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Moby-Dick (Dover Thrift Editions: Classic Novels) Paperback – August 29, 2003
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A masterpiece of storytelling, this epic saga pits Ahab, a brooding and fantastical sea captain, against the great white whale that crippled him. In telling the tale of Ahab's passion for revenge and the fateful voyage that ensued, Melville produced far more than the narrative of a hair-raising journey; Moby-Dick is a tale for the ages that sounds the deepest depths of the human soul.
Interspersed with graphic sketches of life aboard a whaling vessel, and a wealth of information on whales and 19th-century whaling, Melville's greatest work presents an imaginative and thrilling picture of life at sea, as well as a portrait of heroic determination. The author's keen powers of observation and firsthand knowledge of shipboard life (he served aboard a whaler himself) were key ingredients in crafting a maritime story that dramatically examines the conflict between man and nature.
"A valuable addition to the literature of the day," said American journalist Horace Greeley on the publication of Moby-Dick in 1851 — a classic piece of understatement about a literary classic now considered by many as "the great American novel." Read and pondered by generations, the novel remains an unsurpassed account of the ultimate human struggle against the indifference of nature and the awful power of fate.
Much of Moby Dick was inspired by the 1821 work Narratives of the Wreck of the Whale-Ship Essex, which in turn inspired the 2015 movie In the Heart of the Sea, directed by Ron Howard and starring Chris Hemsworth.
- Print length464 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Lexile measure1150L
- Dimensions5.25 x 1.25 x 8.25 inches
- PublisherDover Publications
- Publication dateAugust 29, 2003
- ISBN-109780486432151
- ISBN-13978-0486432151
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover comes a novel that explores life after tragedy and the enduring spirit of love. | Learn more
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Herman Melville (1819–1891) found early success with stories inspired by his adventures in the South Seas.
“I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing.”
“Call me Ishmael.”
“Think not, is my eleventh commandment; and sleep when you can, is my twelfth.”
“I love to sail forbidden seas,and land on barbarous coasts.”
Moby-Dick is a tale for the ages that sounds the deepest depths of the human soul.
A literary classic first published in 1851, the story represents the ultimate human struggle.
A masterpiece of storytelling and symbolic realism, this thrilling adventure and epic saga pits Ahab, a brooding sea captain, against the great white whale that crippled him.

Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
A masterpiece of storytelling, this epic saga pits Ahab, a brooding and fantastical sea captain, against the great white whale that crippled him. In telling the tale of Ahab's passion for revenge and the fateful voyage that ensued, Melville produced far more than the narrative of a hair-raising journey; Moby-Dick is a tale for the ages that sounds the deepest depths of the human soul.
Interspersed with graphic sketches of life aboard a whaling vessel, and a wealth of information on whales and 19th-century whaling, Melville's greatest work presents an imaginative and thrilling picture of life at sea, as well as a portrait of heroic determination. The author's keen powers of observation and firsthand knowledge of shipboard life (he served aboard a whaler himself) were key ingredients in crafting a maritime story that dramatically examines the conflict between man and nature.
About the Author
Herman Melville (1819–1891) found early success with stories inspired by his adventures in the South Seas. His fortunes declined with the 1851 publication of Moby-Dick, now recognized as a masterpiece but scorned by Melville's contemporaries. The author was obliged to work as a New York City customs inspector and died in obscurity, three decades before the critical reassessment of his work.
Product details
- ASIN : 0486432157
- Publisher : Dover Publications (August 29, 2003)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 464 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780486432151
- ISBN-13 : 978-0486432151
- Reading age : 9+ years, from customers
- Lexile measure : 1150L
- Item Weight : 12.8 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.25 x 1.25 x 8.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #38,005 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #72 in Classic Action & Adventure (Books)
- #142 in Sea Stories
- #1,255 in Classic Literature & Fiction
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
The writing career of Herman Melville (1819 - 1891) peaked early, with his early novels, such as Typee becoming best sellers. By the mid-1850s his poularity declined sharply, and by the time he died he had been largely forgotten. Yet in time his novel Moby Dick came to be regarded as one of the finest works of American, and indeed world, literature, as was Billy Budd, which was not published until long after his death, in 1924.
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.
Licensed Realtor who has published different paperback daily journals as well as real estate related ebooks
Customer reviews
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book to be a great story with all the nuances, filled with adventure and extensively researched content. Moreover, they appreciate its metaphors and symbols, with one review highlighting its profound reflection on good and evil and monomaniacal obsession. Additionally, the book receives positive feedback for its wonderful character descriptions, with one noting how it makes the crew feel like real people, and customers consider it a great edition with good value. However, the readability and difficulty to follow receive mixed reviews, with some finding the writing style beautiful while others describe it as a very difficult read.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers praise the story's nuances and consider it a classic read, with one customer noting how it is deeply interwoven into American culture.
"...The flow of the story was enjoyable, and I loved the old English conversations between the crew and the writing style...." Read more
"...observed beginning with Chapter 36, "The Quarter-Deck": This is a seminal chapter in that in it Captain Ahab explains the Pequod's true mission--to..." Read more
"...it does begin as one, the book is sui generis, and contains multiple digressions in the plot that make Moby Dick a thoroughly distinct work...." Read more
"...was Chapter 54, The Town-Ho's Story, which seemed to be the most absorbing chapter...." Read more
Customers find the book informative and educational, filled with adventure and insightful content, with one customer noting that every chapter has a purpose.
"...dull, interspersed with heart-stopping whaling and welcome encounters with other ships...." Read more
"...with its sheer volume compared to the others, and a myriad of topics it unraveled. Chapter 96, the Try-Works was one of the most intense chapters...." Read more
"...making it a must-have for literature lovers and an excellent way for newcomers to embark on the epic journey of Ahab and his fateful encounter..." Read more
"...they are superbly written, and very real, having the emotions and reactions of flesh and blood people...." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's meaning, noting it is full of metaphors, symbols, and poetic passages, with one customer highlighting its profound reflection on good and evil and monomaniacal obsession.
"...Second, it is full of poetic passages. Melville was heavily influenced by the style of the King James Bible and Shakespeare...." Read more
"...The book is firmly grounded in the Western canon, making references to Shakespeare, Locke, Milton, Kant, Plato, the Bible, Goethe, and Coleridge,..." Read more
"...my Captain! noble soul! grand old heart, after all!"..." Read more
"...The ability to highlight passages, search for specific terms, and access a comprehensive dictionary further enriches the reading experience...." Read more
Customers find the book to be a great value, particularly appreciating that it's available as a free version, with one customer noting they received 100 books for almost nothing.
"...Indeed the book itself is about crews in whaling business - risky, profitable, and overly-exploited -, hence business perspectives underlying in the..." Read more
"...clear readable print, strong binding and cover, looks great--an excellent value." Read more
"...Sorry. It was an excellent download. It was free yet had all the features you'd expect in a book you paid for: Bookmarks, page jumps, notation,..." Read more
"I love this version of these books. The dover thrift. Its a nice low cost alternative to getting your favorite classics." Read more
Customers like this book edition, describing it as a great version and collectors item, with one customer noting its pocketbook format.
"...The AmazonClassics edition is very good. It has a professional formatting, excellent typography and I did not detect mistakes...." Read more
"First off, this Penguin Classics deluxe edition was great edition...." Read more
"...Other than that this is fine edition. The art by Rockwell Kent is famous and very well known...." Read more
"Nice version. The book is long and sometimes tedious, but when you get to the end you’re glad you read it. You learn a lot about whales and sailing...." Read more
Customers appreciate the character development in the book, noting the wonderfully described characters and the narrator's ability to do voices for each character. One customer highlights the range of personalities that make up humanity, while another notes how well the crew is portrayed as real people.
"...Melville also gives us a consummate tragic character, Captain Ahab, who seems to be a composite of nearly every other tragic figure that came before..." Read more
"...navigate the extensive narrative, footnotes, and delve into the intricacies of the characters and their maritime adventures...." Read more
"...details beyond the point of endurance, it also gives an incredible view into the characters, minds, mores, attitudes, and realities of mid-19th..." Read more
"...depth of the language, truthfulness of the details, and mythological power of the characters (Moby Dick and Ahab in particular) combine to make this..." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the readability of the book, with some praising its beautiful writing style for adventure and beautiful language, while others find it very difficult to read and criticize the mishmosh of different writing styles.
"...The flow of the story was enjoyable, and I loved the old English conversations between the crew and the writing style...." Read more
"...It's not an easy read, but a rich and penetrating dive into a world that you would otherwise never have the privilege to see." Read more
"...time to the narrator to present the history, science, and art of whales and whaling, while the whaling and ship encounters brings the narration back..." Read more
"...This edition has the extracts and etymology, which do contribute to the understanding of the text...." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the book's readability, with some finding it easy to follow while others describe it as a difficult slog.
