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mak506's review against another edition
5.0
It feels silly to attempt to review Moby Dick, so let's be brief say I concur with the general opinion that it's a masterpiece. It took me awhile to get to it, then it took me awhile to get through it, but it was worthwhile. I'm sure there are tons of things I missed appreciating the first time around, but that's okay. Ishmael's unexpected humor, Ahab's majestic raging, the Shakespearean staging, and a window into a strange, surprisingly fascinating world were enough. I still think whaling is abhorrent, but I'm hoping to get to one of the local whaling museums before this fascination wears off.
tmaltman's review against another edition
5.0
Brief Thoughts on Long Novels, entry #5
Of all the long novels I’ve read this year, Moby Dick has been the most thrilling and confounding. Confounding, because Melville bombards the reader with an entire encyclopedia’s worth of 19th-century whaling esotera, from the economics of the industry to every last detail in the known world about the science of cetology. Of all the classic long novels I’ve read this year, none has a lower rating on Goodreads. It equally inspires both love and hate more than a century after its publication. This novel ruined Herman Melville in his lifetime, selling so poorly he took a job as a customs official and didn’t publish another book–the slender Billy Budd–until shortly before his death decades later. Yes, all of this is true, AND YET, I count this book as one of the greatest American novels ever written. Why?
Shakespearian in its majesty, Hawthornian in its darkness, it’s one of the bravest, most fearless books I’ve ever read. And why has nobody ever told me before about Melville’s sense of humor and irony? “Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunk Christian,” the narrator Ishmael opines early on, as he shares a bed with Queequeg, a heavily-tattooed pagan harpooner. (Homo-erotic undercurrents run through this book, leading some scholars to speculate about the author’s own unhappy marriage.) This book packs in madness and hilarity, and part of the madness has to do with the sheer damn poetry of it all. Melville had no college education–a whaling ship was my Yale College and my Harvard, he once said–but he had recently discovered Shakespeare and fallen in love with the plays and it shows on nearly every page. (Like King Lear, Ahab glooms with tragic hubris.) This is a book written by a man drunk on language, and the lyrical prose practically sings on the page.
Consider a passage like this, as one of the tragic characters, Pip the stowaway, jumps overboard and begins to drown: “The sea had jeeringly kept his finite body up, but drowned the infinite of his soul. Not drowned entirely, though. Rather carried down alive to wondrous depths, where strange shapes of the unwarped primal world glided to and fro before his passive eyes; and the miser-merman, Wisdom, revealed his hoarded heaps; and among the joyous, heartless, ever-juvenile eternities, Pip saw the multitudinous, God-omnipresent, coral insects, that out of the firmament of waters heaved the colossal orbs. He saw God’s foot upon the treadle of the loom, and spoke it; and therefore his shipmates called him mad. So man’s insanity is heaven’s sense; and wandering from all mortal reason, man comes at last to that celestial thought, which, to reason, is absurd and frantic; and weal or woe, feels then uncompromised, indifferent as his God.” Wow, I found myself writing in the margins many times. I loved this book. It’s profound, maddening, divisive, a poetic epic that is often read as a foreshadowing of the great tragedy of the Civil War. It's a novel, in short, that will endure for all time. I’ll leave you here with Ishmael’s presentiment: “I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing.”
Of all the long novels I’ve read this year, Moby Dick has been the most thrilling and confounding. Confounding, because Melville bombards the reader with an entire encyclopedia’s worth of 19th-century whaling esotera, from the economics of the industry to every last detail in the known world about the science of cetology. Of all the classic long novels I’ve read this year, none has a lower rating on Goodreads. It equally inspires both love and hate more than a century after its publication. This novel ruined Herman Melville in his lifetime, selling so poorly he took a job as a customs official and didn’t publish another book–the slender Billy Budd–until shortly before his death decades later. Yes, all of this is true, AND YET, I count this book as one of the greatest American novels ever written. Why?
