Scan barcode
freex's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
dunnadam's review against another edition
3.0
11 days to read, pretty good.
The book starts off very good, the first 25% has humour and an interesting story and location as a whaling man heads to a sea-side town and prepares to leave for a three year trip. At one point the inn keeper hears one of the guests may have committed suicide and says:
"Betty, go to Snarles the Painter, and tell him to paint me a sign, with--"No suicides permitted here, and no smoking in the parlor;"--might as well kill both birds at once."
Good story, easy to follow. At 30% we finally meet Ahab, the captain, and things go south from here. Instead of showing us the story Ishmael begins telling us, telling us that Ahab is mad with revenge for example, rather than showing us and letting us work it out for ourselves. Also around this time the side-tangents start and Melville is merciless with the side tangents. I read them all but I really wish I hadn't. Someone needs to release a condensed version of this book that takes all this crap out. You begin to not be able to see the forest, the story of the whale, for the trees, all this extra talk on the history of whaling, the science of whaling, drawings of whales, etc. It goes on forever, all hopelessly out of date. Melville refers to all the books available in 1850 that have photos of whales and comments on each photo; no relevance whatsoever to today's world. Even when talking about the science of whales, or parts of whaling boats, or parts of parts of whaling boats, it's all underscored by whales being referred to as fish, an assumption already disproven in Melville's own time. None of it matters and none of it is interesting. Even the chapter named after the whale's penis is so cloaked in Victorian language I wasn't aware it was about a penis until I consulted a modern study guide.
This language problem between classic and modern, not at all an issue at the start of the book, comes up again at the end with the "thou" and "thoust"'s hindering comprehension at the height of the action. For example the fact that the fellow's dead body was stuck to the side of the whale at the very end I didn't get, again until I read the study guide.
Finally I re-read the last chapter to see what happens to Moby Dick, if I missed it somehow, and I don't think I did. Does he live? He just kind of disappears, which I suppose reinforces his use as a metaphor rather than an actuality but doesn't give much closure.
I liked the start. A gay man goes to gay pride in a whaling village, finds a native to go slumming with and has a honeymoon with him as a last hurrah to civilian life. The homoerotic references after that skipped me, with the guide referring to the men hanging out together and grabbing handfuls of sperm as a notable moment, but one I missed. My mom asked me how a book this homoerotic got published in 1850 and I think it was that Melville was trying to show the shipmates were really close, and equating this with a marriage relationship, and that people of that time wouldn't have thought he meant they were screwing. Still I read this for the gay content, for the classic story, to see what the metaphors were about, and I got most of that, just with a lot of trash in the middle. I must say, Moby Dick himself doesn't show up until 95% of the book is done. One could read to 25% and then skip to 95% and in my opinion not miss much.
"There is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men."
The book starts off very good, the first 25% has humour and an interesting story and location as a whaling man heads to a sea-side town and prepares to leave for a three year trip. At one point the inn keeper hears one of the guests may have committed suicide and says:
"Betty, go to Snarles the Painter, and tell him to paint me a sign, with--"No suicides permitted here, and no smoking in the parlor;"--might as well kill both birds at once."
Good story, easy to follow. At 30% we finally meet Ahab, the captain, and things go south from here. Instead of showing us the story Ishmael begins telling us, telling us that Ahab is mad with revenge for example, rather than showing us and letting us work it out for ourselves. Also around this time the side-tangents start and Melville is merciless with the side tangents. I read them all but I really wish I hadn't. Someone needs to release a condensed version of this book that takes all this crap out. You begin to not be able to see the forest, the story of the whale, for the trees, all this extra talk on the history of whaling, the science of whaling, drawings of whales, etc. It goes on forever, all hopelessly out of date. Melville refers to all the books available in 1850 that have photos of whales and comments on each photo; no relevance whatsoever to today's world. Even when talking about the science of whales, or parts of whaling boats, or parts of parts of whaling boats, it's all underscored by whales being referred to as fish, an assumption already disproven in Melville's own time. None of it matters and none of it is interesting. Even the chapter named after the whale's penis is so cloaked in Victorian language I wasn't aware it was about a penis until I consulted a modern study guide.
This language problem between classic and modern, not at all an issue at the start of the book, comes up again at the end with the "thou" and "thoust"'s hindering comprehension at the height of the action. For example the fact that the fellow's dead body was stuck to the side of the whale at the very end I didn't get, again until I read the study guide.
Finally I re-read the last chapter to see what happens to Moby Dick, if I missed it somehow, and I don't think I did. Does he live? He just kind of disappears, which I suppose reinforces his use as a metaphor rather than an actuality but doesn't give much closure.
I liked the start. A gay man goes to gay pride in a whaling village, finds a native to go slumming with and has a honeymoon with him as a last hurrah to civilian life. The homoerotic references after that skipped me, with the guide referring to the men hanging out together and grabbing handfuls of sperm as a notable moment, but one I missed. My mom asked me how a book this homoerotic got published in 1850 and I think it was that Melville was trying to show the shipmates were really close, and equating this with a marriage relationship, and that people of that time wouldn't have thought he meant they were screwing. Still I read this for the gay content, for the classic story, to see what the metaphors were about, and I got most of that, just with a lot of trash in the middle. I must say, Moby Dick himself doesn't show up until 95% of the book is done. One could read to 25% and then skip to 95% and in my opinion not miss much.
"There is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men."
marinalikeaboatyard's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
MOBY DICK DID NOTHING WRONG šš»
well, turns out āmoby dickā is indeed a really really good book. I know, itās hard to admit.
I donāt think a casual reader can tackle this and truly appreciate the adventure, the tension, the characters, and the subtle humor - you have to have the right conditions, mindset, time commitment, and focus.
