Moby Dick (Wordsworth Classics)

I recently read the book for the first time,having previously only seen and enjoyed the famous film version by John Houston.(Gregory Peck as Ahab) Parts of the book are long digressions into the detail of whaling etc,and in its form it is a rather strange biblical/classical type of narrative, but in parts wonderfully poetic.(Ishmail is obviously Melville , who draws on his own experiences on the whaler the Acushnet) The powerfully prophetic nature of the messages in the book are very relevant today, however,and it is obvious that Melvilles genius lies in the way that we all draw somewhat different conclusions as to the exact nature of the themes in the book, but Ahab as the fanatical leader,leading his crew and ship to destruction, the Pequad as our world in microcosm, the crew of all creeds and nations who sail on her,who willingly follow Ahab in his madness,the prophecy,the Great White Whale and what he actually represented in Melvilles time and to us now,should be only too obvious and relevant to contemporary readers. Such was Melvilles incredible perception( in 1851,) regarding our world, our species,our potential final scenario,and his anticipation of the greatest of fundamental issues now facing mankind, that the novel not only stands the test of time, but in many ways the message of the book is of even greater relevance, significance,and urgency for us today. This is a truly great book, that everyone should read, and understand.

Old fashioned but good

WARNING: Contain spoiler!! I picked up this book because of the tremendous acclaim that it enjoys. R C Sproul, for example, claimed that it is the best novel ever written, implying that it is not going to be bettered, so we don’t even need to try. How can one who loves books not read it then? For me, the reading has been a drag though. It has taken me nearly a year to read it! I persevere because of the reputation that has preceded it. Why is it so difficult to read? I think first it is a subject that is very distant from my experience. All that I know about the subject is from the book. So, if there is any assumed knowledge, I am lost! Secondly, quite often it reads like research papers on cetology. It is quite interesting to read in its own right but at times it feels the storyline is on hold. I keep thinking if this reflects life on the vast stretch of sea – our minds can wander and take long digression and one after the other before anything happens. It certainly is not a page turner for me. Thirdly, it is a book full of symbolism. The frustration for me is that there are moments of absolute brilliance that I get! But I do not know quite how everything fits together. It seems there is a story beyond the story in front of me but I cannot quite work it out. The patchiness in capturing the vision beyond is dissatisfying. Fourthly the language being not modern may add to the difficulty of comprehension but on the other hand, I enjoy the power of the language that comes through. Those moments of brilliance that I get are exhilarating. These are part of the incentive to urge me on in case I may find some more. I did not know the story at all before I read this book. I did not know the movie either. The ending came as a surprise to me. When there was not much action for most of the book, suddenly we were all geared in suspense for action. After three days of frantic action to chase Moby Dick, it all suddenly came to an abrupt end which is very dramatic. All the conversations and decisions during the chase became their last words!! Very poignant. This death in some sense was avoidable but then they were as if obsessed led by Ahab that made it inevitable. The author ends it at the point of death and no more! Death is sudden! It records no reactions, no eulogies, no remembrance. Everything just perishes in a moment! This is theatrical, and makes reader feel disconcerted, like, “What? After all that, is it the end?” The buildup and pacing of the book does produce that kind of effect. Self-destruction and futility of our craze is powerfully depicted. In terms of symbolism, they are numerous, big and small, dotted everywhere. I don’t think I get most of them, so I wouldn’t share. I see the book with a lot of spiritual battles but they are too profound to grasp in the first sitting with the book. I believe to understand the author’s intention will take much study and many revisits. By then you will become an expert of Moby Dick. Do I like it enough to do so much work on it? The jury is out … It is a very good edition with helpful notes and introduction. It helps a great deal with understanding.

great condition like new

top book top seller

Beautiful edition of Moby dick, bought for my 11 yr old daughter (avid reader) who is desperate to read.

OMG this was the hardest book I have ever read I had to force myself to finish this book. I think I lost the Will to live at one point, the bloody whale is only in the last chapter and there are chapters that are so unnecessary in the book. Unless you have to read this I would not recommend it at all but this is my personal opinion and I hope I do not offend avid readers that have enjoyed the book.

The extensive notes are well worth paying the extra for as they add greatly to the read. As for the book itself, you'll read far better reviews than anything I can write, but suffice to say it's regarded as one of the best books ever written for good reason.

Classic that pretty much doesnt need any introduction. The Story is as old as mankind itself. We define the evil based on our strange and very individual moral standards and then try to wipe it out with doubtful methods which have to be considered evil as well. Nevertheless, a captain and his crew are hunting a whale whom they consider as an evil, devilish creature - The Leviatan. Melville wrote this book after he accompanied whale hunters and strickend a plot which is so twisted and yet so straight if you read between the lines. This book has been an inspiration for many movies and books and allows you, if reading properly, to question your own moral standarts. The bottom line question remains: who or what is evil and how should it be treated. People cross lines for the sake of some odd purpose, while sometimes even questioning their own intergrity. This what Moby Dick is all about.

