Moby Dick

Herman Melville

• Publisher: Engage Classics
• Year: 2020
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781774374412
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Classics
• Index: Literature

A sailor called Ishmael narrates the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaler Pequod, for revenge on Moby Dick, a white whale which on a previous voyage destroyed Ahab's ship and severed his leg at the knee. Although the novel was a commercial failure and out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891, its reputation as a Great American Novel grew during the 20th century. William Faulkner confessed he wished he had written it himself, and D. H. Lawrence called it "one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world", and "the greatest book of the sea ever written."Moby Dick is considered as an outstanding work of Romanticism. The product of a year and a half of writing, the book draws on Melville's experience at sea, on his reading in whaling literature, and on literary inspirations such as Shakespeare and the Bible. The detailed and realistic descriptions of whale hunting and of extracting whale oil, as well as life aboard ship among a culturally diverse crew, are mixed with exploration of class and social status, good and evil, and the existence of God. In addition to narrative prose, Melville uses styles and literary devices ranging from songs, poetry and catalogs to Shakespearean stage directions, soliloquies and asides.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Contents
• Etymology
• Extracts
• 1 Loomings
• 2 The Carpet-Bag
• 3 The Spouter-Inn
• 4 The Counterpane
• 5 Breakfast
• 6 The Street
• 7 The Chapel
• 8 The Pulpit
• 9 The Sermon
• 10 A Bosom Friend
• 11 Nightgown
• 12 Biographical
• 13 Wheelbarrow
• 14 Nantucket
• 15 Chowder
• 16 The Ship
• 17 The Ramadan
• 18 His Mark
• 19 The Prophet
• 20 All Astir
• 21 Going Aboard
• 22 Merry Christmas
• 23 The Lee Shore
• 24 The Advocate
• 25 Postscript
• 26 Knights and Squires
• 27 Knights and Squires
• 28 Ahab
• 29 Enter Ahab; to Him, Stubb
• 30 The Pipe
• 31 Queen Mab
• 32 Cetology
• 33 The Specksnyder
• 34 The Cabin-Table
• 35 The Mast-Head
• 36 The Quarter-Deck
• 37 Sunset
• 38 Dusk
• 39 First Night Watch
• 40 Midnight, Forecastle
• 41 Moby Dick
• 42 Whiteness of The Whale
• 43 Hark!
• 44 The Chart
• 45 The Affidavit
• 46 Surmises
• 47 The Mat-Maker
• 48 The First Lowering
• 49 The Hyena
• 50 Ahab’s Boat and Crew
• 51 The Spirit-Spout
• 52 The Albatross
• 53 The Gam
• 54 The Town-Ho’s Story
• 55 Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales
• 56 Of the Less Erroneous Pictures of Whales, and the True Pictures of Whaling Scenes
• 57 Of Whales in Paint; in Teeth; in Wood; in Sheet-Iron; in Stone; in Mountains; in Stars
• 58 Brit
• 59 Squid
• 60 The Line
• 61 Stubb Kills a Whale
• 62 The Dart
• 63 The Crotch
• 64 Stubb’s Supper
• 65 The Whale as a Dish
• 66 The Shark Massacre
• 67 Cutting In
• 68 The Blanket
• 69 The Funeral
• 70 The Sphynx
• 71 The Jeroboam’s Story
• 72 The Monkey-Rope
• 73 Stubb and Flask Kill a Right Whale;
• 74 The Sperm Whale’s Head
• 75 The Right Whale’s Head
• 76 The Battering-Ram
• 77 The Great Heidelburgh Tun
• 78 Cistern and Buckets
• 79 The Prairie
• 80 The Nut
• 81 The Pequod Meets the Virgin
• 82 The Honour and Glory of Whaling
• 83 Jonah Historically Regarded
• 84 Pitchpoling
• 85 The Fountain
• 86 The Tail
• 87 The Grand Armada
• 88 Schools and Schoolmasters
• 89 Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish
• 90 Heads or Tails
• 91 The Pequod Meets The Rose-Bud
• 92 Ambergris
• 93 The Castaway
• 94 A Squeeze of the Hand
• 95 The Cassock
• 96 The Try-Works
• 97 The Lamp
• 98 Stowing Down and Clearing Up
• 99 The Doubloon
• 100 Leg and Arm
• 101 The Decanter
• 102 A Bower in the Arsacides
• 103 Measurement of The Whale’s Skeleton
• 104 The Fossil Whale
• 105 Does the Whale’s Magnitude Diminish?–Will He Perish?
• 106 Ahab’s Leg
• 107 The Carpenter
• 108 Ahab and the Carpenter
• 109 Ahab and Starbuck in the Cabin
• 110 Queequeg in His Coffin
• 111 The Pacific
• 112 The Blacksmith
• 113 The Forge
• 114 The Gilder
• 115 The Pequod Meets The Bachelor
• 116 The Dying Whale
• 117 The Whale Watch
• 118 The Quadrant
• 119 The Candles
• 120 The Deck Towards the End of the First Night Watch
• 121 Midnight
• 122 Midnight Aloft
• 123 The Musket
• 124 The Needle
• 125 The Log and Line
• 126 The Life-Buoy
• 127 The Deck
• 128 The Pequod Meets The Rachel
• 129 The Cabin
• 130 The Hat
• 131 The Pequod Meets the Delight
• 132 The Symphony
• 133 The Chase – First Day
• 134 The Chase – Second Day
• 135 The Chase – Third Day
• Epilogue
• Notes