"...when i originally read this book, it was a slog to get thru, no doubt...." Read more
"...combines the allure of Melville's prose with the modern convenience of digital reading, making it a must-have for literature lovers and an excellent..." Read more
"...If it is sometimes a difficult slog, with spiritual flights or incredible, if archaic, whale details beyond the point of endurance, it also gives an..." Read more
"I've read Moby Dick several times, but reading it on a Kindle is much easier by simply being self-contained in a light, small package...." Read more
Reviews with images

Reasons to read Moby-Dick when you know how it ends
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2025This year, I want to attempt to read some of the old classic material. This was the first of this year, and I'm finally glad I read it. The flow of the story was enjoyable, and I loved the old English conversations between the crew and the writing style. There were times I needed to re-read areas , as we are not used to that style of speech today.
Definitely a classic must read. Now, to choose my next classic. I don't know where to begin. I've read Jules V, HP Lovecraft, Shelly's Frankenstein, Poe, and HG wells.
Any
I'm open to suggestions?
- Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2013Moby Dick, by Herman Melville, is one of the greatest American contributions to world literature. Although it is often labeled as a novel, and indeed it does begin as one, the book is sui generis, and contains multiple digressions in the plot that make Moby Dick a thoroughly distinct work. Notorious for its difficulty, and infamous for its many chapter's describing the mechanics and history of whaling, Melville's book is now regarded as a classic par excellence.
What are we to make of this book? It is one of the strangest that I've ever encountered, and I reckon myself pretty well versed in strange books. For one, this is the most overt effort to write a 'classic' that I've come across. Melville knows what he's going for, and he self-conciously pulls out every trick in his bag. The book is firmly grounded in the Western canon, making references to Shakespeare, Locke, Milton, Kant, Plato, the Bible, Goethe, and Coleridge, among others. It is also meticulously researched, with virtually whole bibliographies on whaling and whale-stories contained within. It seems that Melville's White Whale was greatness, and he pursued it with a madman's ire, lashing out at it with every harpoon in his armory. In fact, Moby Dick was not well-received during his lifetime, and so perhaps Melville even shared in Ahab's fate.
In the book, Ishmael uses everything on board the ship to serve as a metaphor for something else, until, in the end, the ship is as riddled with metaphors as with the rigs, ropes, and lines that cross her hull. Meaning is ever-elusive, and one thing can stand for ten others. The best example of this is, obviously, Moby Dick, who can take on almost infinite meanings. Is he nature, punishing the whalers for their slaughter of his kinsmen? Is he Melville's struggle with greatness? With God? Or is Moby Dick simply Fate? Or, is Moby Dick a pre-Freudian psychological device? The object of Ahab's displaced fears, hopes, and anger? Is Moby Dick a phallic symbol (his name is straightforward enough)? A ram-shaped whale, filled with white spermaceti! I hate to be coarse, but the work asks these questions, and a thousand more.
Melville also gives us a consummate tragic character, Captain Ahab, who seems to be a composite of nearly every other tragic figure that came before: Achilles, Orestes, King Lear, Hamlet, Faust, and Satan from Paradise Lost. Added to that, Melville blends with Ishmael several times during the narrative, becoming both part of the story as well as the author. He makes no attempt to hide the process of creation, giving Moby Dick a strickingly modernist feel at times.
But is Moby Dick a perfect work? Not a soul would argue that. Some chapters on whaling are indeed excessive, Melville's prose, while often brilliant, has a tendency to become labyrinthine and over-precise during his technical explanations. The storyline itself is actually quite short, and is told in the first and last 10% of the book, the middle 80% consisting of a monumentously ambitious literary experiment (some of which he could have spared us). But I regard these flaws as I do the scar that runs the length of Ahab's body: the flaw that makes perfection. The entire work itself becomes some sort of allegory for Ahab's character: monomaniacal, brilliant, flawed, and over-extended. Blast you, Melville, you're a genius after all.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2020Moby Dick by Herman Melville, accompanied by King Lear by W. Shakespeare and the Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag, was a monthly reading for a book club. Obviously, Moby Dick was the centerpiece of the dining, with its sheer volume compared to the others, and a myriad of topics it unraveled. Chapter 96, the Try-Works was one of the most intense chapters. While describing oil-extraction operation from sperm, Ismael observed that "Like a plethoric burning martyr, or a self-consuming misanthrope, once ignited, the whale supplies his own fuel and burns by his own body", which reminded me the "Seven Steps Verse or Quatrain of Seven Steps 七步詩 allegedly ciphered by 曹植, Cao Zhi, i.e., "People burn the beanstalk to boil beans, / The beans in the pot cry out. / We are born of the selfsame root, / Why should we hound each other to death with such impatience?" Ismael also ascertained that "the truest of all men was the Man of Sorrows (Isaiah 53), ..., and Ecclesiastes is the fine hammered steel of woe. "All is vanity." ALL.", which followed "But that night, in particular, a strange (and ever since inexplicable) thing occurred to me... Uppermost was the impression, that whatever swift, rushing thing I stood on was not so much bound to any haven ahead as rushing from all havens astern. A stark, bewildered feeling, as of DEATH, came over me." Alas, Ahab should have heeded that.
