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Moby-Dick. A Norton Critical Edition.
The classic tale of Ishmael, Ahab, and the search for the great whale Moby Dick. Includes a glossary of nautical terms, writings regarding Melville, and critical essays about the famous novel. A must-have edition for literature aficionados.
- GenresClassics
726 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2002
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About the author
Herman Melville
2,392 books4,516 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 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 6, 2025
Like an intellectual Ahab, I fell in but survived, an orphan rescued by the return of this ship of a book ...
Ok, that was terrible. However, this is my second time reading Moby Dick cover-to-cover. I don't think I would have made it this time, but for the totalitarian drive of would-be intellectual , and even more so, this inescapable madness which has determined that I must slay the madness inducing visions of another intellectual Ahab's white whale.
The main thing to take into account is the labor, the activity of reading, the crucial process of the turning page.
With CLR James' work as my compass, I set out, almost crashing, but then finally arriving, joyously again, this voyage through Herman Melville's Moby Dick, which has replenished that healthy madness against all dictatorial captains and capitalists, ripping down all veils of worldly and unworldly "whiteness."
finis
Ok, that was terrible. However, this is my second time reading Moby Dick cover-to-cover. I don't think I would have made it this time, but for the totalitarian drive of would-be intellectual , and even more so, this inescapable madness which has determined that I must slay the madness inducing visions of another intellectual Ahab's white whale.
The main thing to take into account is the labor, the activity of reading, the crucial process of the turning page.
With CLR James' work as my compass, I set out, almost crashing, but then finally arriving, joyously again, this voyage through Herman Melville's Moby Dick, which has replenished that healthy madness against all dictatorial captains and capitalists, ripping down all veils of worldly and unworldly "whiteness."
finis
May 13, 2025
la versión que leí es una versión resumida, el libro es bastante original pero la forma de ser relatada es demasiado extraña para mi
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews