Moby Dick

One of the best-I'll miss reading it

After reading the previous reader reveiws, I'll be brief and to the point. This book should not be read by eighth graders or other persons who are not at the top of their game with regard to their ability to read dificult text. I am over 50 years old and chose to read it for myself, although I found it very intimidating to start. The importance of the detail is when one considers Moby as God or nature the details are an attempt to understand the whale aka God and it can't be done. Now do you get it? Nobody can understand God and consequently nobody can understand the symbol of God as portrayed in this miraculous novel. I will indeed miss reading it.

8 out of 12 people found this review helpful.

Hard to read

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville is a well known tale about Captain Ahab's pursuit of the whale who maimed him. The story is told by Ishmael who seeks adventure in whaling. He follows Captain Ahab on his quest to find Moby. In the end Captain Ahab's obsession with Moby ends up killing him. I liked the plot of the book which is a sea adventure to find Moby, because I like books about adventures that give me a different view of the world around me. The reasons I choose this book to read, because I had herd about it throughout my life and I was interested in finding out what it was really about. I liked how Captain Ahab had an obsession with this whale, because I like characters who are willing to do crazy things in order to get what they want. I didn't like the fact that I couldn't understand the book at times and had to reread what I had just read over and over again. I feel that the author was overly descriptive and used too many challenging words and phrases. Over all I honestly did not like this book, because it was a difficult book to read, and it was just not the book for me, I lost interest in the story about half way through the book. I wouldn't recommend because it is a challenging book to read, but besides its difficulty level it is a great book.

6 out of 16 people found this review helpful.

The Ship of the Self...

If there were ever a seeming 'complete companion' to the understanding and appreciation of Herman Melville's 'master work' /Moby-Dick/ then this Second Edition of the Norton Critical Edition, edited by Hershel Parker and Harrison Hayford (pub. 2002) must surely be it. Not only does the volume contain the text of the novel (actually a 'romance' as defined by Hawthorne), but it also includes sections titled: 'Melville's Reading and /Moby-Dick/: An Overview and Bibliograpy', a glossary of nautical terms, a pictorial account (with drawings) of the parts of a whaleship, the mast parts, a typical whaleboat, the harpoon and lance, a drawing depicting a large slice of blubber being hauled onto a ship, contemporary engravings of whaling, articles about Melville's works written in his own time about his novels (romances)before /Moby-Dick/, reviews and letters written by Melville (including his famous paean to Nathaniel Hawthorne, 'Hawthorne and His Mosses'), analogues and sources, reviews of /Moby-Dick/ from his own time and from the modern era (1893-1897), and 'A Handful of Critical Challenges' (a selection from insightful and provocative essays which analyze the novel and its possible meanings). The text of the novel (romance) itself has been well foot-noted with helpful information about Melville's textual citations and allusions (example: from text -- '...a terrible prestige of perilousness about such a whale as there did about Rinaldo Rinaldini' [note -- 'Knight in Italian Renaissance epics -Orlando Furioso- (1532) by Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1535) and -Rinaldo- (1562) by Torquato Tasso (1544-1595)'). This novel has been endlessly analyzed and sliced up, picked apart, minced, boiled, strained, reflected upon, peered into, introverted, controverted, inverted, subverted, psychoanalyzed, Marxized, Freudianized, mythologized, anthroplogized, sociologized, mythopoeticized, Biblecized, homoeroticized, and even read for enjoyment. More gain comes from chopping down wood by the acre than whittling by the stick, so the analyzers seem to think. The novel can be read as satire, as allegory (like Spenser's moralistic warning allegories), as love-token (to Nathaniel Hawthorne) with Melville capering about trying to impress his beloved as much as he capered about on those rocks on the top of Monument Mountain back in August 1850 when they first met, and as revelation of Melville's inner self -- actually selves. The ship may be taken as the allegorical symbol of the individual psyche, and thus each of the characters aboard the -Pequod- becomes one of the multiple aspects of Melville's own awarenesses and inclinations. As for the chapters on whales and whaling, the reader will need to absorb those as atmosphere and Melville's ego-intellect wanting to show off. Read them closely for irony and humor and self-jesting at his own predilections for omnivorous reading and extract gathering, as well as an 'outsider's' jibes at academic fussiness and lexicographical loquaciousness. Take your time with this novel...you will learn much the more you think about it and the deeper you plumb its depths. And when you go a-whalin', mind them mouths and jaws, lined with sharpy teeth -- lest you lose a leg and founder in the deep.

