ptohver 's review for:

Moby-Dick: Or, the Whale by Herman Melville

4.0

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Melville combines high Shakespearean tragedy with what must be at least partially facetious tangents on whaling and whales. At times these tangents are cute and entertaining ("to be short then, a whale is a SPOUTING FISH WITH A HORIZONTAL TAIL"), at others they grow so verbose and specific as to become tedious, even if they do sometimes also function as literary devices. If I had to guess, I'd say at least a third of the book is dedicated to such tangents. These become so frequent in the latter half that you almost forget about the tragedy. Of course, when the story does pick up, it does so with a vengeance, inducing such richly satisfying introspection that distinguises the book as a true masterpiece. In other words, when it's good, it's great, but you need to withstand more than a few gratuitous intermissions.