Moby Dick

Written by Herman Melville

Narrated by William Hootkins

‘Call me Ishmael’ Thus starts the greatest American novel. Melville said himself that he wanted to write ‘a mighty book about a mighty theme’ and so he did. It is a story of one man’s obsessive revenge-journey against the white whale, Moby-Dick, who injured him in an earlier meeting. Woven into the story of the last journey of the Pequod is a mesh of philosophy, rumination, religion, history and a mass of information about whaling through the ages. This epic story, here presented in unabridged form, receives an equally epic reading from the outstanding American actor William Hootkins.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Naxos Audiobooks
• Release date: Jul 1, 2005
• ISBN: 9789629545574

Herman Melville

Herman Melville (1819-1891) was an American novelist, poet, and short story writer. Following a period of financial trouble, the Melville family moved from New York City to Albany, where Allan, Herman’s father, entered the fur business. When Allan died in 1832, the family struggled to make ends meet, and Herman and his brothers were forced to leave school in order to work. A small inheritance enabled Herman to enroll in school from 1835 to 1837, during which time he studied Latin and Shakespeare. The Panic of 1837 initiated another period of financial struggle for the Melvilles, who were forced to leave Albany. After publishing several essays in 1838, Melville went to sea on a merchant ship in 1839 before enlisting on a whaling voyage in 1840. In July 1842, Melville and a friend jumped ship at the Marquesas Islands, an experience the author would fictionalize in his first novel, Typee (1845). He returned home in 1844 to embark on a career as a writer, finding success as a novelist with the semi-autobiographical novels Typee and Omoo (1847), befriending and earning the admiration of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Oliver Wendell Holmes, and publishing his masterpiece Moby-Dick in 1851. Despite his early success as a novelist and writer of such short stories as “Bartleby, the Scrivener” and “Benito Cereno,” Melville struggled from the 1850s onward, turning to public lecturing and eventually settling into a career as a customs inspector in New York City. Towards the end of his life, Melville’s reputation as a writer had faded immensely, and most of his work remained out of print until critical reappraisal in the early twentieth century recognized him as one of America’s finest writers.

Reviews for Moby Dick

[hellbent_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In my view, America's greatest novel. Timeless, poetic and emblematic of a once great industry dominated by Americans.

[wenestvedt_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Read this out of a sense of duty, while recovering from surgery for a deviated septum, which required laying on my back for a week. I thought it was pretty good.

[eoin-311239 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The most beautiful modern edition of an undisputed masterpiece. Stranger, funnier, and more varied than I imagined, this edition literally stopped people on the street. A homeless man in San Francisco stopped and admired the book, smiling as he told me he "needed that".

[moekane_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

On my should read list list but avoided successfully for 45 years. Between the Philbrick recommendation and the lauds to Hootkins' narration, I finally succumbed and spent nearly a month of commutes taking the big story in, and the next month thinking about the story. SO glad I listened rather than skimmed as a reader. It has everything;. Agree with Floyd 3345 re fiction and nonfiction shelving

[kristelh_15 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Considered an encyclopedic novel. Never heard of this before but it fits. In this story based on the author's whaling voyage in 1841, Moby Dick, or the white whale, inspired by Mocha Dick and the sinking of the whaleship Essex. The detail is very realistic and in this book you not only learn about whale hunting, you learn about whales and porpoise and ships. Chapters are dedicated to lengthy descriptions. On the ship, the reader is introduced to a cultural mixture of class and social status as well as good and evil and the existence of God. Melville used narrative prose but also songs, poetry, catalogs and other techniques from plays. The story is told through Ishmael. Plot:Ishmael meets up with Queequeg and shares a bed because the inn is overcrowded. Queegueg is a harpooner and they sign unto the Pequod. Characters:Ishmael: Queequeg:Starbuck: first mateStubb: second mateTashtego: Indian from Gay Head (harpooner)Flask: third mate,Daggoo: harpooneer from Africa. Captain Ahab: Fadallah: a harpooneer, Parse. Pip: black cabin boyThe boats: Jeroboam, Samule Enderby, the Rachel, The Delight and Pequod. These ships all have encountered Moby Dick. Ahab is obsessed with revenge against Moby Dick because of the loss of his leg which the whale bit off. There are several gams or meetings of whale boats. Ending with a tireless pursuit of the whale without regard to the dangers it exposes the sailors of Pequod. Starbuck begs Ahab to quit. Structure:narrator shapes the story by using sermons, stage plays, soliloquies and emblematic readings. The narrator is the aged Ishmael. There is also narrative architecture. There are 9 meetings with other boats.