4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

A Classic, but mostly frivolous

We have all heard the story of the infamous encounter between Captain Ahab and his nemesis Moby-Dick. I understood it to be a classic and began to read it even though I already saw the movie. The first few chapters had that ominous feeling (Melvilles' brilliant foreshadowing) and purported to promise better things to come. Well, they didn't. Instead Melville drolls on frivolous topics for countless chapters; he literally fills 3/4 of the book with chapters the reader can skip over and still not lose any of the story plot. It took me months to get through his book and it was not until the last three chapters that I realized why this book was a classic. The ending had such a profound impact on me that I have decided to reread Moby-Dick...though not for a long while.

4 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

Glitchy download

Very glitchy. Download the 2 99 one.

2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Summer Reading

I have to read this book for summer reading and I hate it. I have not yet finished, but I am struggling through every page! I came up with a schedule on how many chapters I have to read, otherwise I would never be able to finish! One of the worse books I have ever read.

2 out of 13 people found this review helpful.

Too Descriptive

Oh my goodness! I cannot belive how descriptive this Heman Melville is. Moby Dick was critiqued as two big thumbs down when it was originally released. It wasn't until after his death some description madman read it and promoted it to The first American Novel Genius. It should have stayed in the gutters. The story itself is interesting but way too many side streets. I'm on page 433 and they still haven't seen the dang whale. Way too long, way too descriptive. Im going to the library to get the sound recording, just so I can say I finished it. One thing I can say is this book will defintley improve your vocabulary. I needed a dictionary by my side. If you are going to tackle this monster (Pun intended) I recommend the soundrecording, too keep your sanity.

2 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN THIS TO ME?

O.K. I READ THE FIRST COUPLE PAGES AND MY THOUGHTS SUMMED UP; 'WHAT DID THIS GUY JUST SAY.' I MAY BE ONLY A TEENAGER, BUT WHAT'S GOOD IS GOOD SO FAR THIS IS BORING. IN ALL FAIRNESS I DIDN'T READ ALL OF IT YET SO IT MIGHT TURN AROUND(I HOPE IT DOES)SO I GAVE IT 3.5 STARS NOT 4 LIKE IT SAYS AT THE TOP.

2 out of 12 people found this review helpful.

Great Past

This book is so up to past that I couldn't take my eyes off the page.I just whanted to keep on reading.This is a great book for a person looking for a sea adventure.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Feedback

It dies not work at all i want my money back!

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Dick

I like this book because it sais dick

1 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

BOO

sucks,

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

isy

great and amazing

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

sucks

boring

1 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Moby Dick

The novel Moby Dick, written by Herman Melville is a classic masterpiece. Although the book gets a bit sluggish at times, most of the story is filled with action and adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Melville presents the reader with a terrific view of realistic whaling with his depth and complexity. He intimately describes the captain, his crew, and the horrible, gruesome, whale that they are madly chasing for. This is a must read for and fan of the sea, or anyone interested in an action packed, adventure filled saga. This is truly a great book for anyone that is interested.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

the awe that is moby.

Ah, yes, MOBY....I personally loved the book. Sure, there were lots digressions on the procedures of whaling and other little irrevelent stuff, but what people don't realize is that all the extremely abstruse messages in MOBY need to be hidden. If you strip away all the other stuff, the themes will just be too straight-forward and the reader probably will get a philosophical overload. Plus, is it just me or does anybody else find this book humorous too? I mean, come on, how can one NOT laugh at some of the language that Melville chooses to use? Brilliant! Brilliant! And another thing for people who are reading this as an assignment: read MOBY to read and understand it. DO NOT read it just to say in the end that you've read one of the greatest novels in Ame. history. B/c if you go about it in a more accepting manner, you'll find yourself comprehending it a lot better. If you accomplish this, you will also discover that MOBY is everything you'll EVER need on exam essays. It encompasses so many things: meaning of life, democracy, societal influences, human emotion & spirit, realization of truth--just to name a few. So go! Go read this book. Dance a little jig after you're done.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

THE GREATEST

I HAVE JUST STARTED READING THIS BOOK AND SO FAR IT IS VERY GOOD.IF YOU LIKE TO READ THIS BOOK IS A MUST READ BOOK.IT MAY TAKE YOU A WHILE TO READ.SEEING THAT THERE ARE 135 CHAPTERS MAY MAKE YOU WONDER IF IT IS WORTH IT,BUT DON'T WORRY THERE ARE ONLY ABOUT 601 PAGES IN THE WHOLE BOOK.ANYWAY LIKE I SAID,IT IS WORTHWHILE TO READ THIS BOOK,AND IF YOU LIKE TO READ GET A COPY TODAY.

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Best ever!!!!!"!!"!"!!""!!!!""""""

Goooood

Tehee

Day sayed a bad wrd. Eye iz smart :D

Nice long read for spring break

Moby dick is a very good dialog book i just dont get the beggining part too bad

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.