Moby-Dick [with Biographical Introduction]

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Moby Dick | Summary, Interpretation, & Context | leondumoulin.nl

Melville proved a difficult friend, moody and unforthcoming. Yet the two remained in contact until Hawthorne's death. One would have to call this friendship the highpoint of Melville's public life as a writer. Melville appears to have grown jealous of Hawthorne, whose reputation soared as his own - in the wake of several disappointing and dull novels, such as Mardi and Redburn - began to sink.


  1. Context and reception.
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  4. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville | leondumoulin.nl;

The great irony here, of course, is that Melville was writing Moby-Dick at this time. Moby-Dick, as it should, lies at the gravitational centre of this book. That novel impressed countless modern readers as a prophetic work.

Similar authors to follow

As we begin our transition into the 21st century, this book has lost none of its salience. In Captain Ahab, Melville had invented a suicidal charismatic who denounces as a blasphemer anyone who would deflect him from his purpose - an invention that shows no sign of become obsolete any time soon. With dramatic skill and genuinely synthetic powers, Delbanco portrays the making of this massive narrative. It was a monumental achievement for Melville, whose visionary powers blazed during this period, resulting in a work of such poetic expansiveness and spiritual frenzy that anyone who reads it seriously must bow before its terrifying depths.

It's a tale of "the reciprocal love between a demagogue and his adoring followers", a novel with such allegorical resonance that it seems endlessly adaptable to local political or social circumstances, hence meaningful for new generations of readers.

The hunting of Herman Melville

The story itself, about a whale who refused to take no for an answer, was based on at least one well-known account. Yet Melville transmogrified this material, turning a tall fishing tale into a sublime spiritual quest, while adding a number of indelible characters - Ahab, Queequeg, Ishmael, Starbuck - to the pantheon of major fictional presences. In prose nicely called "ejaculatory" by FO Matthiessen, one of Melville's best early critics, the novel seems to have exhausted its creator.

He followed Moby-Dick with a peculiar novel, Pierre, about a writer with strange erotic obsessions. Melville may, as Delbanco explains, have experienced a good deal of sexual confusion, suffering a degree of frustration that is difficult to understand in our age of polymorphous perversity Freud's term. In any case, the harshly negative response to Pierre drove Melville deeply into hiding, although he continued to write for some time, publishing Benito Cereno and a number of decent stories in subsequent years.

For the most part, he subsided into obscurity, moving back to New York, where he spent his days inspecting cargo. He suffered the loss of one son from suicide, of another from poor health brought on by a sense of failure. The marriage to Lizzie did not end in separation, although the few shreds of evidence we have suggest that nobody in the Melville household was very happy. Melville wrote a fair number of poems in his later years, most of them quite bad, but he wrote no fiction until taking up Billy Budd, a novel that Thomas Mann once called "the most beautiful story in the world".

Although not published in the author's lifetime, Billy Budd redeems the final years.

Moby-Dick (I)

Delbanco offers a rich analysis here of what must considered a pivotal work of American literature, the story of a likeable innocent condemned to death for murdering his snide and unreliable accuser aboard a naval ship during the Napoleonic wars. One can hardly imagine a more artful or succinct biography of Herman Melville, one that makes his fiction seem not only relevant but urgent, presenting the familiar facts in a fashion that makes the life and work luminously comprehensible.

The Pequod sets sail, and the crew is soon informed that this journey will be unlike their other whaling missions: Ahab and the crew continue their eventful journey and encounter a number of obstacles along the way. Queequeg falls ill, which prompts a coffin to be built in anticipation of the worst.


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Ahab receives a prophecy from a crew member informing him of his future death, which he ignores. Moby Dick is spotted and, over the course of three days, engages violently with Ahab and the Pequod until the whale destroys the ship, killing everyone except Ishmael. The novel consists of chapters, in which narrative and essayistic portions intermingle, as well as an epilogue and front matter. Moby Dick can sustain numerous, if not seemingly infinite , readings generated by multiple interpretative approaches. The very first line of Moby Dick , for instance, identifies Ishmael as the narrator; Ishmael was the illegitimate in terms of the Covenant son of Abraham and was cast away after Isaac was born.

There are a number of other Abrahamic names in the book as well, including Ahab—who, according to the Hebrew Bible , was an evil king who led the Israelites into a life of idolatry. The ship that saves Ishmael, the Rachel , is named for the mother of Joseph , known for interceding to protect her children. It is Rachel, as depicted in the Book of Jeremiah, who convinced God to end the exile placed upon the Jewish tribes for idolatry. The whale itself is perhaps the most striking symbol in Moby Dick , and interpretations of its meaning range from the Judeo-Christian God to atheism and everything in between.

Melville himself was well versed in whaling , as he had spent some time aboard the Acushnet , a whaling vessel, which gave him firsthand experience.

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He also did tremendous amounts of research, consulting a number of scientific sources as well as accounts of historical events that he incorporated into Moby Dick. In particular, the story of the Essex was one that fascinated Melville—and perhaps served as his primary inspiration for the novel. The Essex , a whaling vessel, was attacked by a sperm whale in The ship sank, and many of the crew members were either lost immediately or died of starvation as they awaited rescue for nearly eight months.

Melville also consulted the story of Mocha Dick, a famed whale who was, like Moby Dick, very white and aggressive and whose name was clearly an inspiration to Melville. He lived during the early 19th century and became a legend among whalers. Unlike Moby Dick, however, Mocha Dick was eventually killed and used for oil.

Melville befriended fellow author Nathaniel Hawthorne during the writing of Moby Dick , which led to him dramatically revising the narrative to make it more complex. The novel is dedicated to Hawthorne because of his impact on Melville and the novel. Once the novel was published, the public was unimpressed.

It sold fewer than 4, copies in total, with fewer than in the United Kingdom. It was not until the midth century that the novel became recognized as one of the most important novels in American literature. We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles. You can make it easier for us to review and, hopefully, publish your contribution by keeping a few points in mind. Your contribution may be further edited by our staff, and its publication is subject to our final approval.


  1. or, The Whale;
  2. Review: Melville by Andrew Delbanco | Books | The Guardian.
  3. The Complete Sayings of Jesus: Illustrated, and The Gospel of Mary Magdalene.
  4. Moby-Dick - Wikipedia.
  5. Plot summary?
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