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Moby Dick /Billy Budd
For twenty years before his death in 1891, Herman Melville was a forgotten man. This is best reflected in a couple obituary "He won considerable fame as an author by the publication of a book in 1847 (actually 1846) entitled Typee. ... This was his best work, although he has since written a number of other stories, which were published more for private than public circulation. ... During the ten years subsequent to the publication of this book he was employed at the NY Custom House." - NY Daily Tribune, September 29, 1891 "Of late years Mr. Melville - probably because he had ceased his literary activity - has fallen into a literary decline, as a result of which his books are little known. Probably, if the truth were known, even his own generation has long thought him dead, so quiet have been the later years of his life." - The Press, September 29, 1891 Soon after his death, there was a short revival of interest in Melville's work. Many of his works were published again and so were many appreciative scholarly evaluations. A second Melville revival took place about 1919 coinciding with the centennial of Melville's birth. Still unpublished was Melville's last work (Billy Budd, 1924) considered by many to be as important as Moby Dick. By 1930s Melville scholarship became prominent (Hugh Hetherington completed the first doctoral dissertation on Melville at the Univ. of Michigan in 1933), and, soon after the second world war, a Melville society was organized. Through the next two decades Melville and his writing attracted more research and scholarship than any other American author. Moby Dick was first published in 1851 and Billy Budd was first published in 1924.
447 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1924
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About the author
Herman Melville
2,434 books4,560 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 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 2, 2015
“I have written an evil book” Melville wrote Nathaniel Hawthorne after he finished Moby Dick.
Filled with symbolism about God and evil, this long tale shows what happens to men when their hearts get warped and twisted with vengeance over some wound in the past.
“He piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down” (142). “He was intent on an audacious, immitigable, and supernatural revenge” (143). “From hell’s heart I stab at thee” (390).
Moby Dick is a white whale, and Melville takes an important chapter to consider the whiteness: “this whiteness, and learned why it appeals with such power to the soul; and more strange and far more portentous—why, as we have seen, it is at once the most meaning symbol of spiritual things, nay, the very veil of the Christian’s Deity” (149). As an “object of trembling reverence and awe” He “command[s] worship, at the same time enforce[s] a certain nameless terror” (146).
The pacing is insanely slow, as Melville takes us on an encyclopedic biological tour of the whale. Since the whale represents God throughout the book (white, divine, august, etc.), this shows man’s inevitable obsession with his Creator. But the end is worth it. I think every chapter, maybe every paragraph, alludes to some aspect of theological truth. Predestination and fate are a recurring theme. The main characters hear a sermon on Jonah before embarking on their voyage with Captain Ahab. There is an anti-Communion at the beginning, when Ahab calls his crew to drink and swear death to Moby Dick (130), and an anti-baptism of his harpoon in blood near the end: “I baptize you not in the name of the Father, but in the name of the devil [translated from Latin]” (338).
Ahab’s first mate questions his quest. Why destroy yourself and us with this vengeful quest? Even at the very end he calls him to turn back. But it is far too little, too late.
“All of us are Ahabs” (353). In the end, as with all good books, we stare ourselves in the mirror image of Ahab. The whale took his leg. What has God taken from you, that tempts you to hate Him? How have you pursued God with hostility?
The symbolism in the book isn’t all sound or biblical. The whale is malicious, vengeful, unfair in his predestinating, fating power. Melville called the book evil. I don’t know his personal story, but I get the sense that he identified with Ahab and had a grudge against God. He knew it would only destroy him to fight God, but it seems all he knows to do in retaliation for the wounds he has faced.
The name of Jesus makes one appearance that I could tell, near the end when the mate calls Ahab off from his quest. It goes unheeded as before. Jesus and His atoning redemption of our wounds are utterly absent from the book. Either God will win as you submit to His power, or God will win as you fight Him.
Evil, indeed. Yet a supremely compelling depiction of the human heart before its Maker. I give it a rare 5 out of 5 stars.
This is R.C. Sproul’s favorite work of literature. See his short article on Moby Dick here.
http://www.ligonier.org/learn/article...
As an aside, I read this out loud to my kids, and it took a long time!
Filled with symbolism about God and evil, this long tale shows what happens to men when their hearts get warped and twisted with vengeance over some wound in the past.
“He piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down” (142). “He was intent on an audacious, immitigable, and supernatural revenge” (143). “From hell’s heart I stab at thee” (390).
