Moby-Dick, Or, The Whale

This edition of Moby- Dick, released in honor of the book's 150th anniversary, is the authoritative text of one of the world's great adventure stories. A crew of whalers sets out in pursuit of a fierce white whale that had cost their captain his leg on a previous expedition. Their names ring through the canon of American literature: Ishmael, the narrator; Queenpeg, a South Seas harpooner; Starbuck, the sober and serious chief mate; and above all Captain Ahab, part Faust and part Job, leading his men to the ends of the earth- and the destiny he will share with his foe.

Melville was heavily influenced and inspired by his experiences at sea; first as a young cabin boy on the whaler, Achushnet, and later in the US Navy sailing the Atlantic and South Seas. Typee and its sequel, Omoo, were accounts of his capture and subsequent captivity at the hands of a tribe of cannibals in the South Pacific Marquesas Islands. Both works were highly successful and thus the lukewarm reaction to Moby- Dick upon its release in 1851 was a blow to Melville, who had set out to write a "mighty book" on a "mighty theme." It was not until the 1920's that Moby- Dick began to finally receive the critical attention it richly deserved. Today, Moby- Dick is recognized as one of the premier epics in American literary history and indeed the ultimate tale of obsession and revenge.


This text of Moby-Dick is an Approved Text of the Center for Scholarly Editions (Modern Language Association of America).