Moby-Dick; or, The Whale by Herman Melville

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"This is an odd book, professing to be a novel: wantonly eccentric; outrageously bombastic; in places charmingly and vividly descriptive." - Literary Gazette, 1851.

Moby-Dick is as odd a book as it was when it was first published in 1851. It's a big, sweeping novel that circles the globe. But it's also quite intimate, diving into the details of character's daily lives and motivations. It's a fictional story of one man's obsession with revenge on a whale and a historical chronicle of the times. When Herman Meville wrote Moby-Dick the oceans were crossed by whaling ships, merchant ships, navy ships, pirate ships, and slave ships. Whales were still thought to be fish. Melville paints a detailed, textured mosaic of the life of seamen and those around them.

Although Melville didn't rise above the times, he denounced hypocrisy but not slavery, he identified strongly with the common man and men of all positions and colors. At the beginning the narrator, Melville's voice in the novel, starts a bromance with an aboriginal prince from the south seas. But Captain Ahab is a classist, believing in democracy for everyone of his station and higher but disregards the humanity of those under him.

The prose of Moby-Dick is lyrical, liquid, almost poetic at times making it a joy to read. Though a long novel, the chapters are short and easily digestible. Melville was highly intelligent, read widely, and drops names and references throughout his text. In the past I've preferred reading hard copies of novels, but this book is actually a good one to read on an electronic device. Reading it on my phone gave me the ultimate annotated edition. Looking up all of the archaic terms and obscure geographical references helped bring the novel to life and revealed the scope and sweep of the story. But I am thinking a nice hard back edition from the Library of America will be my Christmas present to myself this year.

I loved Moby-Dick and I'm looking forward to reading it again and again, uncovering details I missed the previous times. This novel is to be read and re-read. Read it as many times as you've read Lord of the Rings. Read it like you've read Harry Potter.





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