This premium quality large print edition contains the complete
and unabridged original classic version of Moby Dick, printed on
heavyweight, bright white paper in a large 7.44"x9.69" format,
with a fully laminated full-color cover featuring an original
design. Also included is an original introductory essay
discussing the life and work of Herman Melville and the history
and significance of Moby Dick, providing the modern reader with
useful background information to enhance the enjoyment of this
classic novel.
Herman Melville is known today primarily for his iconic whaling
novel, Moby Dick (1851), the story of the struggle between
Captain Ahab and "the great white whale," which appears on many
lists of "greatest books ever written" and is considered an
essential part of the Western Canon. Ironically, when the novel
was published it was a monumental flop and signaled the end of
Melvilles's career as a novelist. One theory is that the omission
of the epilogue from the first printing left the book open to
ridicule as a first-person narrative in which the narrator did
not survive to tell the tale. He published several more novels,
all without success, and in 1866 he became a New York customs
inspector, all but forgotten for the next fifty years.
It was not until the rise of the modernist movement that Moby
Dick was recognized as a great literary classic. What once were
regarded as serious flaws came to be viewed as literary
innovations. Moby Dick went from being criticized as
undisciplined and poorly crafted to being hailed as "ahead of its
time" and "visionary."
For the modern reader, the complex analytical theories behind
Moby Dick may get in the way of enjoying the novel for its own
sake. Taking Moby Dick at face value, it is an interesting tale,
rich with diverse characters and evocative themes like
friendship, class and social status, good and evil, isolation and
community, the existence of God, obsession and human perception.
A vivid depiction of life aboard ship in the nineteenth century
it is perhaps the most detailed and accessible existing picture
of what was, for a time, the richest industry in the United
States. If at times the text seems stilted or antiquated, as
might be expected from any work from this era, it is equally true
that at times the text attains a soaring, almost lyric tone.
The most casual reader cannot fail to appreciate the
unforgettable characters, compelling storyline and vivid
depictions of whales, whalers and whaling, and the
obsession-driven quest after the great white whale upon which
Ahab leads, and the crew follows, to their doom. And this,
without anything more, makes Moby Dick essential reading.
Herman Melville (1819–1891) was an author of the American
Renaissance, or Romantic, period. Born in New York City, he was
the third child of a successful merchant. He worked as a
schoolteacher before going to sea for the first time in 1839.
Serving on a whaler in 1842, he jumped ship and spent a month
living among South Pacific islanders. His first novel, "Typee"
(1846), a bestseller, was based in part on his experiences in the
South Pacific as was the successful sequel, "Omoo" (1847). The
same year Melville, now a successful novelist, married Elizabeth
Knapp Shaw. They would have four children between 1849 and 1855.
"Mardi" and "Redburn", both published in 1849, met with limited
success. "Mardi" in particular was criticized as so thematically
dense as to be incomprehensible. "White-Jacket" (1850), based on
Melville's brief service in the U.S. Navy, was his most
influential work during his lifetime, with graphic descriptions
of flogging that led directly to banning the practice on naval
vessels.
Moby Dick and several additional failed novels and poetry
collections followed. Melville sank into obscurity and died in
1891, about 20 years before Moby Dick was recognized as a
literary classic.