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houseren's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
informative
tense
slow-paced
What a book. I tried to read this once as a child, once as a teen, and now as an adult I’ve finally vanquished my white whale. But still only on audiobook. It’s a slog to get through, but now that I’ve finished it I feel very fond of it. Melville just wanted to list everything white he could think of and how he felt about it, go on a rant about how everyone else is wrong about whales and only his opinion (that they’re fish) matters, and convince people that whalers are actually the most noble sailors and Americans are the best at it. And honestly king. I can’t label this with stars because I wish I could give it 5 and 1 at the same time. My new white whale is still this book, but in print instead of audio.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
abomine's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Mental illness, Racism, and Suicidal thoughts
byejohn's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
“…to the last gasp of my earthquake life…”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Racism, and Violence
storyorc's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Try the audiobook if you are struggling to get through this one. It is well worth persevering.
I was astounded how tender and thoughtful these hardened whalers are. Ishmael is the infectious heart of this of course; the whole book is him cradling the Pequod and her sailors and their leviathan prey and the whaling industry and sometimes the entire ocean in his hands and holding it out to show us like a toddler that found a cool bug. He is so deeply in love with everything he talks about that you can't help but fall for them too. Even the many long passages of tangential ruminations on the colour white or objects made from whale parts or the wind become endearing rather than frustrating (though it didn't harm my experience to glaze over for some of them).
The ramshackle crew are almost as charming. As many times as the carpenter complains or Stubbs insists on some ridiculous superstition or Captain Ahab snatches 'doomed by the narrative' from the jaws of 'getting over it', they are always colourful in character and, especially, in phrasing. The Nantucket whaling dialect is a form of poetry. It was also a relief to find out that the many characters of colour have as many (perhaps more) heroic moments and insights and jokes, and even flaws, though Melville does withhold from them the internal depth he languishes upon Captain Ahab and Starbuck and Ishmael. We come closest with Queequeg, with whom the narrative is quite smitten, during his coffin episode, but not even he truly gets his own POV like so many of the white sailors.
The head-hopping in general is far out of line with modern standards of good writing. I didn't mind it on the whole, though I did miss Ishmael and Queequeg, who drift farther out of the book's focus the longer it goes. It suits the rambling, all-encompassing nature of the piece. This book contains adventure, sure, but calling it an adventure novel would be a stretch. The pace rises and falls like conditions at sea and you have to have to ride out both the storms and the doldrums. Its structure is more jumping between islands of an archipelago than a cross-country quest, with lectures on the boat rides between. The encounters I found most fascinating personally were when the Pequod encroached on a pod that included calves and when they met the English captain who lost an arm to Moby-Dick.
Spiritually speaking, I have never read anything so complete on any topic as Moby-Dick struck me as being complete on the nature of whales and whaling as seen through a Western lens. I struggle to think of any aspect of them not touched upon - their migration, breeding, products made from them, mythological presence, physical presence, their sweetness, the danger they present, their intimacy with ocean depths and the spectacle of their spouts. Almost as much can be said of the men who hunted them. If you've ever looked up at a titanic plastic whale in a museum and felt a glimpse of something existential, Moby-Dick will dangle you all the way over that edge.
I was astounded how tender and thoughtful these hardened whalers are. Ishmael is the infectious heart of this of course; the whole book is him cradling the Pequod and her sailors and their leviathan prey and the whaling industry and sometimes the entire ocean in his hands and holding it out to show us like a toddler that found a cool bug. He is so deeply in love with everything he talks about that you can't help but fall for them too. Even the many long passages of tangential ruminations on the colour white or objects made from whale parts or the wind become endearing rather than frustrating (though it didn't harm my experience to glaze over for some of them).
The ramshackle crew are almost as charming. As many times as the carpenter complains or Stubbs insists on some ridiculous superstition or Captain Ahab snatches 'doomed by the narrative' from the jaws of 'getting over it', they are always colourful in character and, especially, in phrasing. The Nantucket whaling dialect is a form of poetry. It was also a relief to find out that the many characters of colour have as many (perhaps more) heroic moments and insights and jokes, and even flaws, though Melville does withhold from them the internal depth he languishes upon Captain Ahab and Starbuck and Ishmael. We come closest with Queequeg, with whom the narrative is quite smitten, during his coffin episode, but not even he truly gets his own POV like so many of the white sailors.
The head-hopping in general is far out of line with modern standards of good writing. I didn't mind it on the whole, though I did miss Ishmael and Queequeg, who drift farther out of the book's focus the longer it goes. It suits the rambling, all-encompassing nature of the piece. This book contains adventure, sure, but calling it an adventure novel would be a stretch. The pace rises and falls like conditions at sea and you have to have to ride out both the storms and the doldrums. Its structure is more jumping between islands of an archipelago than a cross-country quest, with lectures on the boat rides between. The encounters I found most fascinating personally were when the Pequod encroached on a pod that included calves and when they met the English captain who lost an arm to Moby-Dick.