[jonfaith · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Read this in tandem w/ friends, a full spectrum of opinion was thus established. My friend Roger Baylor left an indelible smudge on his own critical reputation for his hapless remarks. I tended to the ecstatic edge of said continuum. I did find the novel's disparate elements an obstacle at times, but, then again, I had to temper my velocity anyway as it was a group read: there's been sufficient snark from my mates for a decade now about plowing through a selection in a weekend. There was such a foam of detail and philosophy. The terrors of thunder and the groan of salty timber abounded. The stale breath of morning would often freeze upon the very page. The majesty of Melville's prose was arresting, it held, bound -- it felt as if one's focus was being nailed to the mast like Ahab's gold. Moby Dick is such a robust tapestry, epic and yet filigreed with minor miracles and misdeeds.

I do look forward to a reread.

[larryking1-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

No one ever seems to discuss this, but there are parts of this exquisitely written tome that are hilarious!

[big3booty · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

very good, very long

[andrewcottingham · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Quite difficult to read - but enjoyable

[hemingwayok · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good story shouldn't take that long to tell.

[taciturning · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A perfect novel. Pure genius.

[diane.orsini · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is it, folks--the Great American Novel. It doesn't get any better--or more experimental--than this.

[woodshopcowboy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A review of Moby-Dick? Right. It's been around for 150 odd years. It'll be around for at least another 150 odd. For good reason. If Shakespeare wrote Genesis and the Book of Judges, this might be a nice approximation of how Melville writes. And that's how I would describe Moby-Dick.Other notes, pay attention to Ahab's speech patterns and his spiritual journey throughout Moby-Dick; you'd swear he was a maimed Hamlet.

[drneutron_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of my favorites! The opening paragraph pretty much sums up why I read it.

[viccavalli · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I listened to the unabridged text as an audiobook over a couple of months of long drives to and from work, and what struck me most was the structure of this huge book: the story of Ahab is essentially a short story which Melville has fragmented and embedded in thousands of tons of blubber! That is bold. I think it's also interesting that when this long text finally ends we're actually not quite half way through Melville's source--the sinking of the Nantucket ship Essex in 1820. Within this context, Melville's colossal text is actually a truncated and abbreviated version of his primary source! Again, wild to think of it. Because I love to hear stories even more than to read them, because the rhythms have a physical presence when read aloud, I highly recommend the text as an audiobook. That Melville would devote an entire chapter to "The Blow Hole" is outrageous in many ways, but also an interesting listen. A friend told me her professor advised her class to "not wait for the whale" as they were reading the novel. That's hard advice to take. The book is definitely a unique experience.

[velmeran · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Societally we all know the basic story. I learned a great deal about whaling, and the times.

