Scan barcode
A review by utahmomreads
Moby-Dick: Or, the Whale by Herman Melville
3.0
Moby-Dick got off to a fascinating start. The unique characters combined with an explosive conflict held immense possibility. Melville's writing, while wordy, is deliciously descriptive. I especially enjoyed his version of Jonah and the whale.
Unfortunately, I got bogged down in the slowness and plodding movement of the middle of the book. Melville leaves nothing out about the scientific details of whales (as known in the 1840s, which is still A LOT) and the graphic minutiae of whaling. While I found this section informative and interesting (my four year old son and I spent additional time watching videos of sperm whales), the characters and plot of the story are lost.
When Melville finally gets back to the central conflict in the last fifty pages, the story moves along quickly to it's grand finale.
Ultimately, I enjoyed the novel and it's themes but I was generally disappointed. I would have preferred that Melville spend more of his pages developing the interesting characters or plot. The book could have been so much shorter.
Unfortunately, I got bogged down in the slowness and plodding movement of the middle of the book. Melville leaves nothing out about the scientific details of whales (as known in the 1840s, which is still A LOT) and the graphic minutiae of whaling. While I found this section informative and interesting (my four year old son and I spent additional time watching videos of sperm whales), the characters and plot of the story are lost.
When Melville finally gets back to the central conflict in the last fifty pages, the story moves along quickly to it's grand finale.
Ultimately, I enjoyed the novel and it's themes but I was generally disappointed. I would have preferred that Melville spend more of his pages developing the interesting characters or plot. The book could have been so much shorter.