Moby-Dick

Front Cover
Collector's Library, 2004 - Fiction - 768 pages
Looking for adventure and a new life, Ishmael, the story's narrator, decides to find work on a whaling boat. On arriving at the Massachusetts harbour to begin his search, the only bed available is already half occupied by a "cannibal" named Queequeg. Although Queequeg has limited English, a friendship forms and the two men sign up for work together aboard the Pequod under the infamous Captain Ahab.
 

Contents

Etymology
15
Loomings
31
The CarpetBag
38
The SpouterInn
43
The Counterpane
62
Breakfast
67
The Street
70
The Chapel
73
Cutting In
418
The Blanket
421
The Funeral
425
The Sphynx
426
The Jeroboams Story
430
The MonkeyRope
438
Stubb and Flask Kill a Right Whale and Then Have a Talk Over Him
444
The Sperm Whales Head Contrasted View
451

The Pulpit
77
The Sermon
80
A Bosom Friend
92
Nightgown
97
Biographical
99
Wheelbarrow
103
Nantucket
109
Chowder III
111
The Ship
116
The Ramadan
134
His Mark
142
The Prophet
147
All Astir
151
Going Aboard
154
Merry Christmas
158
The Lee Shore
164
The Advocate
165
Postscript
171
Knights and Squires
172
Knights and Squires
176
Ahab
182
Enter Ahab To Him Stubb
187
The Pipe
191
Queen Mab
192
Cetology
195
The Specksynder
212
The CabinTable
216
The MastHead
223
The QuarterDeck
232
Sunset
242
Dusk
244
First NightWatch
245
Midnight Forecastle
246
The Whiteness of the Whale
267
Hark
279
The Chart
280
The Affidavit
287
Surmises
299
The MatMaker
302
The First Lowering
306
The Hyena
319
Ahabs Boat and Crew Fedallah
322
The SpiritSpout
325
The Albatross
331
The Gam
333
The TownHos Story
339
Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales
366
Of the Less Erroneous Pictures of Whales and the True Pictures of Whaling Scenes
372
Of Whales in Paint in Teeth in Wood in SheetIron in Stone in Mountains in Stars
377
Brit
380
Squid
384
The Line
387
Stubb Kills a Whale
392
The Dart
399
The Crotch
401
Stubbs Supper
403
The Whale as a Dish
413
The Shark Massacre
416
The Right Whales Head Contrasted View
456
The BatteringRam
460
The Great Heidelburgh Tun
463
Cistern and Buckets
466
The Prairie
471
The Nut
475
The Pequod Meets the Virgin
478
The Honour and Glory of Whaling
492
Jonah Historically Regarded
496
Pitchpoling
499
The Fountain
502
The Tail
509
The Grand Armada
515
Schools and Schoolmasters
531
FastFish and LooseFish
535
Heads or Tails
540
The Pequod Meets the RoseBud
544
Ambergris
553
The Castaway
556
A Squeeze of the Hand
562
The Cassock
566
The TryWorks
568
The Lamp
574
Stowing Down and Clearing Up
575
The Doubloon
578
Leg and Arm
586
ΙΟΙ The Decanter
595
A Bower in the Arsacides
601
Measurement of the Whales Skeleton
607
The Fossil Whale
610
Does the Whales Magnitude Diminish? Will He Perish?
615
Ahabs Leg
621
The Carpenter
624
Ahab and the Carpenter
628
Ahab and Starbuck in the Cabin
633
Queequeg in his Coffin
637
The Pacific
644
The Blacksmith
646
The Forge
649
The Gilder
653
The Pequod Meets the Bachelor
656
The Dying Whale
659
The Whale Watch
661
The Quadrant
663
The Candles
666
The Deck Towards the End of the First Night Watch
675
Midnight The Forecastle Bulwarks
676
The Needle
682
The Lifebuoy
691
The Pequod Meets the Rachel
698
The Hat
705
The Pequod Meets the Delight
711
The Chase First Day
718
The Chase Second Day
731
The Chase Third Day
742
Afterword
759
Further Reading
767
Copyright

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About the author (2004)

Herman Melville was born in 1819 in New York City. Both his grandfathers were Revolutionary War heroes but his father, a merchant, died bankrupt in 1833. Melville left school and worked at various jobs before shipping on the whaler Achshnet in 1841. The next year he deserted, travelled the South Seas and joined the US Navy. After three years he retired, settled in Massachusetts and started to write. His first two novels, Typee (1846) and Omoo (1847), were fictionalized accounts of his travels: they remained his most popular works during his lifetime. In 1847 Melville married and wrote a series of novels he considered potboilers for money. With Moby-Dick (1851) he changed course, partly under the influence of Nathaniel Hawthorne; but the novel's extravagant intensity lost him readers. Pierre (1852) fared no better, and after publishing one more novel Melville took a job as a customs inspector in the New York City harbour and turned to writing poetry. He died there in 1891; an unfinished novel, Billy Budd, Sailor, was published in 1924.

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