Shakespearean influences can be found everywhere in the book. As can be noted, the Parsee's self-fulfilling prophecies sounded like those weird ones by the witches in Macbeth. Another interesting part of the book was Chapter 54, The Town-Ho's Story, which seemed to be the most absorbing chapter. As a story within a story; or another layer of stories under such stories, probably this chapter may have many twists, tricks, and/or plots for this specific story. That is, I doubted that such an arguably good one happened to become the head of a mutiny, I held that he was meant to be the one who led such mutiny, a rebellious one in his nature. How about the bad guy who happened to trigger the feud led to the mutiny? He probably was a bad one, but it would be absurd to move the whole burden of such mutiny to an insolent one, not onto the desperado.
When I told one of my senior friends during mountain tracking last month that I was reading the Moby Dick, he suggested that the book should be read as a good business novel. He observed that the characters could be better understood if we put the characters and situations in the book into a corporate setting or business context. Indeed the book itself is about crews in whaling business - risky, profitable, and overly-exploited -, hence business perspectives underlying in the story. How about the intense politics by and between Ahab and Starbuck? Ahab seemed to be worried about the possibility of a mutiny led by Starbuck should he had gone too far. In Chapter 109, Ahab showed his unexpected self-restraint when he was confronted with Starbuck about how to deal with leaking barrels. At the end of the day, he was just an executive hired by principal owners, i.e. Captain Bildad and Captain Peleg, of the ship. How about Captain Ahab's elite whaling troupe, led by the Parsee? We have seen secret elite groups or standing task forces within large corporations. Even their phone numbers are not listed on the company directory, those groups do jobs directly mandated by the highest executives behind the scene. Having gained confidence after a series of tugs-of-war with Starbuck and his crews, or just out of nervous impatience, Ahab went all out, with Pip as his sidekick. As Ahab seized initiatives, Starbuck yielded to Ahab's authority. Chapter 132 was the most hilarious one: As Ahab exhibited a kind of "When I was young" tirade, or "Latte is Horse..", a pun in Korean, Starbuck just came down to give Ahab flattery: "Oh, my captain! my Captain! noble soul! grand old heart, after all!" Although he knew what would come to him and his crew, he just followed his Fate, not stood against her, which is common in failling corporations.
Top reviews from other countries
- stuart mcarthurReviewed in Australia on April 4, 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars Miles of sprawling prose breached suddenly and wondrously by arcs of glistening poetry.
“Poet, painter and philosopher” a reviewer once called Melville. His subject matter and writing style are welded together as firmly as the 12 intertwining steel rods that make up Ahab’s harpoon and the fate of Ahab and the whale itself. The epic process of trawling through until the final confrontation mirrored The Pequod’s journey to same.
As the end approached and I caught whiff, through one nostril, of the white whale’s proximity in the final pages, I deliberately slowed down my reading to more fully appreciate the journey, and because by now my reading eyes had synced with Melville’s Shakespearean rhythms, swirling poetry, dry wit, and grandiloquent turn of phrase, the final chapters were more joy than reward.
The wit - after the crew had hauled all the heavy oil barrels up on deck:
“top-heavy was the ship as a dinnerless student with all Aristotle in his head”.
and:
“The (whale’s) milk is very sweet and rich; it has been tasted by man; it might do well with strawberries.”
The poetic:
“In the face of all the glad, hay-making suns, and softcymballing, round harvest-moons, we must needs give in to this: that the gods themselves are not for ever glad. The ineffaceable, sad birth-mark in the brow of man, is but the stamp of sorrow in the signers.”
The tormented Shakespearean soliloquizer:
“what cozening, hidden lord and master, and cruel, remorseless emperor commands me; that against all natural lovings and longings, I so keep pushing, and crowding, and jamming myself on all the time; recklessly making me ready to do what in my own proper, natural heart, I durst not so much as dare? Is Ahab, Ahab? Is it I, God, or who, that lifts this arm? But if the great sun move not of himself; but is as an errand-boy in heaven; nor one single star can revolve, but by some invisible power; how then can this one small heart beat; this one small brain think thoughts; unless God does that beating, does that thinking, does that living, and not I.”
