respects Melville's accounts; and he is an excellent writer in his own right.

Something's Missing Here
I enjoyed the book, and would recommend it. It has been well reviewed by others here on this page.

I was disappointed to find that the still pictures the author took and the drawings by Patturson mentioned in the credits were not found in the paperback De Capo Press book. I guess one has to buy the hardback. I found it a bit odd that the author often referred to Melville's copying (plagurizing) passages of other texts in the production of his book Moby Dick, but did not mention that in the times of its publication it was not uncommon to plagurize other books. Maybe he just didn't know.

Finding Moby
Herman Melville based his gigantic masterpiece _Moby Dick_ on fact.This is one of the most fascinating parts of that magnificent book.As mystical and symbolic as the parts and the whole may be, they are all firmly grounded in fact, in the world of nineteenth century whaling as it was.Facts crowd into the chapters, even the most novelistic ones.Tim Severin has made a career of replicating historic vessels, using them to trace the supposed routes of their historic sailors, and then writing about the results.In _In Search of Moby Dick: The Quest for the White Whale_ (Basic Books), he does not plunder Melville's great work, but actually expands it.Using _Moby Dick_ and other Melville texts, he has gone on an adventure to find the white sperm whale, and although he never brings home the fabulous creature, he does indeed find it in ways that demonstrate that even a century and a half after the white whale entered literature, he still exists as fact as well as fable.

Severin's curious quest takes him first to the island Melville described in his bestseller _Typee_, and then to islands where Melville never visited, but where there are still whalemen who still harpoon whales.The descriptions of the dangers of the hunts on which Severin accompanied the islanders are vivid and memorable.He finds, intriguingly, that the island legends of the white whale are in many ways the same as those of Melville's whalemen.He conveys vividly the excitement of the hunt, both of physical prey by contemporary whalemen and his own search for Moby Dick.The islanders know there is a white whale out there.Ahab was not able to destroy him, and the islanders revere and respect him.Severin's vibrant book shows that the whale hunters will surely pass away before Moby Dick, secure in legend and literature, is ever finally caught, or finally known.

A FASCINATING SEARCH FOR THE ROOTS OF A MYTH
Tim Severin has a gift for creating wonderfully colorful reasons for writing a book -- he sailed in a skin-covered coracle to establish the background to the fable of St. Brendan, and navigated a dhow to recreatethe voyages of Sindbad the Sailor, in just two of his odysseys.In thisone, he searches for the mythic roots of the great white whale thatprovided the theme and tumultuous climax of Melville's classic, Moby-Dick. In a journey that spans the vast reaches of the Pacific, he first of allexplores the island in the Marquesas where Melville deserted the whaleshipAcushnet, travels to Tonga in search of the tattooed harpooner, Queequeg,and then moves on to the Timor Straits and the Flores Sea,in particularlyhaunting passages that describe his encounters with primitive whale-sharkand sperm whale hunters, where harvesting great animals from the teemingtropical waters can mean the difference, for clans and families living onthe edge of want, between survival and death.

This book is a page-turner. I sat down after breakfast on a lazy weekend morning, and could not put itdown until supper time, when every page had been read.His quest ringswith a sense of sincerity.Nothing here is contrived. Tim Severin shareswith us the difficulties -- and great blessings -- of discerning the linksbetween truth and myth. ... Read more

Product Description
"Call me Ishmael" is one of the most familiar and oft-quoted opening lines ever written. Although it was originally published in 1851 to little success or acclaim, Moby Dick is generally regarded as Herman Melville's masterpiece and in many circles as the Great American Novel.
    Melville's epic story of Captain Ahab's obsessive hunt for the great white whale recalls Job in his quest for justice and Oedipus on his crusade for the truth. The tragic figure of Ahab, in whom virtuous and murderous impulses coexist, speaks for the defeats and triumphs of the human spirit. The richness of Melville's prose and the story's sweep are Shakespearean in their grandeur and symbolic power. Moby Dick remains the measure of literary achievement against which all subsequent American novels must be measured.
    This edition of Moby Dick is the companion volume to the Hallmark Entertainment television presentation, broadcast on USA Network.The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foun-dation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with affordable hard-bound editions of important works of liter-ature and thought. For the Modern Library's seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoring as its emblem the running torchbearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inau-gurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world's best books, at the best prices.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Product Description
The huge range of critical and academic debate about this monster of a novel confirms Moby-Dick´s status as a vital and exhilarating exploration of the role of American ideology in defining modern consciousness. This Columbia Critical Guide starts with extracts from Melville´s own letters and essays and from early reviews of Moby-Dick that set the terms for later critical evaluations. Subsequent chapters deal with the "Melville Revival" of the 1920s and the novel´s central place in the establishment, growth, and reassessment of American Studies in the 1940s and 1950s. The final chapters examine postmodern New Americanist readings of the text, and how these provide new models for thinking about American culture. ... Read more