[antao-3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

(Original Review, 1981-02-10)This is a book that knows how excessive it is being.It took me three times through it to realize that it's the greatest novel in the English language. Of course it has everything wrong with it: the digressions, the ludicrous attempt to out-Shakespeare Shakespeare, the prose through which a high wind blows perpetually, the fact that it's written almost entirely in superlatives . . . Never mind, it's overtopped by wave upon wave of genius, exuberant, explicative, mad in its quest to be about everything at once and to ring every bell in the English language. Yes it can be tough going sometimes, but here's an all-important hint: read this book aloud.Needless to say, it would never get across an editor's desk intact today. And today we're poorer for that. Something else: no one ever seems to mention how madly funny it is. It's vital to tune in to the humour, I think, if you are to enjoy reading it.“The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym” is a good book, but doesn't quite rank with Poe's best work, and the "Scarlet Letter" has always seemed to me so narrowly provincial in its concerns that I've never been tempted to read it. But "Moby-Dick" is something else. Strange, digressive, sprawling, experimental, playful... it's a book that takes chances - and sometimes falls flat on its face: for example, not all the digressions work and, as someone already mentioned, the attempts at Shakespearean language are often laughable. But in the end, I think it has to be recognised as a monumental effort.First encountered it at 19 as required reading and found the tale enjoyable but the digressions on whaling baffling and tedious. Some year’s later I am two-thirds of the way through re-reading it. It now seems as though the tale is the most minor and uninteresting part of it. The supposed digressions are the bulk of the work.It is beyond marvellous. The language rings with echoes of the Bible and Shakespeare but the high style is mingled with prose of such simple directness that it barely feels like a 19th century novel at all. For me, what rises endlessly from the pages is a sense of joy and wonder - the sheer joy of being alive and experiencing each moment as something new, and the profound wonder of man in the face of a natural world he may come close to conquering but will never fully understand.I still find myself struggling to get my head around what it all means and quite why it is so great. But great - immense, staggering, colossal - it surely is. A mighty work."Moby-Dick" will be the equivalent of the Hogwarts Sorting Hat at the gates of Heaven. If you liked it, you'll go straight through the gates. If you didn't, well....As a side note, whilst “Moby Dick” remains his towering achievement, works such as "Bartleby the Scrivener", "Billy Budd & Pierre", or "The Ambiguities" are all remarkable in their own ways, whilst utterly different. Alongside "Bartleby", though, for me, Melville's other astonishing achievement is "Confidence Man" - a breathtakingly modern, or perhaps better, "post-modern" book, almost entirely without precursor. Imagine a literary "F is for Fake", & you begin to get a tiny hint of what Melville is up to. Of all writers, he seems to me to be the one who, standing at the very cusp of that moment when literary form is about to find itself cast in stone, is able to invent, it seems as if with every work, a wholly new literary form in & for each of his works. In every sense of the word, his writing & his works are excessive, just as Faulkner's Willbe, & those of Gaddis, &, to an extent, Pynchon. This "excessiveness" is, for sure, a predominantly American phenomenon.

[jmcdbooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Rated: AFascinating tale of the great white whale. Herman Melville develops complete context with enlightening descriptions of the whaling industry from ships to life on board to voyages to whaling to whales to the chase to the capture to the extraction of oils to life and death upon the sea. Oh, yes -- there is the story of Moby Dick.

[funkydung-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

My edition had 620 pages. Melville could have told the story in 200, and it would have been a much more enjoyable read. Some folks have accused current generations of having attention deficits due to the snappy editing in TV and movies. We have nothing on Melville, though. Moby Dick is a disjointed and schizophrenic jumble of almost nonexistent plot development, thin character development, solipsistic ramblings, anecdotes, and whaling "lessons".

I read this book because my copy was a 13th birthday gift given to my grandfather and because it's supposedly a classic. I was throughly disappointed and left wondering what's so classic about it. My grandfather probably liked it, though. He liked the works of James Michener, possibly the most boring writer to ever put ink to paper.

Kahn was a better Ahab, and Wrath of Kahn was a better Moby Dick. Perhaps Nicholas Myers a better author than Herman Melville.