The philosophical:
“consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life”
And the haughty self-referential:
“To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be who have tried it.”
Never was a book’s plot more secondary to its themes. It’s man versus everything; fate, circumstance, demons, ego, expectation, classism, religion, God, nature, empathy, understanding, brotherhood, the universe.
An unforgettable and hard-won experience.
-
Tony WReviewed in Japan on March 10, 2016
5.0 out of 5 stars book received in excellent condition
book received in excellent condition
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Óscar B.Reviewed in Spain on January 4, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Increíble edición a un precio inmejorable
La edición es increíble, tapa dura con sobrecubierta, buena encuadernación. El precio es buenísimo sin estar de oferta. El libro en sí es increíble, pero la lectura de este clásico es exigente, pero vale la pena.
He visto algún comentario que la sobrecubierta viene raspada, pero no es cierto, es el diseño original que simula el impacto de la ballena y al estar en blanco da otra impresión.
- NawwafReviewed in Saudi Arabia on September 26, 2024
3.0 out of 5 stars Not the best quality
The quality of the pages and the cover are not ideal.
-
G. RossiReviewed in Germany on October 12, 2019
5.0 out of 5 stars Endlich eine frische neue Version des zeitlosen Klassikers
Ich war schon in meiner Jugend grosser Moby Dick Fan (als Mädchen!) und habe damals das Original auf englisch verschlungen und durfte mir zur Belohnung dann eine der Verfilmungen ansehen.
Moby Dick von Melville gilt ja als einer DER Jugenbuchklassiker seiner Zeit.
Da das Original und auch die meisten Übersetzungen des Originals ins deutsche relativ kompliziert geschrieben sind und zahlreiche naturwissenschaftliche, philosophische und politische detaillierte Abhandlungen enthalten sind, ist es für Jugendliche oder ungeübte erwachsene Leser keine "leichte Kost".
Aus diesem Grund wird hier eine vereinfachte und leichter verständliche Version angeboten.
Ich wollte auch meiner Tochter die Geschichte um Moby Dick nahe bringen, gerade jetzt wo in der Schule viel über Umweltschutz, verschmutzte Meere, Walfang etc. gelehrt wird.
Meine Tochter hat das Buch selber gelesen und es hat ihr sehr gut gefallen. Die Originalversion auf englisch wäre für sie zu schwierig gewesen um es alleine zu verstehen. Aber mit dieser Ausgabe ging es, auch wenn ich öfter helfen musste. Genau wie in meiner Jugend damals habe ich nach Lektüre des Buchs mit ihr gleich zwei Moby Dick Verfilmungen angeschaut und ihr gefielen alle drei Versionen (Buch und Filme) gleich gut. Bei den Filmen hat ihr gefallen dass der Walfang genauer erläutert wurde und auch viele Skizzen und Zeichnungen eingeblendet wurden. Das hilft der Vorstellungskraft! Hätte aber ihre Phantasie ruiniert und die Leselust gemindert, hätte ich sie zuerst die Filme sehen lassen.
Von uns gibt es eine ganz klare Leseempfehlung für Jungs und Mädchen ab ca. 10 Jahren. Geübte erwachsene Leser sollten zum alten englischen Original oder zur Langfassung der deutschen Übersetzung greifen.
SPOILER:
Ismael, ein amerikanischer Sohn aus gutem Hause packt die Abenteuerlust und so beschliesst er, zur See zu fahren. Nach erfolgreicher Suche nach einem passenden Schiff, heuert Ismael schliesslich gemeinsam mit einem tätowierten Polynesier auf dem Walfängerschiff Pequod ein. Der Kapitän der Pequod heisst Ahab und ist ein hasserfüllter aber teilweise auch charismatischer Haudegen. Ahab verlor auf See ein Bein und bald wird der Besatzung des Walfängers auch die wahre Mission eröffnet: Die Suche nach dem weissen Wal «Moby Dick». Dieser Wal ist nämlich für den Verlust von Ahabs Bein verantwortlich! Auf der Jagd nach Moby dick umrunden Kapität Ahab und seine Crew mit der Pequod die halbe Welt und es kommt mehrmals vor, dass Ahab wegen Walsichtungen Leib und Leben riskiert. Als dann Jim’s Freund der Polynesier schlimm erkrankt, kommt auch Ahab ein wenig zur Ruhe und lässt sich von der idyllischen Inselwelt und dem stillen Rauschen des friedlichen Ozeans beruhigen….
….bis eines Tages erneut ein Wal gesichtet wird und die Jagd nach Moby Dick beginnt auf ein Neues!