holdenrichards 's review for:

Moby-Dick: Or, the Whale by Herman Melville

5.0

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Have been working on this one a while and only finished reading it today. So if you look up omen in the dictionary, I am pretty sure it says "... see Moby Dick." From the very first chapter this book it is portending its eventuality, and all the metaphorical angels (characters names Elijah and Gabriel, both quite insane in their own way) in the world can't stop what's about to happen. When Melville addresses his characters he does so with such acuity as to make the unmistakable and unforgettable. The wild Quequeg, the stoic, upright Starbuck, the unpredictable Mr. Stubbs, and the monomaniac Ahab. Never has a case of "romantic" obsession been so twisted. Never has the whale and whaling ever been so completely comprehended.