Moby Dick is a white whale, and Melville takes an important chapter to consider the whiteness: “this whiteness, and learned why it appeals with such power to the soul; and more strange and far more portentous—why, as we have seen, it is at once the most meaning symbol of spiritual things, nay, the very veil of the Christian’s Deity” (149). As an “object of trembling reverence and awe” He “command[s] worship, at the same time enforce[s] a certain nameless terror” (146).
The pacing is insanely slow, as Melville takes us on an encyclopedic biological tour of the whale. Since the whale represents God throughout the book (white, divine, august, etc.), this shows man’s inevitable obsession with his Creator. But the end is worth it. I think every chapter, maybe every paragraph, alludes to some aspect of theological truth. Predestination and fate are a recurring theme. The main characters hear a sermon on Jonah before embarking on their voyage with Captain Ahab. There is an anti-Communion at the beginning, when Ahab calls his crew to drink and swear death to Moby Dick (130), and an anti-baptism of his harpoon in blood near the end: “I baptize you not in the name of the Father, but in the name of the devil [translated from Latin]” (338).
Ahab’s first mate questions his quest. Why destroy yourself and us with this vengeful quest? Even at the very end he calls him to turn back. But it is far too little, too late.
“All of us are Ahabs” (353). In the end, as with all good books, we stare ourselves in the mirror image of Ahab. The whale took his leg. What has God taken from you, that tempts you to hate Him? How have you pursued God with hostility?
The symbolism in the book isn’t all sound or biblical. The whale is malicious, vengeful, unfair in his predestinating, fating power. Melville called the book evil. I don’t know his personal story, but I get the sense that he identified with Ahab and had a grudge against God. He knew it would only destroy him to fight God, but it seems all he knows to do in retaliation for the wounds he has faced.
The name of Jesus makes one appearance that I could tell, near the end when the mate calls Ahab off from his quest. It goes unheeded as before. Jesus and His atoning redemption of our wounds are utterly absent from the book. Either God will win as you submit to His power, or God will win as you fight Him.
Evil, indeed. Yet a supremely compelling depiction of the human heart before its Maker. I give it a rare 5 out of 5 stars.
This is R.C. Sproul’s favorite work of literature. See his short article on Moby Dick here.
http://www.ligonier.org/learn/article...
As an aside, I read this out loud to my kids, and it took a long time!
January 3, 2018
I really didn't want to DNF the first book of 2018. I trudged doggedly through the first third, alternately bored and disgusted. I skimmed the middle, skipping lightly over chapters that were obviously outdated "science" about whales.
At the two-thirds mark, I just couldn't take it anymore. This book has nothing to offer me, and I wonder what, if anything, makes it relevant as a "classic" today.
As an adventure story, it's plodding and dull. Ishmael doesn't even get on the Pequod for the first hundred pages, and once he does, it's still forever until they spot a whale and get hunting--even when they do finally do anything, the action stops for chapters at a time so Ishmael can educate us on whether or not a whale is a fish.
As a comedy (I've seen reviews saying it's better to read it with humor in mind), it's incredibly racist. I'm well aware that mid-1800's America was racist from top to bottom, so I don't need the extended Noble Savage trope embodied by Queequeg for the first hundred pages. Yes, Ishmael befriends him despite his strangeness, but in a particularly jocular and indulging way, like Queequeg is a clever puppy Ishmael is impressed with, instead of a human being. And aside from that, I really didn't see anything else that could remotely be considered funny.
As a complete narrative, it's desperately unfocused. The style changes from chapter to chapter with astonishing variety--sometimes it's a college lecture, sometimes it's a brief aside from Starbuck's or Stubb's POV (which honestly threw me the first time it happened,) sometimes it's a rambling secondhand story (told at great length) from a crewman on a ship they encounter. Rarely it is actually about what I thought the book was supposed to be about--Ahab and his White Whale.
If I ever decide I want to know how it ends--miraculously it's never been spoiled for me--I'll look up the Wikipedia entry to find out, because I am never touching this book again.
At the two-thirds mark, I just couldn't take it anymore. This book has nothing to offer me, and I wonder what, if anything, makes it relevant as a "classic" today.
As an adventure story, it's plodding and dull. Ishmael doesn't even get on the Pequod for the first hundred pages, and once he does, it's still forever until they spot a whale and get hunting--even when they do finally do anything, the action stops for chapters at a time so Ishmael can educate us on whether or not a whale is a fish.
As a comedy (I've seen reviews saying it's better to read it with humor in mind), it's incredibly racist. I'm well aware that mid-1800's America was racist from top to bottom, so I don't need the extended Noble Savage trope embodied by Queequeg for the first hundred pages. Yes, Ishmael befriends him despite his strangeness, but in a particularly jocular and indulging way, like Queequeg is a clever puppy Ishmael is impressed with, instead of a human being. And aside from that, I really didn't see anything else that could remotely be considered funny.
