Moby-dick: or, the whale - herman melville

Introduction by Elizabeth Hardwick Illustrations by Rockwell Kent Nominated as one of Americas best-loved novels by PBSs The Great American Read First published in 1851, Herman Melvilles masterpiece is, in Elizabeth Hardwicks words, the greatest novel in American literature.

The saga of Captain Ahab and his monomaniacal pursuit of the white whale remains a peerless adventure story but one full of mythic grandeur, poetic majesty, and symbolic power.

Filtered through the consciousness of the novels narrator, Ishmael, Moby-Dick draws us into a universe full of fascinating characters and stories, from the noble cannibal Queequeg to the natural history of whales, while reaching existential depths that excite debate and contemplation to this day.