[oscarwilde87_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Moby Dick is surely one of the great American novels and its non-human protagonist is known to everyone only remotely interested in literature. The story about Captain Ahab and the whale, however, is not that well known at all. I mean, who can really say what happens at the end of Moby Dick? No worries, I will not give away the ending here. Just let me give a brief outline of the setting and the plot. The story is narrated by Ishmael and it is narrated in first person. Ishmael recounts the story of how he came to join Captain Ahab's crew on the Pequod, a whaling ship. Captain Ahab has met the white whale Moby Dick many times, but never managed to finally kill the animal. On the contrary, he was almost defeated by Moby Dick, who cost Ahab one of his legs. This led to Ahab developing an obsession to finally catch and kill Moby Dick. The plot is easily told then. The Pequod sails the oceans in order for Ahab to finally fulfill what seems to be his only remaining purpose in life.Moby Dick is so much more than its plot. A large part of the novel is made up of extensive background information about whales and whaling. Melville chose not to simply entertain his readers with a story but rather educate them on the subject he seems to be so facinated with. The mere story would probably have been told in about half the number of pages, but it is this addendum, let's call it, that makes up for a large part of the reading experience. I do admit that there will be many readers who will be taken aback by the degree of detail Melville put into the educational part of the novel. However, the combination of both background knowledge and a story about finding and killing a whale is what makes this novel exceptional, I think.While Moby Dick was published in 1851, I think the novel is timeless and can be read for many reasons as it includes still relevant themes, the fight of human vs. nature being one of them, and provides the readers with some insights that are as true and important today - or even more so - as they might have been in the 19th century. A case in point:I say, we good Presbyterian Christians should be charitable in these things, and not fancy ourselves so vastly superior to other mortals, pagans and what not (...) I say: and Heaven have mercy on us all - Pagans and Presbyterians alike - for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending.I would generally suggest that readers should give Moby Dick a try and see whether it is their cup of tea or not. I can certainly understand both how people admire the novel and how they might find it quite boring. What it came down to for me in the end was, what the reading did with me. After many reading sessions what I had just read did not leave me for quite a bit and this is something that I treasure in books. 3.5 stars.

[sadiebabie · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It took me three weeks, but I finished it.

Oh my... I don't know if I hated it or didn't mind it (certainly didn't love it). It was a chore to read, and reading shouldn't feel that way. I'm glad I got through it, but again I don't think that should be the aim of reading! I can see why it's so lauded, but at the same time I don't believe that something is good just because it is verbose and tome-like. The story was good, but the characters were very underdeveloped. I'd have loved to have known more about their individual stories (especially poor Pip, and Queegueg). I did warm to the chapter upon chapter of whale facts* a little, but I felt they were self indulgent and didn't really add as much to the story as they would have if they were trimmed down a bit to make room for more actual story. At times the prose was beautiful, but at others I found myself reading pages without absorbing a thing. It's an incredible piece of work...but not a great reading experience.

*after at first Googling whether you could skip those and still follow the book...

[bookomaniac-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Meeslepend, maar de onderbrekingen storen toch. Die vertonen trouwens sterke gelijkenis met methode van Herodotus: kritische bevraging van verhalen. Het geheel is niet helemaal geloofwaardig, en vooral het slot is nogal abrupt.Stilistisch vallen de abrupte veranderingen in register en perspectief op, waarschijnlijk toch wel een nieuwigheid. De stijl zelf doet zeer bombastisch, rabelaissiaans aan. Tekening Ahab: mengeling van sympathie en veroordeling

[egrant5329 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I finally got around to reading this book. The book was a little hard to read due to the more complicated sentence structure used in 1851 when it was published. The book had a lot of potential, but the story was diluted down by all the information on whales. The info was interesting, however, it distracted the reader from the story. I found it odd how one chapter would be "normal" writing, then the next would be older style English, which I didn't like to read. The book could have easily been trimmed by 200 pages and much more character dialogue added to build the story.

[edwinbcn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It has been said, and must be said again, that Moby-Dick is for the large part tedious to read, and only a very small portion of the book, notable the last three chapters are full of fury, and heart-throbbing excitement.The endless succession of page-upon-page of knowledge about whaling, are like the vastness of the oceans, and the huge lapses of time that the voyage of the Pequod takes. The sparse encounters with other ships, emphasize the loneliness at sea, especially the isolation of Ahab. (It is a bit odd they never enter a port.)Early in the novel, we are told that few people understand or appreciate the whaling business, and this oversight is clearly and effectively remedied by including so much knowledge about whaling. Some of this knowledge is clearly needed to read the later chapters in the novel. This part of Melville's novel does what Hemingway's Death in the afternoon does for bull fighting.To understand why bull fighting is heroic, and what is the aesthetic value of it, you need a fair amount of knowledge and an open mind. The sincere, and easy-going friendship between Ishmael and Queequeg, which was probably odd in Melville's day, and might even be unusual in ours, shows what it means to be truly open-minded.There are several moments, when the prose takes the shape of "merry comedy", which breaks the dour seriousness of the novel. The second half of the book seems to allow for more humour, as in:The milk is very sweet and rich; it has been tasted by man; it might do well with strawberries. p.424"What's the matter with your nose, there?" said Stubb. "Broke it?""I wish it was broken, or that I didn't have any nose at all!" (...)"But what are you holding yours for?""Oh, nothing! It's a wax nose; I have to hold it on. Fine day, aint it?" p.442-3With chapter 132 entitled "The symphony", the next three chapters are like movements of a symphony, or acts in a ballet. The dance of the whale is splendid and graceful.The best thing about reading Moby-Dick was to get to the story first-hand, and peel or scratch away all the layers of comment and interpretation of others, that had encrusted the this story from my earliest memories. Finishing this book required some perseverance at times, but was ultimately very rewarding.

