Melville, Herman, Moby-Dick. New York, New York: Barnes and Noble Books 1993, 479 pages

Herman Melville was born in New York City in 1819. He sailed in 1837 as a cabin boy on a merchant ship, from which experiences he later based his novel, Redburn. At age twenty-one, he embarked on an 18-month voyage on board the Acushnet, a whaling ship. He deserted ship to the islands of Marquesas to live among cannibals (recounted in his book, Typee), later escaping on an Australian trader. He was imprisoned for a short while in Tahiti (told in the book, Omoo), and returning to the Land of the Free, enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a seaman, giving him material for his book, White-Jacket. These experiences also inspired him to write the well-loved Moby-Dick.

Melville became popular early in his literary career, but after the unenthusiastic reception of Moby-Dick and other works of some eventual merit by the general public, he lost popularity and gave up writing professionally. However, he continued to write and produced several other works before he died in 1891. His other notable classics include Bartleby the Scrivener and Billy Budd, another popular nautical tale.

A half-crazed sea captain's revengeful quest to find and kill the extraordinary whale that deprived him of his leg becomes a bitter and fatal failure. The self-asserted narrator called "Ishmael" signs with captain Ahab's ship, giving us a first-hand view of all that takes place, as well as superb information concerning the anatomy of whales, ships, etc. In almost every chapter we also discover something or other about the nature of man.

After putting out to sea they find their captain, Ahab, to be obsessed with killing the feared White Whale, christened Moby-Dick, and thus to avenge his lost limb. To energize and enthuse his crew, the madly eloquent, peg-legged Ahab promises a Spanish sixteen-dollar piece to one to first sight the large whale. The ship gives chase to and captures several other whales, and Ishmael seizes the opportunity to tell us everything he knows on the subject. Then they hear reports from other ships of recent disastrous encounters with the White Whale, figure his approximate position and sail through a storm in that direction, much to the dismay of the crew, who view it as an evil omen. After the storm, Ahab himself sights the whale and gives chase. Several times the whale smashes the smaller boats sent after it. On the third day of the chase the tiring whale turns on the Pequod and "smote the starboard bow". (p.476) As he watches his ship sink, Ahab desperately hurls a harpoon into the side of the whale from one of the repaired boats, cursing the whale and saying: "…Let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee…!" (p. 477) The dangerous harpoon line catches the fated Ahab around the neck and catapults him out of the boat after the fast-retreating whale. With Ahab disposed of in one way, the rest are lost in quite another, soon discovering a lethal whirlpool created by the sinking ship, that "seized the lone boat itself, and all its crew, and each floating oar, and every lance-pole, and spinning, animate and inanimate, all round and round in one vortex, carried the smallest chip of the Pequod out of sight." (p. 477) Our narrator, who had earlier fallen out of Ahab's boat and observed it all from the perimeter of the scene, becomes the sole survivor.

As with most classics, Moby-Dick (written in 1851) was not an instant success, and as with most instant successes, his earlier books, Typee and Omoo did not ever become great classics. It was the time when the Industrial Revolution was becoming less of a revolution and more of a way of life. The steamboat was fast overtaking the conventional sailing vessels and whaling was losing its importance as an industry due to the discovery of kerosene as a cheap light source. America was also becoming increasingly divided over the slavery issue in the 1850's and Uncle Tom's Cabin was written in 1851-52. Perhaps the last thing slavery-conscious Americans of that period wanted to hear was a story concerning the diminishing culture of whalers and featuring a white Whale. It evidently did not fit the mood of his period, and after it's publication, Melville began to lose popularity. It's a shame to think how much great writing may be overlooked for that reason. It is also fortunate that we have rediscovered Melville's masterpiece.

An interesting feature of this book is it's short chapter style. This makes it possible for Melville to regress and use a chapter to explain anything needing clarity, in the middle of or even after he has related an event. It gives it a conversational tone, like a World War II veteran explaining his part in a military strike and briefly defining C-rations when he realized how essential that knowledge would be to the story. The book has 479 pages with 135 chapters, making the average chapter about three and a half pages long.

Like much poetry and all of Dickens' writings, Moby-Dick contains many references and hidden meanings the half of which I was not sure I understood completely. And that very quality gives it a delightful depth that I do not believe is found in the mass-produced books of today. But unlike poetry and more like Dickens, most of the references are satirically humorous, often taking a jab at a king or exposing ironies in a certain way of life. I laughed aloud on more than one occasion and laughed inwardly on countless others. Even so, I was uncertain until the very last paragraph as to whether Ahab's object would be accomplished. From my vantage point, the fact that the whale is never captured is one of the best-kept secrets in all of literature.

Another well-kept secret is that this book absolutely lacks the 'fishy' smell that is often expected to waft upward when this book is first opened. It certainly is anything but a fisherman's tale with the tone of an ignorant whaler who just happens to turn writer, but rather it is that of a scholarly and well-versed writer who just happens to enjoy and have experience in whaling. Footnotes and sources show this without a doubt. My guess is that one third to one half of the book is devoted to describing good whales, bad whales, customs of whalers, and the way to pursue, harpoon, and obtain the whales, and then to strip and preserve the whales most efficiently. While these lengthy elucidations border on tediousness at times, we are continually reminded that they will be essential to a proper understanding of the story, and so they prove to be. All the first portion of the book seems like one expectant prelude to the last few chapters, and that intense ending becomes all the more potent because of it.

Most great writers use the names of their characters to their advantage, and Melville is no exception. It is quite popular to name children after biblical characters, though usually after the upright and moral variety. Wisely, this writer chose the infamous name Ahab for the captain. As the biblical character Ahab is a person of authority, a king, so is the fictional captain Ahab also a person of position. As the Scriptural Ahab uses that position to gain his own ends, so the created Ahab uses his status to pursue his own hopeless purpose.

All said, this is probably one of the most profound books that I have ever read, and many are inclined to believe, has ever been written.