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3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
Half of this book is a semi-interesting story and half is weird whaling facts. If you want to read about how blubber is cut from the whale read this book. If you want a narrative that flows and is interesting the whole way through, skip it.
slow-paced
Throughout reading 97% of the book, I had planned on giving it 5 stars, despite the encyclopedia of whale hunting it contained, until I got to the denouement. The denouement was too short and unconvincing. It reminds me of Magnolia, long-ass, boring movie that I loved, but when you get to the end, you hear someone in the audience shout out, "All this for flying frogs?" Melville ought to have spent more time fleshing out the denouement and less time reciting all of the research he did for the book. Usually, authors do a ton of research to inform them and get the nuances right, but they don't include their background research in the actual novel. Melville threw in all of his research into the book as well. Much of it was interesting, but I could've lived without it. When he was writing, not reciting research, it was gripping. He has an excellent command of the language that was poetic at times. And then there were the out of place stage directions as if he decided it was a play 90% of the way into the book. Overall, I enjoyed the book, I even enjoyed the quirkiness where Melville didn't know what he wanted the book to be exactly. I just wish he'd cut out 50% of "Everything you never wanted to know about whaling and never asked."
around a 2.5 out of 5 stars
I don't know what to say about this book. It's an important read and is a classic but you gotta be really loving this to get through it. It is dense full of long descriptions, and essays about everything and anything to do with fishing, harpooning and whales. This is not a book that I would say I recommend this or I don't. I think that you really have to be patient and dedicated to truly enjoy it.
Let's start with the beginning portion of the novel. Which I was really enjoying! I really liked Ishmael and following his point of view. The writing was really great actually... It did take a lot of attention and dedication but I could understand everything just fine. The chapters are all quite short which did make this go by a bit faster.
Captain Ahab was not present till like past the hundred page mark which was a bit irritating. All in all the first quarter or so I was enjoying.
Than we got to around the middle... holy hell it was tough. I was struggling through it. I had switched to the audiobook, I had lost interest and was just pushing myself through it. I was considering DNFing it quite often.
The last quarter or so I skim read. If I didn't do that I would be reading this for another week or so which I didn't want to do. The ending was really good though, I liked the themes of vengeance and revenge in this book.
Overall, I do want to revisit this book in the future. I can see why people LOVE this and why some people HATE it. I liked the beginning and the ending but struggled through the middle a lot.
“As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.”
I don't know what to say about this book. It's an important read and is a classic but you gotta be really loving this to get through it. It is dense full of long descriptions, and essays about everything and anything to do with fishing, harpooning and whales. This is not a book that I would say I recommend this or I don't. I think that you really have to be patient and dedicated to truly enjoy it.
Let's start with the beginning portion of the novel. Which I was really enjoying! I really liked Ishmael and following his point of view. The writing was really great actually... It did take a lot of attention and dedication but I could understand everything just fine. The chapters are all quite short which did make this go by a bit faster.
“Call me Ishmael.”
Captain Ahab was not present till like past the hundred page mark which was a bit irritating. All in all the first quarter or so I was enjoying.
Than we got to around the middle... holy hell it was tough. I was struggling through it. I had switched to the audiobook, I had lost interest and was just pushing myself through it. I was considering DNFing it quite often.
The last quarter or so I skim read. If I didn't do that I would be reading this for another week or so which I didn't want to do. The ending was really good though, I liked the themes of vengeance and revenge in this book.
Overall, I do want to revisit this book in the future. I can see why people LOVE this and why some people HATE it. I liked the beginning and the ending but struggled through the middle a lot.
“Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing. When you think it fled, it may have but become transfigured into some still subtler form.”
One of my all-time favorite books. I read it the first time when I was about 14, which was huge for me back then because although I liked to read, I was all about ADHD and sitting through a 700-page book was not in my sphere of experience. But it just enthralled me. Even the wacky parts in the middle that had almost nothing to do with the story kept me reading. I've read it probably a dozen times since, and I always seem to get something new out of it.
adventurous
challenging
funny
slow-paced
This has been on my backlog since college. I bought it for an English course I took and we never got around to actually reading the book in the semester and I've held on to it all that time. I believe the reason our professor had assigned it to us was due to the attention to detail and the research into whaling.
Y'all I think Melville did a lot of research before writing this book. Just a bit.
Y'all I think Melville did a lot of research before writing this book. Just a bit.
An amazing achievement of creative invention, full of philosophy and adventure and encyclopedia detail. You can find a thousand essays or analyses if you want to know what it's about, or what Melville was trying to do, so I won't bother going into that. I'll just say, I loved this book so much, and I look forward to reading it again.
Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is undoubtedly a monumental work of literature. It’s a novel that takes readers on an epic journey, both physically across the seas and mentally through the depths of human obsession, revenge, and the unknown.
One thing that stands out in Moby-Dick is its incredible detail. Melville doesn’t just tell a story; he builds an entire world. The novel is filled with intricate descriptions of whaling, the anatomy of whales, and even the minutiae of life aboard a whaling ship. At times, these details can feel overwhelming—there are portions that seem almost overloaded with information. However, these details serve to immerse the reader fully into the world Melville is creating. They make the ocean vast and the hunt for the whale tangible, enhancing the sense of realism and the scale of Ahab’s obsession.
Despite the dense passages, I can see why people love Moby-Dick. The narrative is as much about the pursuit of knowledge as it is about chasing the great white whale. Melville’s prose is rich and poetic, with philosophical reflections that still resonate today. The character of Captain Ahab is unforgettable, a symbol of unrelenting obsession, and Ishmael’s observations provide a thoughtful lens through which to view the story.
In the end, Moby-Dick is a book that demands patience, but it rewards readers with a complex, multilayered narrative that explores the depths of human experience. While the extensive detail may not be for everyone, it is precisely this depth that makes the novel so enduring and revered.
3.5/5 stars
One thing that stands out in Moby-Dick is its incredible detail. Melville doesn’t just tell a story; he builds an entire world. The novel is filled with intricate descriptions of whaling, the anatomy of whales, and even the minutiae of life aboard a whaling ship. At times, these details can feel overwhelming—there are portions that seem almost overloaded with information. However, these details serve to immerse the reader fully into the world Melville is creating. They make the ocean vast and the hunt for the whale tangible, enhancing the sense of realism and the scale of Ahab’s obsession.
Despite the dense passages, I can see why people love Moby-Dick. The narrative is as much about the pursuit of knowledge as it is about chasing the great white whale. Melville’s prose is rich and poetic, with philosophical reflections that still resonate today. The character of Captain Ahab is unforgettable, a symbol of unrelenting obsession, and Ishmael’s observations provide a thoughtful lens through which to view the story.
In the end, Moby-Dick is a book that demands patience, but it rewards readers with a complex, multilayered narrative that explores the depths of human experience. While the extensive detail may not be for everyone, it is precisely this depth that makes the novel so enduring and revered.
3.5/5 stars