(There are some spoilers here regarding the ultimate meaning of the book as a whole.) Moby Dick is “not the book people think. It is not even the KIND of book people think. It is the most important and the least understood document in the human archive.” ~ Jed McKenna Moby Dick is a delightful, smashingly entertaining yarn about… well, let me just start by saying that it is very well-written, has a good deal of humor, is more than adequately stocked with symbolism and metaphor, has plenty of philosophical sidebars and meanderings, is encyclopedic in its knowledge about and insights into the science and workings of the whaling industry, has its share of intrigue and bewilderment, is at times heart wrenching, has numerous religious and classical connotations and references, is awash with excitement and adventure, has a plethora of very well formed characters and… it is considered a literary masterpiece. What more could one ask for in a book? So what is it about? “Truth has no confines.” Moby Dick is an ornery and cantankerous giant sperm whale, a leviathan, which has, over the years, left a substantial trail of injuries, maimings, miseries, sufferings and, dare I say, annihilation in its wake – a horrendous rap sheet at best. The Pequod is a commercial whaling ship that is hired to sail the seven seas in search of high quality, large quantity whale oil to be sold once the ship successfully returns to port – it is a purely business venture for everyone involved or, rather, with the exception of…. Captain Ahab is the, also ornery and cantankerous, man hired to be sole commander and head honcho of the Pequod in this many years long pecuniary pursuit. Sounds rather straight forward, right? What could go wrong? "It is not down in any map; true places never are." Moby Dick is generally believed to be about the gradual decent into madness of Captain Ahab, thus resulting in his eventual monomaniacal quest for the aforesaid great leviathan, Moby Dick. Ahab’s crusade incorporates the entire crew of the Pequod who are, along with Ahab himself, ultimately sent to Davy Jones’ Locker or are they? That is the nearly universal consensus of the meaning of the book Moby Dick. But… is that really what is going on here? Does this interpretation even make sense? “Methinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is my true substance. Methinks that in looking at things spiritual, we are too much like oysters observing the sun through the water, and thinking that thick water the thinnest of air.” If Ahab is, in fact, just a crackpot out for revenge then this book, at least to me, would be kind of silly – crazy man convinces ship owners to hire him, coaxes crew into blindly following him to kill one particular whale for the sole purpose of revenge, all are ultimately destroyed… end of story. If this is the case, then who is the orphan who lives at the end of the book and who is Ishmael? There must be something more to this than meets the eye. Melville must have had a deeper, perhaps even more profound, purpose in mind for writing this very intense and precisely written novel. “All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event—in the living act, the undoubted deed—there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask!” Moby Dick, in my opinion, goes way beyond the literal goings-on of this book to a much broader, deeper, more profoundly transcendental and mystical interpretation and understanding. If we look at Ahab as not crazy but sane, radically sane, then many of his otherwise baffling rantings and ravings start to make sense. “Swerve me? The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run. Over unsounded gorges, through the rifled hearts of mountains, under torrents' beds, unerringly I rush! Naught's an obstacle, naught's an angle to the iron way!” His is a quest, a quest for truth and freedom, a monomaniacal quest and Moby Dick represents the delusion standing in the way of his goal. “All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it”. Moby Dick, the whale, is a veil of delusion to be pierced – the white backdrop upon which everything that is not truth is projected - the mask behind which freedom is to be found. Ahab is locked in a prison of his own making and strives to break out, in fact, that’s his whole reason for being. “If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall?” This is the quest for ultimate truth and for finding this truth regardless of the cost and regardless of the outcome. This truth is spiritual enlightenment, the return to oneness, the transcendence of consciousness from the illusory confines of the ego and Ahab is powerless in its wake. “But if the great sun move not of himself; but is as an errand-boy in heaven; nor one single star can revolve, but by some invisible power; how then can this one small heart beat; this one small brain think thoughts; unless God does that beating, does that thinking, does that living, and not I.” Ahab is on a one directional voyage to finally pierce through the veil of illusion to get to the other side. He risks all for this. He incinerates all attachments and beliefs to return to absolute wholeness. In the end, he completely eviscerates his ego, annihilates himself and is Captain Ahab no more. “The drama's done. Why then here does any one step forth? --Because one did survive the wreck.” Moby Dick is tale of the spiritual journey of a man who ultimately gets the job done. Does Ahab die? Does it say anywhere in the book that he dies? Did he fail? No, Ahab does not die and he does not fail. He succeeds absolutely and the fact that he lives is proof of his accomplishment – but… he is no longer Ahab the man. He is… he has transcended the veil of illusions and is “in this world but not of it”. He has gone beyond and is one with the all and everything. He is a god unto himself. He is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. He is… “Call me Ishmael.” Moby Dick is a wonderful book and I recommend it to everyone, because it has something for everyone. Don’t worry that you don’t understand all of the references and allusions, how could you, just read it and trust that your soul will understand all that it needs to and is ready to at the time of your reading it. Let it serve not as a toss away book , one to be read once and marked off your list, but as a book to return to as many times in your life as need be. Let it serve for you as a distant shore toward which you head throughout your life, a shore that represents peace and freedom, truth and beauty, shore that can be reached once the ocean of the universe has been completely traversed and the white whale of delusion has been seen through and destroyed. At that time, you can proudly say that the book Moby Dick has been understood in its entirety – but then, there won’t be anyone, be any ego, left to claim the victory because… “It’s not about fictional Ahab and Ishmael but about the real man who make the real journey… Seen correctly, it’s the American Mahabharata.” ~ Jed McKenna

Edición con textos escritos por personas expertas, que acompañan la obra para entender su contexto y relevancia. Esta colección es una buena forma de acercarse a los clásicos sin gastar una fortuna.

good book

It's the classic book, I ordered earlier in 2025 and don't have the same cover