24 h 23 minAudiobook6 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 599 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 599 pagesAbout this book
What happens when a captain turns an entire ship toward the creature that took his leg?
Ishmael leaves the land in search of escape and adventure. With his friend Queequeg, a brave and loyal harpooner, he joins the whaling ship Pequod. Its captain, Ahab, has another purpose: to find Moby Dick, the white whale he blames for his wound.
As Ahab's vengeance takes hold, the voyage becomes a struggle between one man's will and the lives around him. Starbuck, the cautious first mate, fears his captain's purpose. Meanwhile, Ishmael explores whales, ships, faith, and fate, turning an adventure at sea into a restless search for meaning.
What you’ll discover
- A captain consumed by vengeance Follow Ahab as his hunt crowds out every other purpose aboard the Pequod.
- Friendship on uncertain waters Meet Queequeg, whose courage and loyalty give Ishmael a close companion at sea.
- The work of whaling Explore the ropes, ships, and hard tasks behind the hunt for whales.
- A whale beyond explanation Consider how one white whale carries different meanings for the people who pursue it.
- A mind that wanders Let Ishmael lead you from dangerous action into curious reflections on an immense world.
Who will love it
For readers who love ambitious sea stories and characters driven by one overpowering idea. It also suits anyone drawn to questions of obsession, fate and faith, or curious about why people still argue over this book.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Ishmael leaves the land for the sea
- The Pequod is chosen and warnings are ignored
- Ahab appears and binds the crew
- A crew of many nations and many minds
- Whaling as work, knowledge and wonder
- Passing ships and warnings along the way
- Obsession and fate drive the story
- Meaning, faith and the mask of the whale
- A book built like the sea itself
Who’s who
- IshmaelA restless sailor and schoolteacher who tells the story, curious about whales, people and ideas, and signing on to the Pequod to escape his gloom.
- Captain AhabThe commanding, scarred captain of the Pequod, who lost a leg to a white whale and has sworn to hunt it down.
- QueequegA tattooed harpooner from the South Seas who becomes Ishmael's closest friend, brave and loyal, and faithful to his own gods.
- StarbuckThe Pequod's first mate, a devout Quaker from Nantucket who wants an honest whaling voyage and fears Ahab's vengeance.
- StubbThe second mate, a cheerful pipe-smoking whaleman who meets danger with jokes and avoids deep questions.
- FlaskThe short, stubborn third mate, who treats whale hunting as a plain contest to be won.
- FedallahA mysterious Parsee who leads Ahab's private boat crew and is rumored by the sailors to be a devil.
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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Moby-Dick in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Moby-Dick
by Herman Melville · 1851
Ahab turns the Pequod's whaling voyage into a private war against the white whale that took his leg.
ChallengingOver 20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Some men hear the sea calling and cannot say no. Moby-Dick, Herman Melville's novel of 1851, follows one whaling voyage out of Nantucket.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Ishmael leaves the land for the sea
The novel opens with three words that have become its signature, Call me Ishmael. He has little money and nothing to hold him on shore. Whenever a gloom settles on him, he goes to sea.
In New Bedford he must share a bed at the Spouter-Inn with a harpooner named Queequeg. The man is tattooed, comes from a South Sea island and prays to a small black idol. Ishmael first fears him. Then he decides that a decent man may be found under any skin.
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What is Moby-Dick about?
It follows Ishmael, a sailor aboard the whaling ship Pequod, whose captain, Ahab, is obsessed with killing the white whale that took his leg. It is also full of detail about whales, whaling work and big questions of fate and meaning.
Is Moby-Dick based on a true story?
The plot is fiction, but Melville drew on his own time on whaleships in the 1840s and on real events, including the sinking of the whaleship Essex by a whale in 1820 and tales of a white whale called Mocha Dick.
What does the white whale symbolize?
The book does not give one answer. To Ahab, the whale stands for a hidden evil in the universe. To others it is just an animal or a mystery, and readers still debate it.
The author
Herman Melville
1819–1891 · American novelist and poet
Herman Melville (1819–1891) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and poet. He was born and died in New York City and also lived in Massachusetts. He published Moby-Dick in 1851, Pierre in 1852, and The Confidence-Man in 1857. His unfinished Billy Budd was published after his death, in 1924.
More by Herman Melville
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