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3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
There's an adventure tale at the heart of Moby Dick, but it can be hard to see sometimes because it is draped in lengthy theatrical monologues, essays on whales and the whaling industry, and transcendentalist reflections on the veil between the perceptible and the invisible worlds.
This was my second time through the book, the first being 20 years ago. It's a ponderous, dense book that frequently departs from any narrative to consider matters relating to but not necessarily directly impacting events. It's the kind of book that feels momentous while you're reading it, that has a gravitational pull, that's immersive, such that you start slowing down as you near the end because you're not sure what will happen when the gravity finally lets go.
Early on the narrator himself makes clear the White Whale is more than an animal. He's a metaphor, yes, but he's also a force of nature, a writhing and diving meeting of the physical and spiritual — at least for Ahab and his crew. This makes Moby Dick perhaps the most Gothic of Gothic novels, because though it has no medieval trappings or, significantly, any real concern with lineage and the inheritance of the past, it is almost absolutely pure in pitting the human against the inhuman, the Cartesian thinking being against an unthinking world that may, one fears, be at last inhospitable to us.
This was my second time through the book, the first being 20 years ago. It's a ponderous, dense book that frequently departs from any narrative to consider matters relating to but not necessarily directly impacting events. It's the kind of book that feels momentous while you're reading it, that has a gravitational pull, that's immersive, such that you start slowing down as you near the end because you're not sure what will happen when the gravity finally lets go.
Early on the narrator himself makes clear the White Whale is more than an animal. He's a metaphor, yes, but he's also a force of nature, a writhing and diving meeting of the physical and spiritual — at least for Ahab and his crew. This makes Moby Dick perhaps the most Gothic of Gothic novels, because though it has no medieval trappings or, significantly, any real concern with lineage and the inheritance of the past, it is almost absolutely pure in pitting the human against the inhuman, the Cartesian thinking being against an unthinking world that may, one fears, be at last inhospitable to us.
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is one of my all-time favorite books. I love that there is an entire chapter on the detailed taxonomy of whales. It is a beautiful, meandering story with a whale always lurking just below.
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
funny
informative
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
DNFd. I have never been so bored by a book in a long time. The writing is shockingly contrived, the pace is glacial; which wouldn’t be awful is anything interesting was going on but there isn’t, and you’re constantly interrupted to read textbooks about different whales. I had tried to read this book when I was younger and found it effortlessly dull then and that sentiment hasn’t changed. There are so many better classics out there that are actually entertaining and have substance. Skip this one.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book was so utterly horrid that it dosn't even get a rating as far as I'm concered. Worst book I have ever read or ever will read.
Re-read: Oct 2015. Switching to 5 stars because this book is AMAZING.
Moby Dick is a very strange novel. Captain Ahab, who has lost a leg in a whale attack, is obsessed with having his revenge on this whale, Moby Dick. He sets out to hunt down the whale and does battle with it after a long voyage. In the end, Moby Dick manages to kill the entire crew but one man, and sink the whaling ship. Melville leaves open whether the whale dies or not.
That is the entire plot. In between there are philosophical ramblings, play-like scenes, pseudo-science passages on ceutology and long chapters about the science of whaling.
An unusual, if not very enjoyable read.
That is the entire plot. In between there are philosophical ramblings, play-like scenes, pseudo-science passages on ceutology and long chapters about the science of whaling.
An unusual, if not very enjoyable read.