Description

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is a novel byAmericanwriter Herman Melville, published in 1851 during theperiod of theAmerican Renaissance. Sailor Ishmael tells the storyof theobsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaler the Pequod,forrevenge on Moby Dick, the white whale which on the previouswhalingvoyage destroyed his ship and severed his leg at the knee.The novelwas a commercial failure and out of print at the time oftheauthor's death in 1891, but during the 20th century, itsreputationas a Great American Novel was established. WilliamFaulknerconfessed he wished he had written it himself, and D. H.Lawrencecalled it "one of the strangest and most wonderful booksin theworld", and "the greatest book of the sea ever written"."Call meIshmael" is among world literature's most famous openingsentences.

The product of a year and a half of writing, the book drawsonMelville's experience at sea, on his reading in whalingliterature,and on literary inspirations such as Shakespeare and theBible. Thewhite whale is modeled on the notoriously hard to catchactualalbino whale Mocha Dick, and the ending is based on thesinking ofthe whaler Essex by a whale. The detailed andrealisticdescriptions of whale hunting and of extracting whale oil,as wellas life aboard ship among a culturally diverse crew, aremixed withexploration of class and social status, good and evil,and theexistence of God. In addition to narrative prose, Melvilleusesstyles and literary devices ranging from songs, poetry,andcatalogs to Shakespearean stage directions, soliloquies,andasides.

Dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne, "in token of my admirationforhis genius", the work was first published as The Whale in LondoninOctober 1851, and under its definitive title in New YorkinNovember. Hundreds of differences, mostly slight andsomeimportant, are seen between the two editions. The Londonpublishercensored or changed sensitive passages and Melville maderevisions,as well, including the last-minute change in the titlefor the NewYork edition. The whale, however, appears in botheditions as "MobyDick", with no hyphen. About 3,200 copies weresold during theauthor's life.