[ashryan_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Moby Dick is worth reading, despite being pretty abominable philosophically (and parts of it are seemingly interminable and hard to get through, but I think that's actually a deliberate aesthetic choice on Melville's part). There are parts that are very good. The opening chapters about the friendship that develops between Ishmael and Queequeg are actually quite entertaining, and Melville makes some insightful psychological points through the character of Ahab. There are a lot of sort of proto-postmodernist elements in terms of the novel's form, along with Melville's belief in man's impotence in both thought and action which they represent---but nowhere near to the extent that would come later, in, for example, Ulysses.

[davelancaster · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

DNF!(Did NOT Finish!) Tried to read this in 2010. Edition I had was over 500 pages. Got to page 175, and couldn't take anymore! I know it's considered a classic for the themes it represents, but I just couldn't get through it. Just not my cup of tea. I read for sweeping adventure, sci-fi, fantasy, let me escape stuff. Waaay to much descriptive style here for me. If there was an abridged version, with just the adventure parts, I would read it. But that would only be about 50 pages...I know. At least I tried...

[clmerle · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I listened to the free Librivox recording of the book. The reader did an excellent job.

[jmoncton_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

People have said that Moby Dick is an American classic - the ultimate American novel. I've also heard that it is long and tedious and rambles on about things that are only vaguely related to the plot. After finishing this book, I felt that it was a combination of both - a great American epic that depicts the story of a man obsessed with killing a white whale and, at the same time, one of those classics that goes off topic for chapters at a time. I read this book gradually in both audio and print over several weeks, reading bits in between some of my other books. I found myself drawn to it more and more and even talking to others about the book. The descriptions of whaling in the 19th century are fascinating. I thought I would be completely disgusted by the hunting and killing of such a noble animal, but instead, I thought the graphic descriptions of the dangerous lives of the whalers was really impressive and I found myself sharing these stories with my family. Yes, there were chapters (especially the infamous White chapter) that I would finish and not have any idea what was the purpose or benefit of the chapter, but overall, I really enjoyed this book. It is definitely the type of book I would want to visit again, this time trying to understand all the Biblical and mythological references. Definitley deserves to be read by everyone.

[comfypants · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

A harrowing experience. It starts out so promising... and then the story is put on hold and the perspective is abandoned while Melville writes a series of loosely related essays. For hundreds of pages. By the time the story resumes, I couldn't care less about it; I just want to get through it. After coming so far, you can't NOT finish...