Shakespearian in its majesty, Hawthornian in its darkness, it’s one of the bravest, most fearless books I’ve ever read. And why has nobody ever told me before about Melville’s sense of humor and irony? “Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunk Christian,” the narrator Ishmael opines early on, as he shares a bed with Queequeg, a heavily-tattooed pagan harpooner. (Homo-erotic undercurrents run through this book, leading some scholars to speculate about the author’s own unhappy marriage.) This book packs in madness and hilarity, and part of the madness has to do with the sheer damn poetry of it all. Melville had no college education–a whaling ship was my Yale College and my Harvard, he once said–but he had recently discovered Shakespeare and fallen in love with the plays and it shows on nearly every page. (Like King Lear, Ahab glooms with tragic hubris.) This is a book written by a man drunk on language, and the lyrical prose practically sings on the page.
Consider a passage like this, as one of the tragic characters, Pip the stowaway, jumps overboard and begins to drown: “The sea had jeeringly kept his finite body up, but drowned the infinite of his soul. Not drowned entirely, though. Rather carried down alive to wondrous depths, where strange shapes of the unwarped primal world glided to and fro before his passive eyes; and the miser-merman, Wisdom, revealed his hoarded heaps; and among the joyous, heartless, ever-juvenile eternities, Pip saw the multitudinous, God-omnipresent, coral insects, that out of the firmament of waters heaved the colossal orbs. He saw God’s foot upon the treadle of the loom, and spoke it; and therefore his shipmates called him mad. So man’s insanity is heaven’s sense; and wandering from all mortal reason, man comes at last to that celestial thought, which, to reason, is absurd and frantic; and weal or woe, feels then uncompromised, indifferent as his God.” Wow, I found myself writing in the margins many times. I loved this book. It’s profound, maddening, divisive, a poetic epic that is often read as a foreshadowing of the great tragedy of the Civil War. It's a novel, in short, that will endure for all time. I’ll leave you here with Ishmael’s presentiment: “I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing.”
pjelenek's review against another edition
3.0
Wow. It’s so pointless to write review on classical masterpieces such as Moby Dick but I’m going to give it a shot just for myself, since I know I will forget those feelings I have about the book right now.
I feel ashamed that it is my first time reading this book, I feel ashamed that I didn’t know that Stabucks has it’s name because of a character in this book and hell I feel ashamed that I didn’t even know that Moby Dick is a whale.
Because now I understand the hype about this book in the american literature.
Three stars because I won’t read it again anytime soon (in 30 years probs).
But three stars because it truly has amazing literature styles and almost every chapter is different from the other. And the characters are written in very interesting way. It is not about the storyline but about the symbolism behind it. Not just the message well described in Simpsons but symbolism in Bible also. I felt really stupid while reading this book and most of the time I’ve spent googling the names and Biblical meanings - which I consider fun (no sarcasm here).
But … I’m feeling quite depressed now (maybe the weather?) and I’m used to reading quite depressing stories (Russian literature, yes, I’m looking at you, hey, don’t you dare to hide Young Werther!). But this was something else. The loneliness on the sea, the hopeless fight, the nonsense about revenge on an animal? I don’t know. I liked it just for the sake of words and genre but finish it was quite hard and the feelings after? No thanks.
I feel ashamed that it is my first time reading this book, I feel ashamed that I didn’t know that Stabucks has it’s name because of a character in this book and hell I feel ashamed that I didn’t even know that Moby Dick is a whale.
Because now I understand the hype about this book in the american literature.
Three stars because I won’t read it again anytime soon (in 30 years probs).
But three stars because it truly has amazing literature styles and almost every chapter is different from the other. And the characters are written in very interesting way. It is not about the storyline but about the symbolism behind it. Not just the message well described in Simpsons but symbolism in Bible also. I felt really stupid while reading this book and most of the time I’ve spent googling the names and Biblical meanings - which I consider fun (no sarcasm here).
