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Title: Moby-Dick: An Authoritative Text (Norton Critical Editions)
ISBN: 039309670X
Author:
Herman Melville
Publicate Date: 1967-08
Publish: 1967-08
List Price: $16.35
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $3.87
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $0.01
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| Customer Review: |
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1: The Greatest American Novel
This is a book unlike any other i've ever encountered. To say its a classic is an understatement. It's a shame that it's forced on high-school kids and that they think it isn't any good. In reality, it's a brilliant piece of artwork. All of the characters, the settings, the conflict, it's all real and alive. The story is about a whaling boat named the Pequod that is set on a course of vengeance by a man named Captain Ahab. He desires to kill the white whale that bit off his leg a while earlier. It's this mad quest for revenge that serves as the story, but that isn't the only thing happening, not by a longshot. Melville uses his vast knowledge of whaling to explore all sorts of philosophy, morality, and pure poetry. His writing style is utterly beautiful. Some people complain about the middle portion being nothing but a textbook on whaling. It seems that way, but at the same time, Melville is showing the reader what must be done in order to capture a whale. And within that frame, he also explores themes such as man vs nature, man vs god, and many more. How this book came to him is beyond me. If you are willing, you must experience this novel because my words can't justly explain it. But if you are put off by the length or the middle or for any other reason, you will likely be disappointed. With respect to Huckleberry Finn, THE American novel is here and nowhere else.
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2: Entertaining, meaningful, but at times painful to read
Moby Dick is a great story but a poorly written novel. The story of Moby Dick is actually very interesting and contains great meaning and symbolism. The events occurring in the book have the perfect combination of truth and fiction to make the action gripping. Nearer to the end of the book you are overwhelmed with a sense of wonder and suspense as you try to guess how the book will end and are blown away by the events that occur.
In Moby Dick, Herman Melville proves that he is the master of descriptive language. In some parts of the book the extremely descriptive writing is an extremely positive aspect of the book but in others it makes the book unbearable to read. During the action parts of the book this excessive description makes the book a delight to read as you can see in your mind exactly what is happening. While envisioning this some amazing images come into your mind. Like the sights in the real world that would make you stop and take another look, you feel compelled to read certain passages over and over again just to keep that image in your brain. The other up side to his description is the attachment you feel with the characters. With the simple mention of a main characters name you can picture them, hear their voice, and give an attitude to the words.
The downside to all of this description is during the long down time in the book, when no action can be described in hundreds of pages. For example there is one chapter all about a man's pipe, a chapter describing a bowl of chowder and a particularly long chapter describing the masthead (top of one of the masts). These long rants about unimportant aspects of the story make up the first three quarters of the book, as Moby Dick is not even spotted until the last quarter of the book.
I would not recommend reading this book unless you can find a condensed version that only contains the details important to the plot. To just pick up Moby Dick in its original version and start reading is a painful and can be an almost impossible task. Overall however the story and the theme of the story is very entertaining and meaningful.
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3: masterpiece
I'm not sure where to begin reviewing. Many of you who are reading this are at least familiar with the title "Moby Dick" or "The Whale", and if you have read this incredible and penetrating book, most of you (I hope) will be in awe from its memories: fearful, heavy, and strange. For those who say the book is too "wordy", then you simply don't understand style and taste. Melville manages to go from an incredibly tight narrative at one page to something distant and spacey the next page. Indeed, it is a magical novel or as many call it a "masterpiece". Since most people - from what I have gathered here alone - review this book splendidly, I will not spend much time writing about it. In fact, it is best one digests this book arbitrarily, otherwise its weight may not be as profound. There is much speculation one may collect, I imagine, when thinking of this book in deep introspect.
"Penguin Press" did an excellent job compiling this book. The back features very detailed diagrams and sketches of equipment and atlases. There is also an appendix for those who are not very familiar with boat terminology. The introduction is engaging and very helpful for those who have not read the book.
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4: Classic for a reason
This book has the momentum of a cracking whip. The struckture, almost post-modern in its rambling complexity, moves almost sideways as it speeds up and in the last twenty-five pages suddenly snaps in a bonanza of rich, delicious action.
Nay-Sayers seem not to appreciate the substance all the slow, informative chapters give to the final actions of Ahab and his crew. I personally love this book.
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5: The worst book ever written
Before reading "Moby Dick" I considered "War and Peace" the worst book I had ever read, but compared to "Moby Dick" "War and Peace" is a light, fun read where your eyes just fly across the page. It's almost impossible to acurately descibe how bad of a book "Moby Dick" is. First of all, classiflying it as fiction is a mistake. Probably a good 60% of the book is non-fiction - chapter after chapter dedicated to every imaginable detail of the biology of the whale and every imaginable nuance of whaling. These non-fiction chapters are made all the more unbearable by the style of writing, which is so pretentious, poetic and over the top that at times it actually made me laugh out loud. Almost every sentence is 100 words long with 10 commas. And the over the top writing is not confined to the book's non-fiction chapters, it's just the opposite - it gets even worse when Melville switches over to the fiction. Especially in the many and endless soliloquies. The ridiculous writing style completely crushes any chance the book might have had of actually telling a story. Finishing the entire book is something that I'm proud of myself for having done, which is never the mark of a good read. I would suggest that unless a person wants to torture themself, read something else. Although I do think there is some value in setting your mind to reading the worst book ever written from cover to cover, and acomplishing that goal. It's the ultimate test of patience and courage, and succeeding will make you a better person, which is maybe what Herman Melville had in mind when he wrote this piece of junk.
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