[edgeworth_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.Thus begins Moby-Dick, a heavy novel both literally and figuratively, considered one of America's finest tales and written by a master of the English language. It took me nearly three weeks to read this gargantuan book, which I suppose is appropriate. It is a fascinating novel. On the surface, Moby-Dick appears to be a simple adventure tale about the ill-fated voyage of the Pequod, a vessel commanded by the monomaniacal Captain Ahab, who lusts for vengeance against the infamous albino whale that cost him his leg in a previous encounter. It examines the whaling industry in every stark, grisly detail, sparing no account of the dismemberment of the whales or the horrors of the voyage, and while this life may seem romanticised and exotic now, at the time it was a profession regarded on the same level as meatpacking or carpentry. It should not be a masterpiece - and yet it is. Almost the entire story takes place aboard the Pequod, and there are less than ten major characters. Despite these constraints - or perhaps because of them - Moby-Dick is an epic, sprawling novel, touching upon hugely complex themes. The characters speak in grand Biblical and Shakespearean fashion, soliliquising about life, death and the universe, speaking to the reader in frequent asides, contemplating the meaning of their voyage, of their desires, of their true nature. Whalers spent a lot of time at sea, sometimes going years without sighting land. With nothing to look at but the depths of the ocean and the depths of the stars, it's not surprising that their minds turned to thinking about some heavy shit.Ishmael, though he is the narrator, is no major character - this is Captain Ahab's story, the story of a tragic hero in the Greek fashion, his fatal flaw being a completely illogical thirst for vengeance. Ahab is not a bad man, nor a bad captain. He is simply mad, yet not so mad that he does not realise it, and not so mad that he does not take pains to hide it from his crew. The second most important character is Starbuck, the first mate, and the only member of the Pequod's crew who does not get swept up by Ahab's grand, hypnotic speeches and declare to follow the captain into the jaws of hell. Starbuck voices his doubts regularly, frequently clashes with Ahab, and towards the end of the voyage contemplates murdering the man before he gets them all killed. As the book and the voyage draws to a conclusion, and both Starbuck and Ahab grow more tortured and melancholy, this becomes a truly sad story.Melville displays a much greater command of the English language then he did in Typee; almost every page contains references to great stories that came before him, to old English literature, to the Bible, to the Greek and Roman canon. Likewise, his own skill with words creates powerful imagery:By midnight the works were in full operation. We were clear from the carcass; sail had been made; the wind was freshening; the wild ocean darkness was intense. But that darkness was licked up by the fierce flames, which at intervals forked forth from the sooty flues, and illuminated every lofty rope in the rigging, as with the famed Greek fire. The burning ship drove on, as if remorselessly commissioned to some vengeful deed. So the pitch and sulphur-freighted brigs of the bold Hydriote, Canaris, issuing from their midnight harbors, with broad sheets of flame for sails, bore down upon the Turkish frigates, and folded them in conflagrations....Here lounged the watch, when not otherwise employed, looking into the red heat of the fire, till their eyes felt scorched in their heads. Their tawny features, now all begrimed with smoke and sweat, their matted beards, and the contrasting barbaric brilliancy of their teeth, all these were strangely revealed in the capricious emblazonings of the works. As they narrated to each other their unholy adventures, their tales of terror told in words of mirth; as their uncivilized laughter forked upwards out of them, like the flames from the furnace; as to and fro, in their front, the harpooneers wildly gesticulated with their huge pronged forks and dippers; as the wind howled on, and the sea leaped, and the ship groaned and dived, and yet steadfastly shot her red hell further and further into the blackness of the sea and the night, and scornfully champed the white bone in her mouth, and viciously spat round her on all sides; then the rushing Pequod, freighted with savages, and laden with fire, and burning a corpse, and plunging into that blackness of darkness, seemed the material counterpart of her monomaniac commander's soul.Any masterpiece has its flaws, of course - Moby-Dick's is the enormous pile of tedious chapters in which Melville, via Ishmael, feels obliged to dump all the knowledge of the whale he has accumulated over his career onto the reader. He discusses the head, the spine, the tail, the skeleton, the whale's distribution, whale psychology, whale herding behaviour, laws pertaining to whaling and so forth. He gushes on and on about the whale's sublime form, its majesty, its titanic beauty, that I eventually felt like shouting "JUST HAVE SEX WITH ONE ALREADY." Moby-Dick has been successfully adapted to the stage for three reasons: the small cast of characters, the single setting, and the fact that at least half the book consists of completely superfluous chapters that can easily be cut. I understand why they're there, but there was no need whatsoever to have quite that amount of them, or even to award them separate chapters rather than weaving them into the main narrative.In spite of its flaws, I was impressed by this book. It did grow tedious towards the end, and I do have trouble reading stories more than a hundred years old (let alone those that employ lofty Shakespearean dialogue). I wouldn't exactly say that I enjoyed it. But I was intrigued by it, and swept up in it, and as the tragic overtones become more explicit towards the conclusion, I was moved by it. I am glad that I read it, and glad that it exists. Moby-Dick is truly an amazing piece of writing, and has rightfully earned its place in the firmament of literary history.