Moby-Dick

Herman Melville

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
• 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
• 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 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

About the author

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.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Moby-Dick; Collector's Library; Penguin classics
• Author: Herman Melville
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Collector's Library, 2004
• ISBN: 1904633773, 9781904633778
• Length: 768 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Classics; Literary Criticism / General; Poetry / General