Spiritually speaking, I have never read anything so complete on any topic as Moby-Dick struck me as being complete on the nature of whales and whaling as seen through a Western lens. I struggle to think of any aspect of them not touched upon - their migration, breeding, products made from them, mythological presence, physical presence, their sweetness, the danger they present, their intimacy with ocean depths and the spectacle of their spouts. Almost as much can be said of the men who hunted them. If you've ever looked up at a titanic plastic whale in a museum and felt a glimpse of something existential, Moby-Dick will dangle you all the way over that edge.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
The narrator and many characters are racist but not cartoonishly evil about it; they simultaneously often hold the objects of their racism in high esteem and even care for them on a deep, spiritual level, though they never stop exercising casual racism.sarasanchez's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Gore, Racial slurs, and Racism
grem_'s review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
informative
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
i love ishmael. girl what do you MEAN a whales blubber is its skin what’s wrong with you. and he’s even gay
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, and Racism
bearwhocanreadbecauseofmagic's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The prose was beautiful, it was funnier than I thought, and it was a truly awesome book, but it was a bit of a slog in the long middle section of the book when Melville spent many a word describing every possible thing to do with whaling at the time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Gore
piahz's review against another edition
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Herman Melville sure liked to write. He also wants you to know that he read the Bible and all of the philosophers (all of them!) and he understood what they meant to say. A book written by a man, and you can feel it. So graphic about killing and gutting these whales, between getting tangled in all the philosophy crammed into it and being blatantly racist. When there's plot happening it's actually fast paced and interesting, but the other 250 pages draaaaaaaagged on forever. And did he already mention he read philosophy books? This made me understand why people don't like reading classics. If this discouraged you, please give one of the Brontës or Austen a go.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Racial slurs, Racism, and Blood
Minor: Death and Religious bigotry
kjc's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
So much funnier than I expected. So many wonderful sentences, and so many shifting moods and modes where he was either just fucking around w writing styles or really indulging his obsession w whales and whaling. It took me a long time to get bogged down because I loved the informative whale content, too, but did eventually find myself yelling at Melville to get on with it. And then he did in an extremely satisfying way.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Racism, Violence, and Colonisation
clevermird's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Moby Dick has a reputation with just about anyone who grew up in the US. It's that book you read in English class that's long, boring, and full of whale facts, and that's what I was expecting going in.
What I didn't realize, however, was that this book was also relatively easy to read, surprisingly funny, and full of dick jokes. While it was certainly not a breeze to get through, the prose was relatively modern and uncomplicated and is often written in a dialogue-heavy, almost script-like style that makes it feel fast paced.
So what's the book actually about? A schoolteacher takes a break from teaching to satisfy his wanderlust by joining a whaling crew (as one does). He signs onboard the Pequod, captained by the mysterious Ahab, who seems bent on capturing Moby Dick, the mysterious white whale, at all costs. Vengeance, he claims, for the leg that Moby Dick took from him years ago. What follows is an epic tale (over seven hundred pages!) of vignettes, character studies and, yes, whale facts, all building toward the confrontation at the heart of this quest.
Although I started this review by talking up how much easier this book was than I thought it would be, that doesn't mean it was painless to get through. Moby Dick is heavy on the literary references, allusions, and implications, meaning that it's hardly turn-your-brain-off literature. While I do enjoy something to sink my teeth into, at some point it just got to be way too much, as the endless stream of prose didn't seem to be going anywhere or building to anything, to the point that when the white whale did finally show his face, my reaction wasn't awe so much as an exasperated "finally!".
Was the book worth a read? Absolutely, both from a historical and literature standpoint and as an exercise in appreciating this style of writing. Will I ever read it again? Probably not. I had more fun with Moby Dick than I expected, but ultimately it's just too much of a good thing.
What I didn't realize, however, was that this book was also relatively easy to read, surprisingly funny, and full of dick jokes. While it was certainly not a breeze to get through, the prose was relatively modern and uncomplicated and is often written in a dialogue-heavy, almost script-like style that makes it feel fast paced.
So what's the book actually about? A schoolteacher takes a break from teaching to satisfy his wanderlust by joining a whaling crew (as one does). He signs onboard the Pequod, captained by the mysterious Ahab, who seems bent on capturing Moby Dick, the mysterious white whale, at all costs. Vengeance, he claims, for the leg that Moby Dick took from him years ago. What follows is an epic tale (over seven hundred pages!) of vignettes, character studies and, yes, whale facts, all building toward the confrontation at the heart of this quest.
Although I started this review by talking up how much easier this book was than I thought it would be, that doesn't mean it was painless to get through. Moby Dick is heavy on the literary references, allusions, and implications, meaning that it's hardly turn-your-brain-off literature. While I do enjoy something to sink my teeth into, at some point it just got to be way too much, as the endless stream of prose didn't seem to be going anywhere or building to anything, to the point that when the white whale did finally show his face, my reaction wasn't awe so much as an exasperated "finally!".
Was the book worth a read? Absolutely, both from a historical and literature standpoint and as an exercise in appreciating this style of writing. Will I ever read it again? Probably not. I had more fun with Moby Dick than I expected, but ultimately it's just too much of a good thing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, and Blood
Moderate: Death, Racial slurs, and Racism
Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, and Terminal illness
There are lots of descriptions of and references to drowning in this book.