FOR ME, personally, I got dumped and was like, you know what would rock? reading a book that will take hours and hours of consecutive concentration for multiple daysā¦because then I canāt think about how miserable I am! and it worked! I finally tackled my own white whale.
So yeah, everyone is right. Itās really really good and now easily one of my favorite books of all time!
well, turns out āmoby dickā is indeed a really really good book. I know, itās hard to admit.
I donāt think a casual reader can tackle this and truly appreciate the adventure, the tension, the characters, and the subtle humor - you have to have the right conditions, mindset, time commitment, and focus.
FOR ME, personally, I got dumped and was like, you know what would rock? reading a book that will take hours and hours of consecutive concentration for multiple daysā¦because then I canāt think about how miserable I am! and it worked! I finally tackled my own white whale.
So yeah, everyone is right. Itās really really good and now easily one of my favorite books of all time!
dnandrews797's review against another edition
3.0
A pleasure to read, especially at the beach. The whole novel felt like a journal of a sailor at sea. The whale deaths were a little too gruesome and their was a bit of period typical racist language, but overall it really painted a picture of life on a boat for months on end and transported me to that time in place. By the time I finished it, I was ready to go hope on a boat and set sail into the sunset.
nightwillowfox's review against another edition
1.0
omg I should have dnfed this book. If I wanted a book that seemed like this was writen by someone who didn't know were to take the story this is the book. Started off great but by omg not even half way it went down hill. If I wanted to learn about whales I would look up info about them. This story would have been way shorter if the writing didn't go off topic so many times.
I also spaced out many times because the story just wasn't there to hold my attention.
I also spaced out many times because the story just wasn't there to hold my attention.
sidharthvardhan's review against another edition
4.0
From very first line, Ishmail sounds like a salesperson selling you the idea how great a whaleman's job is. He praises in that order - water, sea, sailor's job, whale, the job of whaling and Mobi dick. He would manipulate the facts to suit himself - finding most lame parts of his jobs as divine; he details on all divine connections he could manipulate in showing how great an animal a whale is. He lectures you on whale's body parts, measurements, its habitations assuming that you are too interested to find that boring and these lectures have whole chapters devoted to them which either makes you doubt if you were reading non-fiction, or remember that geek who being fan of some particular animal (anaconda, sharks or diansaurs) is always sharing trivia regarding same. Think Ross Geller. At times one can't help feeling a bit bored when, for example the telling you about different types of ropes that whalemen use but still the uniqueness of the style of the book makes it worth the trouble.
He is strangest of all narrators. He regularly quotes Bible, is a teacher by profession but who also goes sailing routinely and also has obsession for whaling - he also ends up being a cast away and an author. You may find it hard to believe that one man would do that all but the author Herman Melville was in fact all these things with sole exception of being a cast away.
Ishmail uses language in his own style - uses sailor's words, uses existing words in his own way and creates some of his own.
His obssession could be compared to that of his captain Ahab who feels 'destined' to have a fight to death with Mobi dick - a single whale from whom he wished to take revenge from. Unlike Ishmail he is not calculting but fully commited. He is aware of what catastrophe he might be bringing and the very needlessness of it and yet he can't help it. Ahab reminds you of some Shakespearian character with a tragedy in store for him.
The story takes back seat in between these Ishqmail's ramblings and is mostly contained in first and last 1/6 th parts (rest is full of Ishmail's lectures on whales and whaling) - the few experiences of whaling life narrated in between these ramblings are mostly redundent.
It is big, boring and very simple story but with its writing style and narrations, it gives a unique reading experince.
He is strangest of all narrators. He regularly quotes Bible, is a teacher by profession but who also goes sailing routinely and also has obsession for whaling - he also ends up being a cast away and an author. You may find it hard to believe that one man would do that all but the author Herman Melville was in fact all these things with sole exception of being a cast away.
Ishmail uses language in his own style - uses sailor's words, uses existing words in his own way and creates some of his own.
His obssession could be compared to that of his captain Ahab who feels 'destined' to have a fight to death with Mobi dick - a single whale from whom he wished to take revenge from. Unlike Ishmail he is not calculting but fully commited. He is aware of what catastrophe he might be bringing and the very needlessness of it and yet he can't help it. Ahab reminds you of some Shakespearian character with a tragedy in store for him.
The story takes back seat in between these Ishqmail's ramblings and is mostly contained in first and last 1/6 th parts (rest is full of Ishmail's lectures on whales and whaling) - the few experiences of whaling life narrated in between these ramblings are mostly redundent.
It is big, boring and very simple story but with its writing style and narrations, it gives a unique reading experince.
asgard224's review against another edition
5.0
O cÄlÄtorie atemporalÄ, condusÄ de muritori Ć®mpotriva unei creaturi primordiale.
Am apreciat prezicerile deznodÄmĆ¢ntului Ć®ncÄ din primele pagini (tabloul), referinČele biblice (Iona, Solomon, Elijah-Ilie, Ahab), scenele presÄrate cu umor(Ć®ntĆ¢lnirea cu canibalul Queequeg, cuvĆ¢ntarea adresatÄ rechinilor) Či capitolele despre cetologie.
Am apreciat prezicerile deznodÄmĆ¢ntului Ć®ncÄ din primele pagini (tabloul), referinČele biblice (Iona, Solomon, Elijah-Ilie, Ahab), scenele presÄrate cu umor(Ć®ntĆ¢lnirea cu canibalul Queequeg, cuvĆ¢ntarea adresatÄ rechinilor) Či capitolele despre cetologie.
jessicakate14's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Finally done!
If this book was more about the hunt and a manās crazed expedition and less about the anatomy of the whale, I would have loved it.
If this book was more about the hunt and a manās crazed expedition and less about the anatomy of the whale, I would have loved it.