Moby Dick

Overview

This 1851 novel by Herman Melville recounts the adventures of the wandering sailor Ishmael, and his voyage to find the great white whale called Moby Dick.

Editorial Reviews

Editorial Reviews for this product are not available at this time.

Author Information

Bio of Herman Melville

Herman Melville was born in New York City in 1819. When his father died, he was forced to leave school and find work. After passing through some minor clerical jobs, the eighteen-year-old young man shipped out to sea, first on a short cargo trip, then, at twenty-one, on a three-year South Sea whaling venture. From the experiences accumulated on this voyage would come the material for his early books, Typee (1846) and Omoo (1847), as well as for such masterpieces as Moby-Dick (1851), Pierre (1852), The Piazza Tales (1856) and Billy Budd, Sailor (posthumous, 1924). Though the first two novels--popular romantic adventures--sold well, Melville's more serious writing failed to attract a large audience, perhaps because it attacked the current philosophy of transcendentalism and its espoused "self-reliance." (As he made clear in the savagely comic The Confidence Man, 1857), Melville thought very little of Emersonian philosophy. He spent his later years working as a customs inspector on the New York docks, writing only poems comprising Battle-Pieces (1866). He died in 1891, leaving Billy Budd, Sailor, unpublished.

Customer Reviews

• Story of a Whale

  Posted March 03, 2009 by Kathy, Cottonwood Heights

  I was unexpectedly moved by this story. I thought it was going to be about a crazy fisherman out for revenge on a whale that bit off his leg. Melville's work is wonderful. The details of scenes and characters are amazing. Melville lends wonderful facts to little known early American fishery. Captain Ahab's story is one I recommend to all.

• The book was great

  Posted August 13, 2009 by Ernest, Hell

  Well the book was amazing totally love it .

• An epic, without comparison

  Posted September 29, 2009 by Pedro Fernandez, League City

  A classic that delineates man struggle with nature, god and his desire to rule over all. Obsession gone to an extreme. Gripping and subtlely enticing.
  

Additional Info

Imprint

CONNECT eBooks Classics

Filesize

1.89 MB

Number of Pages

N/A

eBook ISBN

9781434001078