But … I’m feeling quite depressed now (maybe the weather?) and I’m used to reading quite depressing stories (Russian literature, yes, I’m looking at you, hey, don’t you dare to hide Young Werther!). But this was something else. The loneliness on the sea, the hopeless fight, the nonsense about revenge on an animal? I don’t know. I liked it just for the sake of words and genre but finish it was quite hard and the feelings after? No thanks.
stefanie76's review against another edition
5.0
This version of Moby Dick is perfect for a young reader: it is exciting, adventurous, and kept my 9-year-old's attention to the very end. There's some good history here and a lot of interesting tidbits of life on a whaling boat in the 19th century; though as an animal lover, he found some of the descriptions of killing a whale pretty disturbing. He was relieved to know commercial whaling is now illegal, at least in the United States.
As a third-grader, he's been working in school on analyzing characters, describing their personality traits, their motivations, etc. This was a great book for practicing that particular skill. Ahab, Starbuck, and Ishmael all made for good character analysis and discussion. We will continue reading more classics in this series for sure. They are written in a more accessible style for young readers.
As a third-grader, he's been working in school on analyzing characters, describing their personality traits, their motivations, etc. This was a great book for practicing that particular skill. Ahab, Starbuck, and Ishmael all made for good character analysis and discussion. We will continue reading more classics in this series for sure. They are written in a more accessible style for young readers.
marsh_nichols's review against another edition
2.0
Let’s start with the good: First, this book is more of a piece of modern (or postmodern maybe?) art than a book. It’s a ton of research papers, several philosophical treatises, and a few mediocre short stories haphazardly stitched together. It is truly unique, unlike anything written before or since, and just flat out weird. Plus, it is a figurative Leviathan itself. That most certainly deserves respect and appreciation. I don’t particularly like it - I think the pacing is atrocious and the structure nonsensical at best. But I get how that might attract others.
Second, Moby-Dick does a great job giving us a snapshot of so many American philosophies and qualities. You can’t ignore its significance for that fact alone.
Third, some of the narrative and characters are very entertaining. Queequeg and Stubb were my favorites. Ahab and Pip were also interesting. I’ll note that most characters (not all) are just different voices of the same elitist prick. Let’s call that prick Ishmael.
Now for the bad:
Moby-Dick is a terrible book. People will wax poetic about how all of the chapters about the whaling industry, whale anatomy, and mundane day-to-day in the fisheries are so incredible because - you probably weren’t smart enough to realize it - they are actually about the aforementioned culture and philosophies of 19th century America, as well as even broader more universal truths of Man and Nature. There are plenty of condescending reviewers here that say if you don’t appreciate those chapters, then you are just a simpleton - you didn’t get it and you should go read Colleen Hoover instead.
Here’s the thing. None of those philosophical chapters are unique or interesting in any way. I figured out all of this stuff on my own by the time I was 16. And what’s worse? They were written so heavy handed, so on the nose, with absolutely no subtlety, that it baffles me that there are so many reviewers here that think we actually missed the point. It’s impossible to miss for anyone with a 9th grade reading level.
That brings me to my next point. Moby-Dick is very poorly written. The prose is dense, borderline unapproachable. I’m not just talking about the outdated vocab here, which wouldn’t be fair to hold against Melville in 2024. I’m also talking about the run-on sentences that add no value to what is being said. And those sentences just keep coming. Like many of the people that give this book 5 stars and get so mad when others don’t, Melville is often just talking to talk (cue the people saying I didn’t get it). Sure, sometimes he catches you with a great line, but those moments come so few and far between that it isn’t worth it. And there is no variation!!! So many wasted words.
Isn’t one of the tenets of great writing supposed to be the ability to show rather than tell? I think one of the best things a writer can do is leave some blank space on the page. Pick their words carefully, set the scene, use sentence structure and word choice with a purpose and awaken the readers mind to the endless possibilities, narrative or otherwise. Instead, Melville is going to shove it down your throat whether you like it or not.
If the contest for the title of “THE Great American Novel” is between this and Huck Finn…Huck wins by a landslide.
Second, Moby-Dick does a great job giving us a snapshot of so many American philosophies and qualities. You can’t ignore its significance for that fact alone.
Third, some of the narrative and characters are very entertaining. Queequeg and Stubb were my favorites. Ahab and Pip were also interesting. I’ll note that most characters (not all) are just different voices of the same elitist prick. Let’s call that prick Ishmael.
