The subtitle to Moby Dick is ‘The Whale’, which is a more apt title as it reads like an encyclopedia on whales, rather than a high seas adventure novel with a mad Captain Ahab (which was what I was expecting).
Melville subjects you to chapters on the phrenology of a whale, his biology, a whole essay on why man is afraid of something that is pure white, along with discussions on Jonah, sea monsters from Greek and Roman mythology and even St George and the Dragon—(though I must admit I quite liked that idea).
The book is filled with shipping and whaling lore, extracts from prose and poetry relating to the whale and whaling ships, and with this in mind it is most certainly a masterpiece considering when it was written. However, as we know so much more these days, it is evident that much of the scientific conjecture is wrong,
The actual whaling sequences are upsetting, though remembering this was a legitimate trade in the 1800’s, they are described with some degree of sympathy by the author.
Overall it could have done with being 400 pages shorter.
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