This post contains affiliate links (Moshimo Affiliate).
When Herman Melville died in New York in September 1891, the novel we now treat as a pillar of American literature was out of print. He was little known to the public by then, and the New York Times notice of his death misspelled the book's title, a slip later readers would hold up as a sign of how far he had been overlooked. For nineteen years he had worked as a customs inspector in the city. His whale book had been, by any commercial measure, a failure.
Then, around the centennial of his birth in 1919, readers began to look again. Over the twentieth century "Moby-Dick" came to be called a Great American Novel, and writers such as William Faulkner and D. H. Lawrence were among its admirers. Few books have had a stranger second life.
The man who had been to sea
Melville, born in New York City on 1 August 1819, did not invent his whaling world from a library chair. In 1841 he shipped out on the whaler Acushnet, and in 1842 he left that ship in the Marquesas Islands. Those years at sea gave him his first books, "Typee" (1846) and "Omoo" (1847).
He began the book that became "Moby-Dick" in February 1850 and did much of the heaviest work that winter at a farm in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Alongside his own memories, he drew on whaling literature, above all Thomas Beale's natural history of the sperm whale, and on stories of an albino sperm whale called Mocha Dick, reportedly pursued off the coast of Chile. In August 1850 he met Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the finished novel is dedicated to him.
Where the story begins: a novel that starts on land
For a famous sea story, "Moby-Dick" takes its time getting to sea. Ishmael, the narrator, is a would-be whaleman heading from Manhattan to New Bedford one December, and the first stretch of the book is really about the people he collects before the ship ever leaves port. Think of it as a short cast list:
- The bedmate. At the crowded Spouter-Inn, Ishmael has to share a bed with a stranger: Queequeg, a tattooed Polynesian harpooneer. A later chapter title calls him "A Bosom Friend."
- The preacher. Father Mapple delivers a sermon on the story of Jonah before the two friends leave town.
- The owners. On Nantucket, Ishmael chooses the Pequod, an old ship trimmed with whale teeth and bone. Its part-owners are two retired Quaker captains, the loud, profane Peleg and the stingy, scripture-quoting Bildad.
- The captain he does not meet. Ahab stays indoors. All Ishmael gets is Peleg's account: the captain lost a leg to a sperm whale on his last voyage, and it has left him moody.
The Pequod sails on Christmas Day. That is where this guide stops, and where the open water begins.
How to actually enjoy it
The book's reputation for difficulty is real, but it is mostly a matter of expectations. A few things help.
It is not a single-track adventure. Melville mixes forms freely: sermon, soliloquy, scenes laid out like a stage play, and long passages of cetology, the study of whales. Even before Chapter 1 you meet an "Etymology" and a set of "Extracts," quotations about whales gathered from many sources. If you go in expecting a thriller, these will feel like interruptions. If you go in expecting a big, curious, wandering book, they become part of the pleasure.
The opening is warmer than its reputation. The chapters in New Bedford and Nantucket are funny and generous, built around an unlikely friendship. They are the right place to fall in with Ishmael before the ship leaves land.
You are allowed to skim. There are 135 numbered chapters. Some of the whale chapters reward close attention; others you can read lightly and come back to. Finishing the book matters more than mastering every page on a first pass.
Read some of it aloud. The prose borrows the rhythms of the Bible and Shakespeare, swerves into something close to poetry, and is full of words Melville coined or dug up. It often sounds better than it looks.
Choosing an edition
There are two first editions, and they are not the same book. The London edition, published by Richard Bentley on 18 October 1851 as "The Whale" in three volumes, differs from the American one in more than 700 places, and its publisher's readers cut and changed passages without Melville's approval. Harper & Brothers in New York published a single volume on 14 November 1851, under the title "Moby-Dick; or, The Whale," after a last-minute change.
When you compare modern editions, it is worth reading the publisher's note on which text it follows and whether it is complete. If you just want to sample the opening chapters before committing, the full text is free at Project Gutenberg (EBook #2701). For a book this long, though, many readers find a well-made paper edition with notes easier to stay with.
Who will enjoy it
It suits readers who like long novels they can live inside for weeks, and anyone drawn to the sea, sailing ships, or the working life of the nineteenth century. It is a good choice for a slow-reading group that meets chapter by chapter. And it is especially for people who started it once, stalled somewhere in the whale chapters, and quietly suspect they gave up too early.
Its first readers mostly passed it by. You have the advantage of knowing it was worth the wait.
Sources
- Wikipedia, "Moby-Dick" (London publication by Richard Bentley on 18 October 1851 as "The Whale" in three volumes; New York publication by Harper & Brothers on 14 November 1851 as "Moby-Dick; or, The Whale" in one volume; the last-minute title change; over 700 differences in wording in the British edition, with unauthorized changes, censorship, and omitted material; dedication to Nathaniel Hawthorne; mixed reception and commercial failure; out of print at Melville's death; reputation as a "Great American Novel" established in the 20th century after the 1919 centennial; Faulkner and D. H. Lawrence as admirers; Melville's own whaling on the Acushnet in 1841-42; the albino whale Mocha Dick, reportedly hunted off Chile; Thomas Beale's natural history of the sperm whale as the most important of several whaling sources; composition begun in February 1850, with the most intense work in the winter of 1850-51 at a farm in Pittsfield; meeting Hawthorne in August 1850; Ishmael as narrator; mixture of sermon, stage-play elements, soliloquy, cetology, and epic; invented words and Biblical and Shakespearean allusion; opening setup from Manhattan to New Bedford in December to join a whaling voyage as a green hand, sharing a bed at a crowded inn with Queequeg, a tattooed Polynesian harpooneer, Father Mapple's sermon on Jonah, Nantucket, the Quaker owners Bildad and Peleg, departure on Christmas Day) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby-Dick
- Wikipedia, "Herman Melville" (born 1 August 1819 and died 28 September 1891 in New York City; voyage on the whaler Acushnet in 1841 and leaving the ship in the Marquesas in 1842; "Typee" (1846) and "Omoo" (1847); nineteen years as a New York customs inspector from 1866; little known to the public at his death; the New York Times death notice that misspelled the title, later used to support claims that he was unappreciated; the revival dating from 1919; "Billy Budd" published posthumously in 1924) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Melville
- Project Gutenberg, "Moby Dick; Or, The Whale," EBook #2701 (Etymology and Extracts before Chapter 1; 135 numbered chapters plus an Epilogue; the Spouter-Inn; Ishmael choosing the Pequod among three ships; the ship decorated with whale teeth and bone; Peleg and Bildad as retired captains and part-owners, Peleg blustering and profane, Bildad stingy and scripture-quoting; what Peleg says about Ahab's leg and temper; Ahab keeping indoors, so that Ishmael does not meet him before sailing; chapter titles including "A Bosom Friend") https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2701/2701-h/2701-h.htm