Now for the bad:
Moby-Dick is a terrible book. People will wax poetic about how all of the chapters about the whaling industry, whale anatomy, and mundane day-to-day in the fisheries are so incredible because - you probably weren’t smart enough to realize it - they are actually about the aforementioned culture and philosophies of 19th century America, as well as even broader more universal truths of Man and Nature. There are plenty of condescending reviewers here that say if you don’t appreciate those chapters, then you are just a simpleton - you didn’t get it and you should go read Colleen Hoover instead.
Here’s the thing. None of those philosophical chapters are unique or interesting in any way. I figured out all of this stuff on my own by the time I was 16. And what’s worse? They were written so heavy handed, so on the nose, with absolutely no subtlety, that it baffles me that there are so many reviewers here that think we actually missed the point. It’s impossible to miss for anyone with a 9th grade reading level.
That brings me to my next point. Moby-Dick is very poorly written. The prose is dense, borderline unapproachable. I’m not just talking about the outdated vocab here, which wouldn’t be fair to hold against Melville in 2024. I’m also talking about the run-on sentences that add no value to what is being said. And those sentences just keep coming. Like many of the people that give this book 5 stars and get so mad when others don’t, Melville is often just talking to talk (cue the people saying I didn’t get it). Sure, sometimes he catches you with a great line, but those moments come so few and far between that it isn’t worth it. And there is no variation!!! So many wasted words.
Isn’t one of the tenets of great writing supposed to be the ability to show rather than tell? I think one of the best things a writer can do is leave some blank space on the page. Pick their words carefully, set the scene, use sentence structure and word choice with a purpose and awaken the readers mind to the endless possibilities, narrative or otherwise. Instead, Melville is going to shove it down your throat whether you like it or not.
If the contest for the title of “THE Great American Novel” is between this and Huck Finn…Huck wins by a landslide.
runekeon's review against another edition
3.0
The story part is good but I found the travel log and natural history lectures boring. The lectures might have been better if modern science had not changed or invalidated so much of what was in the lectures.
craftymoni's review against another edition
2.0
I can now say that I've read Moby Dick. Good for me.
neilaga's review against another edition
3.0
Is this book one of those long, heavy, and deep metaphors? It doesn't matter. I enjoyed it and it was a nice quick read. I'm not going to write a deep-understanding review because I'm stupid.
And I didn't actually quite grasped the meaning.
And have I ever mentioned that I'm an stupid?
I love whales. 3 out of 5. Too much water.
nategass's review against another edition
4.0
Finishing Moby Dick was my own white whale. Ahab's stubborn obsession to slay the leviathan became my stubborn obsession to finish this damn book. I started it 5 years ago.
As tedious and pointlessly detailed as it could be and for all the times I shouted "get to the point!" internally, I have to admit upon reflection that I was never bored. Something about Melville's poetic whaling world kept me coming back.
By the time I reached the last three chapters and could feel the weight of what I had finished in my left hand, my mood shifted and I became as engrossed as if I were reading a modern page-turner. Melville captured what must have been the typical whaling experience- days upon days of nothing but thoughts and reflections at sea punctuated by spontaneous moments of thrill and risk. Is it all worth it? I still don't know.
But still, my overall affection for this book is a mystery to me. You spend this much time with one novel and it becomes something more like a companion. Some days you like it, other days you hate it. Either way it's finished. I'm done. And the sea rolls on as it rolled five thousand years ago.
As tedious and pointlessly detailed as it could be and for all the times I shouted "get to the point!" internally, I have to admit upon reflection that I was never bored. Something about Melville's poetic whaling world kept me coming back.
By the time I reached the last three chapters and could feel the weight of what I had finished in my left hand, my mood shifted and I became as engrossed as if I were reading a modern page-turner. Melville captured what must have been the typical whaling experience- days upon days of nothing but thoughts and reflections at sea punctuated by spontaneous moments of thrill and risk. Is it all worth it? I still don't know.
But still, my overall affection for this book is a mystery to me. You spend this much time with one novel and it becomes something more like a companion. Some days you like it, other days you hate it. Either way it's finished. I'm done. And the sea rolls on as it rolled five thousand years ago.