George_Chabot's Full Review: Herman Meville - Moby Dick
Moby Dick
One of America's greatest contributions to world literature is Moby Dick, a book about evil, with a capital E.
Written by Herman Melville, and published in 1851, Moby Dick details the conflict between Captain Ahab and the great White Whale for whom the story is named.
At their first meeting, Moby Dick tore off Ahab's leg. Infuriated, Ahab vows revenge - and in a single-minded man such as he, revenge is an all-powerful motivating thought. Ahab uses his whaler, The Pequod, and crew to pursue the leviathan across the seven seas. Indeed, the world is not a big enough place for the two to coexist.
Ahab's suicidal fixation results in the destruction of Moby Dick, yes, but even in the moment of his triumph, he too is dragged down to his death.
Captain Ahab is the literary type of the self-destructive personality, unable to find happiness in this life, longing to depart it, but unable to take the easy way out, therefore masking this suicidal urge in a larger, more noble sounding cause. His crew fear him, not because of his stern anger or fixed purpose, but because they fear to look inside themselves and see the Captain Ahab lurking within - a demon that lives within us all.
This fear fuels the story. The men are eager to pursue the whale and put an end to him. In this way they hope to exorcise the demon from Captain Ahab and themselves. Alas, they do not know that the purpose of Ahab is to destroy himself, and the whale is just a pretext.
Moby Dick has been printed continuously since 1851 and is available in many editions. My personal copy is by the Easton Press Leather Bound Library of the 100 Greatest Books Ever Written. The book is beautifully bound in hand tooled leather with gilt page edges and both color and black and white illustrations.
Many of you were required to read Moby Dick in high school and we all know how onerous it is to be told to read and write a report on any work of "great literature". However, this book is great and deserves a second look. I promise you, if you do not find it riveting, you will at least find it immensely entertaining. Oh, and yes, Peter Benchley did rip off the plot for Jaws. :>
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