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Moby Dick
Audio CD
About the author
Herman Melville
3,190 books4,892 followersThere is more than one author with this name
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Moby-Dick (1851); Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and Billy Budd, Sailor, a posthumously published novella. At the time of his death, Melville was no longer well known to the public, but the 1919 centennial of his birth was the starting point of a Melville revival. Moby-Dick eventually would be considered one of the great American novels.
Melville was born in New York City, the third child of a prosperous merchant whose death in 1832 left the family in dire financial straits. He took to sea in 1839 as a common sailor on a merchant ship and then on the whaler Acushnet, but he jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands. Typee, his first book, and its sequel, Omoo (1847), were travel-adventures based on his encounters with the peoples of the islands. Their success gave him the financial security to marry Elizabeth Shaw, the daughter of the Boston jurist Lemuel Shaw. Mardi (1849), a romance-adventure and his first book not based on his own experience, was not well received. Redburn (1849) and White-Jacket (1850), both tales based on his experience as a well-born young man at sea, were given respectable reviews, but did not sell well enough to support his expanding family.
Melville's growing literary ambition showed in Moby-Dick (1851), which took nearly a year and a half to write, but it did not find an audience, and critics scorned his psychological novel Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852). From 1853 to 1856, Melville published short fiction in magazines, including "Benito Cereno" and "Bartleby, the Scrivener". In 1857, he traveled to England, toured the Near East, and published his last work of prose, The Confidence-Man (1857). He moved to New York in 1863, eventually taking a position as a United States customs inspector.
From that point, Melville focused his creative powers on poetry. Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866) was his poetic reflection on the moral questions of the American Civil War. In 1867, his eldest child Malcolm died at home from a self-inflicted gunshot. Melville's metaphysical epic Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land was published in 1876. In 1886, his other son Stanwix died of apparent tuberculosis, and Melville retired. During his last years, he privately published two volumes of poetry, and left one volume unpublished. The novella Billy Budd was left unfinished at his death, but was published posthumously in 1924. Melville died from cardiovascular disease in 1891.
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Moby-Dick (1851); Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and Billy Budd, Sailor, a posthumously published novella. At the time of his death, Melville was no longer well known to the public, but the 1919 centennial of his birth was the starting point of a Melville revival. Moby-Dick eventually would be considered one of the great American novels.
Melville was born in New York City, the third child of a prosperous merchant whose death in 1832 left the family in dire financial straits. He took to sea in 1839 as a common sailor on a merchant ship and then on the whaler Acushnet, but he jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands. Typee, his first book, and its sequel, Omoo (1847), were travel-adventures based on his encounters with the peoples of the islands. Their success gave him the financial security to marry Elizabeth Shaw, the daughter of the Boston jurist Lemuel Shaw. Mardi (1849), a romance-adventure and his first book not based on his own experience, was not well received. Redburn (1849) and White-Jacket (1850), both tales based on his experience as a well-born young man at sea, were given respectable reviews, but did not sell well enough to support his expanding family.
Melville's growing literary ambition showed in Moby-Dick (1851), which took nearly a year and a half to write, but it did not find an audience, and critics scorned his psychological novel Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852). From 1853 to 1856, Melville published short fiction in magazines, including "Benito Cereno" and "Bartleby, the Scrivener". In 1857, he traveled to England, toured the Near East, and published his last work of prose, The Confidence-Man (1857). He moved to New York in 1863, eventually taking a position as a United States customs inspector.
From that point, Melville focused his creative powers on poetry. Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866) was his poetic reflection on the moral questions of the American Civil War. In 1867, his eldest child Malcolm died at home from a self-inflicted gunshot. Melville's metaphysical epic Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land was published in 1876. In 1886, his other son Stanwix died of apparent tuberculosis, and Melville retired. During his last years, he privately published two volumes of poetry, and left one volume unpublished. The novella Billy Budd was left unfinished at his death, but was published posthumously in 1924. Melville died from cardiovascular disease in 1891.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 26, 2023
I have been vaguely meaning to read this book for some time but it wasn't until I listened to the recent series on the whaling industry on the Freakanomics podcast in which a lot of people spoke about the book that I finally made a start on it. I decided on the audiobook route and had this version (read by William Hootkins) recommended.
It wasn't like I expected. Moby Dick is enough of a cultural icon that I knew the basic storyline going in, but there were a lot of surprises. I was not expecting the humour and the quirky nature of the characters and the narration. I was expecting a lot of talk of whales and whaling, but I wasn't expecting it to occupy quite so much of the book. I also wasn't expecting that the main thrust of the story - Captain Ahab's maniacal pursuit of the white whale which had taken his leg - should only come to foreground of the story at the last minute as it were, while so much of the book is filled with a random seeming assortment of facts and anecdotes about life on a nineteenth century whaling ship.
Overall an enjoyable experience, especially with Hootkins' narration bring the characters to life. I don't imagine I will reread it in a hurry (if ever), but it is at least another item ticked off my literary bucket list.
It wasn't like I expected. Moby Dick is enough of a cultural icon that I knew the basic storyline going in, but there were a lot of surprises. I was not expecting the humour and the quirky nature of the characters and the narration. I was expecting a lot of talk of whales and whaling, but I wasn't expecting it to occupy quite so much of the book. I also wasn't expecting that the main thrust of the story - Captain Ahab's maniacal pursuit of the white whale which had taken his leg - should only come to foreground of the story at the last minute as it were, while so much of the book is filled with a random seeming assortment of facts and anecdotes about life on a nineteenth century whaling ship.
Overall an enjoyable experience, especially with Hootkins' narration bring the characters to life. I don't imagine I will reread it in a hurry (if ever), but it is at least another item ticked off my literary bucket list.
August 25, 2023
This was kind of a strange book, but kind of a normal book. Did not expect the gay marriage right at the beginning. Narrator has ADHD and/or autism and is most definitely hyperfixated on whaling and the publishing industry. This is exactly what my brain would sound like if I were on a 3 year long voyage. I think it ends correctly.
(This audiobook version has a most excellent narrator. Worth the price of admission. I didn't really "get" this book until the "Whales are Fishes" chapter, but the narrator sold me at that point, and after that, I was like, oh yeah we're getting to the end of this one.)
(This audiobook version has a most excellent narrator. Worth the price of admission. I didn't really "get" this book until the "Whales are Fishes" chapter, but the narrator sold me at that point, and after that, I was like, oh yeah we're getting to the end of this one.)
March 25, 2025
If Shakespeare has 20+ hours for a play, maybe we would have had something like this.
At times I found it overwhelming, the level of descriptiveness and the graphic dismemberment of the leviathans.
But I have to give my applause to not only the author but the narrator, epic seems not quite enough to describe this story of revenge, decent into madness, brotherhood and todays environmental tragedy of humans domination over nature.
At times I found it overwhelming, the level of descriptiveness and the graphic dismemberment of the leviathans.
But I have to give my applause to not only the author but the narrator, epic seems not quite enough to describe this story of revenge, decent into madness, brotherhood and todays environmental tragedy of humans domination over nature.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews