Moby Dick; Or, The Whale

American author Herman Melville published his first novel, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, in 1851. The story of Ahab, the captain of the whaling ship Pequod, and his irrational pursuit for vengeance against Moby Dick, the huge white sperm whale that wounded him on a previous journey, is told in the book by the sailor Ishmael. Moby-Dick, a work that contributed to the literature of the American Renaissance, had received mixed reviews upon publication, was a commercial flop, and was out of print w...