Inscrutable Malice: Theodicy, Eschatology, and the Biblical Sources of "Moby-Dick"

by Jonathan A. Cook

Overview

In Inscrutable Malice, Jonathan A. Cook expertly illuminates Melville's abiding preoccupation with the problem of evil and the dominant role of the Bible in shaping his best-known novel. Drawing on recent research in the fields of biblical studies, the history of religion, and comparative mythology, Cook provides a new interpretation of Moby-Dick that places Melville's creative adaptation of the Bible at the center of the work.

Cook identifies two ongoing concerns in the narrative in relation to their key biblical sources: the attempt to reconcile the goodness of God with the existence of evil, as dramatized in the book of Job; and the discourse of the Christian end-times involving the final destruction of evil, as found in the apocalyptic books and eschatological passages of the Old and New Testaments.

With his detailed reading of Moby-Dick in relation to its most important source text, Cook greatly expands the reader's understanding of the moral, religious, and mythical dimensions of the novel. Both accessible and erudite, Inscrutable Malice will appeal to scholars, students, and enthusiasts of Melville's classic whaling narrative.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501761652
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	12/15/2021
Pages:	358
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.94(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jonathan A. Cook is author of Satirical Apocalypse. He has published numerous articles and reviews on the writings of Melville, Hawthorne, Poe, Irving, and other nineteenth-century American authors. He lives and teaches in Northern Virginia.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Bibliographical Note xv

Chapter 1 Joban Theodicy and Apocalyptic Eschatology 3

Chapter 2 Pilgrimage and Prophecy 34

Chapter 3 Chaos Monster and Unholy Warrior 72

Chapter 4 Cetology, Cosmology, Epistemology 110

Chapter 5 Comic and Tragic Variations 159

Chapter 6 Hubris and Heroism, Mortality and Immortality 195

Chapter 7 Combat and Catastrophe 240

Epilogue 271

Notes 281

Selected Bibliography of Melville and Moby-Dick Studies 321

Index 335

What People are Saying About This

Steven Olsen-Smith

Cook has accomplished the most precise, searching, and in-depth investigation of a subject whose importance cannot be overestimated for this particular author. Melville's 'saturation' by the Bible has never before been explored with the exhaustive approach it warrants. This study's extensive documentation alone will serve readers as a valuable resource, and Cook's analysis of scripturally influenced subject matter in Melville's narrative is unprecedented in scope and detail.

Brian Yothers

Moby-Dick has long been recognized as a landmark in American literary and religious history, but the goal of showing how these aspects of Melville's novel are related has proved elusive. Through an inspired combination of biblical scholarship, comparative religion, intellectual history, and aesthetics with Melville's own patterns of reading and intellectual inquiry, Jonathan Cook's study illuminates brilliantly Moby-Dick's status as both an exceptionally important artifact in religious history and a superb piece of literary art. Cook's wide-ranging review of the scholarship on Moby-Dick and his clear prose style contribute to making this essential reading for anyone seeking to understand America's most important novel, the religious context from which it emerged, and the history of intellectual engagement it has inspired.

Editorial Reviews

Of all books about Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (and there are many), Jonathan A. Cook's is one that needed to be written. Cook organizes this potentially unwieldy and unfathomable topic in a way that scholars will find useful as a reference for repeated consultation.

Nineteenth-Century Literature

The best reading of this iconic novel in recent memory. Under Cook's expert eye, Moby-Dick divulges secrets of the Second Coming and Melville's conflicting religious inclinations. Cook's masterful and wide-ranging command of Melville's library makes Moby-Dick into a guided tour through the Western canon.

Religion & Literature

Of all books about Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (and there are many), Jonathan A. Cook's is one that needed to be written. Cook organizes this potentially unwieldy and unfathomable topic in a way that scholars will find useful as a reference for repeated consultation.

-- "Nineteenth-Century Literature"

The best reading of this iconic novel in recent memory. Under Cook's expert eye, Moby-Dick divulges secrets of the Second Coming and Melville's conflicting religious inclinations. Cook's masterful and wide-ranging command of Melville's library makes Moby-Dick into a guided tour through the Western canon.

-- "Religion & Literature"

This book has an added advantage of serving as a reader's guide to the novel, one which will be indispensable to any serious reader of Moby-Dick, whether for the first or the twentieth time.

-- "Sewanee Review"

From the Publisher

This book has an added advantage of serving as a reader's guide to the novel, one which will be indispensable to any serious reader of Moby-Dick, whether for the first or the twentieth time.

Sewanee Review