As a complete narrative, it's desperately unfocused. The style changes from chapter to chapter with astonishing variety--sometimes it's a college lecture, sometimes it's a brief aside from Starbuck's or Stubb's POV (which honestly threw me the first time it happened,) sometimes it's a rambling secondhand story (told at great length) from a crewman on a ship they encounter. Rarely it is actually about what I thought the book was supposed to be about--Ahab and his White Whale.
If I ever decide I want to know how it ends--miraculously it's never been spoiled for me--I'll look up the Wikipedia entry to find out, because I am never touching this book again.
November 28, 2016
November Book Review
Moby Dick
by: Herman Melville
A man by the name of Ishmael wants to go whale hunting. He arrives in a small town called New Bedford and becomes friends with a man named Queequeg. They later sail the Pequod, a boat whose captain's leg was bitten off by a beast named "Moby Dick" (a monstrous whale). Once aboard, the captain states he seeks revenge, making a few of the crew members unhappy that their sailing for revenge and not just simply for whale oil. Eventually, after gathering more than enough oil, the captain orders to keep sailing in order to hunt down Moby Dick, making a lot of the crew angry. Days later, they find Moby and have a ferocious fight with the beast leaving everyone at the bottom of the sea except Ishmael, who later gets rescued.
I think the theme of this story is definitely be grateful for what you already have. I think this because the crew had collected more than enough oil and they wanted to go back, which would've been the right thing to do. However, the captain was greedy and put everyones' lives in danger just so that HE could get revenge on a poor whale who didn't mean harm in the first place. The sea gained a good amount of poor sailors that day, and it was all because of one selfish man who lost his life too. This is a great moral to this story because a lot of books show that we should never give up, but sometimes, we need to stop and be grateful for the thinks we have and appreciate them.
Moby Dick
by: Herman Melville
A man by the name of Ishmael wants to go whale hunting. He arrives in a small town called New Bedford and becomes friends with a man named Queequeg. They later sail the Pequod, a boat whose captain's leg was bitten off by a beast named "Moby Dick" (a monstrous whale). Once aboard, the captain states he seeks revenge, making a few of the crew members unhappy that their sailing for revenge and not just simply for whale oil. Eventually, after gathering more than enough oil, the captain orders to keep sailing in order to hunt down Moby Dick, making a lot of the crew angry. Days later, they find Moby and have a ferocious fight with the beast leaving everyone at the bottom of the sea except Ishmael, who later gets rescued.
I think the theme of this story is definitely be grateful for what you already have. I think this because the crew had collected more than enough oil and they wanted to go back, which would've been the right thing to do. However, the captain was greedy and put everyones' lives in danger just so that HE could get revenge on a poor whale who didn't mean harm in the first place. The sea gained a good amount of poor sailors that day, and it was all because of one selfish man who lost his life too. This is a great moral to this story because a lot of books show that we should never give up, but sometimes, we need to stop and be grateful for the thinks we have and appreciate them.
December 16, 2011
I tried, I really did. This was disappointing. I've seen the movie with Patrick Stewart and even saw a musical version of this tale (tail?) so I thought I'd enjoy this far more than I did. I got about halfway through before throwing in the towel. It's a shame because parts of it are good- such as when Ishmael first meets Queequeg. Hilarious! And when they FINALLY get on the Pequod the pace slowly picks up. But by then it was pretty much too late for me. If you do want to read this, do yourself a favor and get the abridged version. Seriously, entire chapters could have been removed and it would have been a far better story. This was obviously written in the day when authors were paid by the word.
I was listening to an audio book version.
I was listening to an audio book version.
October 11, 2016
While it is not an easy read, Melville gives you a good view of the whaling industry as it used to be. Ahab's revenge is the main character and clearly what this book is about. I am not sure if this is a story of evil verses good or just a journey into the dark side of man. I think this is a must read book. Billy Budd is interesting but the point is lost on me.
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August 20, 2008I really don't know if this was the edition/version that I read. I just know that I read it, and it was a bit much for me. Maybe I'll have to re-read it now that I'm older.
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June 8, 2018Spring 2000 Brancaccio
August 26, 2010
Required reading in high school in 1960. Classmates were groaning about it, but I really liked it.
May 14, 2012
I heard on NPR that if you read it as if it were a comedy, it makes it much more enjoyable. It's true.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews