Moby Dick
Ratings476
Average rating3.6
It came to be, in the winter of this year, that, having finished Herbert’s Dune and seeking something new to read, though not yet ready to read Dune Messiah, I came upon an untouched paperback in my bookcase, and, willing to plunge into a nautical adventure, I began reading Moby Dick. This being so, I, prepared to read a legendary classic and unaware of the Goliathan task before me, embarked upon a thee month navigation of dense prose which, in the end, I juggled with five other books; Stoker’s gothic masterpiece Dracula, for I am subscribed for the Dracula Daily newsletter; Crummey’s Sweetland, a novel I read with utmost haste to catch its adaptation ere it departed the silver screen; the aforementioned Dune Messiah, which I began late one evening when, finding myself tucked snugly in my bed and missing my copy of Moby Dick, I reached for the nearest book I had on hand; and ultimately God’s own Holy Bible, which I began reading for the express purpose of understanding the myriad of biblical references Miller employs. Nor was my reading in any way hastened — or indeed unimpeded — by the twisting, winding sentences one must reread twice ere grasping fully; a poetic labyrinth of prose one cannot parse without losing oneself of times; and the White Whale himself more terrible, more loathsome than any mere bull-headed Minotaur that Pasiphaë could muster! Alas, humble thyself Daedalus! Thy labyrinth may house a beast of Neptune’s own twisted design, but the Minotaur could do not but flail and drown when met with his elder brother, the leviathan!
Лучшая книга всех времен и народов. Продублирую сюда свой обзор из ЖЖ:
«Киты.
Зовите меня Измаил.
Киты.
Ахуенная книга.
Киты.
Но я ее, сука, ненавижу.
Киты.
И как же я ее, сука, обажаю.
Киты.
Вот идут страницы сюжета. Вот они ни с того ни с сего прерываются описанием ВСЕГО что есть в китах. А давайте о нервной системе. А давайте об окраске. А давайте о спаривании. А давайте, сука, об одиночестве.
Киты.
Вы возненавидете эту книгу. Но что-то невероятно глубокое в вас, что-то метафизическое будет толкать дочитать ее. Главное ощущение от этой книги у меня сформировалось только сейчас, спустя несколько месяцев (сразу после прочтения я чувствовал ничего и все одновременно. Я просто не мог сказать чего-либо). Эта книга как-будто вовсе и не претендует на то, чтобы ее читали. Она не пытается увлечь вас. Ей плевать, стоит она у вас на полке или нет. Автору плевать, знаете вы о ней, или нет. Если все книги на земле сожгут — останется только она. Не в результате какого-то чуда или всеобщего голосования, а потому что она так решила. Она вне времени и пространства.
Киты.
Сюжет странный. Ее чтение как путешествие по пещере. По странной пещере. По пещере, которая знает все тайны вселенной, но не хочет рассказывать. Не из-за злого умысла. Не чтобы мы сами догадались. Ей просто это не интересно.
Киты.
Книга магическая.
Киты.
Ну и “Проклятие Моби Дика” сработало на мне. Теперь иногда, уже перед сном, на меня нападает аномальное желание срочно ее перечитать.
История безумного Ахава надолго в моей голове.».
I actually think about this a bit, I'd like to re-read it sometime to get more of the details down.
Audiobook was rather nice.
this story sags in the middle but it's clear why it's an epic in american literature.
I mean the writing and plot are incredible. I especially love Ishmael's relationship with Queequeg. And of course Ahab. A lot of the whaling explanatory chapters are tedious and incredibly out of date so they feel especially pointless to read. But that's part of it. The actual plot-bearing chapters are incredible and I highly recommend.
Fantastic read, although you have to be ready for it. See, it's not just about a whaling adventure, the book is about all sorts of things that happen around the adventure. It has chapters describing different types of whales, and different parts of whales, and chapters that have nothing to do with whales or hunting them but instead philosophize about this or that. The book is an adventure story, a history lesson, a natural history guide, with a healthy dose of exploration of the human mind and spirit. Be open to it all, and you'll have a great time with this book.
Note: Each chapter is only a handful of pages long, so everything is pretty short and snappy for such a long book.
This has been on my backlog since college. I bought it for an English course I took and we never got around to actually reading the book in the semester and I've held on to it all that time. I believe the reason our professor had assigned it to us was due to the attention to detail and the research into whaling.
Y'all I think Melville did a lot of research before writing this book. Just a bit.
This was my father’s favorite book. I have a vivid memory of him coming into my bedroom when I was about 6, and my brother 10, years of age insisting that we read it. However, upon seeing the depth of the book, I was immediately intimidated. It was only after my father’s death a couple years ago that I felt compelled to carry out my father’s wish of about three decades prior.
I am very conflicted. As a book it feels very disjointed; one part story, the other part academic, mashed together and related by theme but otherwise seemingly separate. I like both parts independently, but not together.
Additionally, I find Melville’s writing to be redundant, and not in a “oral storytelling tradition” sort of way, but rather in that he used multiple synonyms to describe the same thing. This seems highly inefficient, despite the actual prose being wonderfully poetic.
The characters are incredibly memorable, and well fleshed out. I was connected to each one, my favorite being the kind and loyal cannibal, Queequeg.
I am sure that once I dive deeper into understanding the symbolism and themes present in the book I will grow a deeper appreciation and respect for it, but currently I can not fathom someone reading this for leisure in 2024.
speechless. confounding masterpiece with the depth of the fucking ocean itself. im in awe.
Moby-Dick... Moby-Dick... Moby-Dick
Such a fantastic book. Critiques and detractors will point to how long, and at times, convoluted it is (I disagree), but I feel this type of style actually makes sense, in-universe. Consider Ishmael's seemingly endless digressions into whaling minutiae - the rope-making, the whale taxonomy, the endless cetological observations. While critics have dismissed these as mere padding, they serve a deeper narrative purpose. Like a man circling around trauma he cannot directly face, Ishmael builds elaborate scaffolding of facts and figures, anything to delay the moment when he must confront the horror of what happened to the Pequod and her crew. His encyclopedic knowledge becomes a shield against memory, making the eventual confrontation with tragedy all the more devastating when it finally arrives.
Characters
Moby-Dick isn't a very plot-heavy book. It's strength, in my opinion, is in it's characters. And we can't talk about the characters of moby-dick without talking about it's most interesting character- captain Ahab. He is the epitome of obsession, a figure who personifies humanity's never-ending battle against its own constraints. Ahab symbolizes humanity's spirit of defiance, much like Milton's Lucifer in Paradise Lost, although his disobedience assumes a more nuanced aspect. Where Lucifer rebelled against a known God, Ahab rages against something far more inscrutable - a force he can neither fully comprehend nor accept.
Ahab's obsession with the white whale reveals this philosophical complexity. He transforms Moby Dick through the alchemy of his madness into something beyond mere cetacean - neither pure symbol nor simple creature, but what he calls a “pasteboard mask” concealing some greater power. When he declares “of thy fire thou madest me, and like a true child of fire, I breathe it back to thee,” he speaks not just as a vengeful sailor, but as mankind railing against the very nature of existence. .
The existential drama is exemplified by Ahab's complex relationship with First Mate Starbuck, characterized by intellectual and erotic tension. Their contrasts, contrasting Christian piety against cosmic rebellion and pragmatic commerce against metaphysical quest, reveal deep, unspoken intimacy between the two men.
Themes
I am a sucker for symbolism in fiction, and boy, does Moby Dick have that? It's thematic richness is exemplified by its intricate use of religious symbolism, transforming biblical narratives into complex meditations on faith and human nature.
This clever use of religious symbolism appears quite early in in the book – Father Mapple's discourse on Jonah. Far from being mere biblical reference, this sermon establishes the novel's central spiritual conflict. Jonah's story - his futile attempt to flee God's command, his time in the whale's belly, and his eventual submission to divine will - serves as both mirror and counterpoint to the main narrative that follows.
Melville's careful depiction of Moby Dick is far more than simple physical description. It's a meticulous construction of the whale as a natural creature that is also a supernatural symbol. From the very beginning of the book, we see that Moby Dick's coloration sets him apart from the other whales; it's obvious he's not just any old white whale. Albinism makes him different, but more than that, he's marked by a wrinkled brow and an old, almost patriarchal visage. You wouldn't want to cross him, yet, like most of the great natural wonders, he seems to embody both wisdom and terror. These details do more than make the whale memorable; they elevate it to what Ishmael calls a “grand hooded phantom,” existing somewhere between the material and spiritual worlds. Through this physical description, Melville transforms Moby Dick from mere quarry into what Ahab sees - a physical manifestation of all that is inscrutable and unconquerable in nature.
The religious symbolism extends beyond the whale to infuse the very structure of the novel. The Pequod's journey becomes a kind of inverse pilgrim's progress, with each encounter adding another layer to its theological complexity. The ships they meet serve as stations in this dark pilgrimage - each offering different perspectives on faith, doubt, and human purpose. The Rachel, searching endlessly for her lost children, evokes biblical mother Rachel weeping for her children, while the Delight, strewn with her dead, suggests the futility of earthly pleasure in the face of divine mystery.
Conclusion
Moby-Dick is more than just a literary work for me, it is a mirror reflecting the complexity of human emotions and relationships. Saved my fucking life.
I loved all the homoerotic subtext, but the book really drags in the latter half.
In the words of Ed Hillary, returning to base camp from summiting Everest, “We knocked the bastard off,” and fairly quickly too.
So, what is there to say about this book that has had so much already written about it?
Did I enjoy reading it? I am unsure... I enjoyed some parts a lot, and in equal measure, there were parts I detested. But I have probably jumped ahead...
I am pretty sure I made an attempt at reading this before, but that memory is so vague I have not marked it so on GR. I know I never finished it, and I can't be sure if I even read enough pages to depart from Nantucket... but that is already quite an investment.
I recently read Nathanial Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea, and Moby Dick is obviously referenced fairly heavily. That book was a five star read, cramming in so much whaling and nautical history into a comparatively short book, and it reminded me that Moby Dick was not a book I had successfully completed... so I thought I better tackle it. This book is similar, in that it includes far, far more than the narrative of the whale hunt.
Having recently injured my Achilles tendon, I have had the pleasure, without too much guilt, of lounging about on the couch reading. This allowed me to wallow in Moby Dick more than I would normally have been able to justify...
So to the parts I liked:
- This isn't ‘just' a novel. In fact large tracts if it don't fit into a fiction category at all. It is part scientific treatise, part history of whaling, part history of other random things, part choreographed stage play, part an exploration of mythology and of course part epic nautical adventure. Not only that, but it was all chopped in together.
- So I enjoyed significantly more the scientific and whaling history aspects that the others, but I found the hard transitions between various aspects were far less successful than those in Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea.
- Ishmael's narration - I have put this as a part I like, but it isn't without it's challenges. For the most part I enjoyed the narration of the story, but there were aspects told that he could not have had knowledge of. It is also ironic that Ishmael is such a minor character in the story itself, and for those who have read it the only one to survive!
- Queequeg, as a character was great, a South-Seas Polynesian, from fictional Kokovoko, via New Zealand as described by Ishmael. His bromance with Ishmael was hilarious. P45, “Better [to] sleep with sober cannibal than a drunken Christian”... ha.
And the parts I struggled with:
- Chapter 9, The Sermon. This just about curtailed my reading of this novel. If for some unknown reason, you are reading my review and considering the novel... do yourself a favour and feel free to skip over this chapter of pain.
- The regular changes in style left me, at times, baffled as to what I had just read. It was in places such dense stream-of-consciousness writing that it was practically unmanageable.
- There were whole tracks of text that I couldn't reconcile as being relevant to the narrative. Baffling and almost unintelligible pages... the denser they became the more my eyeballs turned back in their sockets...
- The convoluted repetition got to me too - describing a single event two or three times with different words - just move on already, Melville, you are using up pages!
- Bulkington - I mean, why? Near the start we are given a whole explanation of him and how he will be Ishmael's companion on the Pequod, yet other than one (very) brief mention, he doesn't feature again in the entire novel!
- Anyone who has read my reviews already knows my analysis is always pretty simple. I am not good with analogies; I despise psychological assessments; I don't identify with spiritual aspects. There was too much of this for me.
On balance I have given four stars, as the parts I enjoyed have outweighed the aspects I didn't enjoy. The encyclopedic examination of whaling and whales was fantastic and added another layer on what I learned from Philbrick.
The whole book I prayed for the whale to just appear and sink that ship and eat all of them. But when it did happen, it was way too short for this horrendous, gargantuan encyclopedia about 19th century whaling novel.
Yes, it has some nice prose and all, but that's it.
4.5 bordering on 5
total masterpiece. can't be understated how important this is as a foundation for the postmodern canon. Almost all of my favorite books are all indebted to Moby Dick in some way, ESPECIALLY Pynchon's work and House of Leaves
score may jump up as i listen to lectures and continue exploring this tome ☺️
When people hate this, I totally see why. When people love this, I see why. So it's right in the middle for me.
But damn. Herman never learned a fact he didn't tell you, never recalled an anecdote he didn't spring on you, never used one word when five would do. Ishmael is one overly verbose mofo.
You could read Moby Dick, or you could take a crackhead sailing, and it would be mostly the same experience.
Could have been about 300 pgs shorter and would have been an enjoyable read. I got bogged down in specifics that didn't intrest me.
so there's a point in this where it's all ‘this whale is a....' and it reminded me of the barbie memes and that was the best part
This is the only book I've ever read that I think I might actually have been better with an abridgement. The story is great and the language is beautiful, but over the course of the story, too much attention is given to supplemental chapters about technical details and historical information about whaling in general. While it may be interesting to some, many of these chapters add nothing to the story of Ishmael's adventures on the Pequod.
Very few people actually enjoy the experience of running a marathon, but when it's done they feel like they've got to brag about it and maybe they should. Moby-Dick has been on my list for about a decade and I couldn't get it done. Now it's done and I will absolutely be obnoxious about it
The greatest novel I have ever read and one that has become dearly important to me in the few months since I read it for the first time. A novel of breathtaking scope and scale, with an unparalleled vision and unrivaled prose styling.
I don't think this is the greatest book in the world but it is good and so very weird.