Moby-Dick (Norton Critical Editions)

I read Moby-Dick several times in college almost forty years ago. Now I'm taking a night class and reading it with life experience of forty years. Awe is the feeling that constantly gets evoked as I read. Why awe? Capacious. That is the word that repeats again and again in my head. Moby-Dick is a vibrantly colored hot air balloon that keeps growing in size as I read it. First, Melville's subject is the sperm whale, one of the largest creatures on earth. But we don't just learn about the sperm whale but about all whales. Then we learn about whaling and its nobility. Here is where it gets very interesting. We participate in whaling, its skill, equipment, courage, risks and economy AND about how it results in the gruesome destruction of the whale. We feel the horror inflicted on the whales and we feel the nobility of the activity that slaughters them. Melville doesn't allow us to avert our eyes either to the daring of whaling or to the viciousness of the slaughter. That is where the book inflates even more because he holds both perspectives equally which is a much larger place than if he had taken sides. The book also foreshadows modernism by using a variety of narrative techniques; theater, pure narration, encyclopedic explanations and subjective interior monologues. Melville is constantly breaking up the narrative with omniscient recitations of fascinating information about his subject matter. And like Ulysses or the Waste Land, he piles on the reference to Shakespeare, the Greeks, Christianity and the Hebrew traditions. There are many references with regard to Ahab and the Whale regarding evil and Satan. Yet Ahab has great respect and reverence for Moby Dick. Ahab himself knows he is obsessed and but can have great compassion like his feelings for the lowly addled Pip. So yes there is evil afoot in the book but it isn't the kind that that creates simple polar opposites. As Ahab describes Moby-Dick (has) `an inscrutable malice sinewing through it' that describe the book as well. There is evil and there is also goodness that coexists in the book making the reader feel that he has to take sides. If the reader resists this temptation he or she will experience the awe of a deep and ever expanding mystery.

Moby Dick is not an adventure story - it is an allegory of the human condition amidst the setting of the whaling profession. Mankind's varied quest for greed, lust, longing, vengeance and fulfillment. Moby Dick is all of these human yearnings and more in one book. If you want an adventure story there are other books out there that will quench your thirst. If you approach Moby Dick the same as most unwilling High School students do, you won't even get a 100 pages into it and will become disillusioned and discouraged because it wasn't quite the adventure story you were hoping for and the end result, You Will Never Finish It! Leave your expectations behind. Moby Dick is great Literature! But it isn't the formulaic rhythm we find in today's bestsellers. In fact in 1851 it wasn't the normal piece of literature people EXPECTED it to be. Cast aside these expectations, and take your time. This will not be a quick read. If it takes you a couple of months or a year, stay with it. In fact read other books while reading Moby Dick. Like I mentioned before, it is not a quick read, it will be one you savor and slowly digest. Think of a glass of fine Cabernet. You sip that glass, you don't gulp it. Just keep reminding yourself when you come to certain parts of the book that do not seem to have anything to do with the overall narrative thread of the story that Moby Dick is an allegory of the human condition of greed, lust, longing and vengeance. This piece of literature is an overall experience that will linger with you for years to come - if you allow it to do so.

I hope that I can convince folks who intend to read Moby Dick to purchase this Norton Critical Edition. I found this edition absolutely necessary (critical? LOL) to my understanding of the novel. Its footnotes explain words,references and the historical setting. If I'd just picked up an un-annotated version I can assure you that I wouldn't have understood many of the words, usages, and contexts. The book itself is a marvel. I didn't read it in a hurry. Did you know that Melville's writing career was deeply damaged by the Evangelical Newspapers that existed then?. Did you know that Ishmael and Queegqueeg "got married" and slept in the same bed for a time? Pretty advanced for the mid-nineteenth century. No wonder the Evangelicals despised him! Of course, they really started attacking him much earlier, for the novels he'd written set in the South Seas. The reality is that Herman Melville wrote the Great American Novel in his middle age and spent the rest of his life trying to support his family as a mid-level bureaucrat. An amazing book, most strongly recommended.

Best book I've ever read in my life. That said, I read it with the help of notes I found elsewhere (on the internet and in other editions, such as Penguin's). The extremely large amount of notes of this edition doesn't help that much: they deliberately avoid suggesting any interpretation whatsoever, and then the amount of information they give is quite irrelevant: basically information for scholars that work in the biographical details of the author (I've been a bit rough now, but essentially is that).

This is the edition preferred by high school AP Language teacher. Contains commentary that is helpful to understanding Melville's magnum opus. Worth the extra cost for added ease of working through the novel.

Rereading Moby Dick after several decades is an extraordinary privilige. How wonderful Melville writes and relates to life experience now logged. And besides the story we also can see his story...and what American stories were told in the first half of the 19th century. Now, 170 years later many are chilled by the desecration of whales..as we no longer seek to conquer nature but to sustain it. Yet,one can fully understand - once transported backe to the whaling days of Melville's time the struggle for that harvest and the battle with the great white Leviathon. This is a marvelous edition that brings all the context and allusions from Melville scholarship right to the reader in footnotes and appendices. It is no small triumph. George Rosenbaum

I've had to read this book twice now for 2 different lit classes. If you're reading this book for a class (in college) do yourself a favor and buy a PHYSICAL COPY of whatever version is listed on the syllabus. I like the Norton 2nd edition. It has a lot of interesting info in the back that can help you when you need to write papers for it (also it provides better perspective and some of it's actually interesting). At the very least, make sure you buy a physical version of the book! Yes the kindle version is free and comes with the extracts and footnotes but trust me you will regret it if you get it! Even using the EPUB version on my iPad was a pain because I couldn't use it during the in-class midterm. Just get the real book. It's so much easier to be able to flip through the real pages when you have in-class discussion about it--it's also a lot easier to reference when you have to write papers and do midterms/finals (especially when you own the book and can mark it up). I gladly paid $20 for the convenience the 2nd time around. Another thing I would suggest if you're reading this for a class is to do some quick research on the "Book of Jonah." There are a ton of biblical references in this book because people knew their bible back in the day (unlike us), but the "Book of Jonah" is CONSTANTLY referenced in this book and it's so much easier to understand and analyze if you understand what Melville is referring to. Jonah is the guy who disobeyed God, so he was punished by getting swallowed by a fish (which was thought to be a whale in Melville's time). 3 days later the whale spit Jonah out and he somehow ended up in Nineveh where he finally caved and did what God wanted him to. Sidenote: Believe it or not, there was actually a debate back in Melville's day about whether the book of Jonah was based on real events or not (being a whaler, Melville knew for a fact that there was no way it could be based on a real story and he has a lot of fun making fun of the biblical scholars' ridiculous explanations in this book). Anyways, in the beginning of Moby Dick, Ishmael listens to Father Mapple giving a sermon about Jonah that basically sets the stage for the whole plot. Ahab is "disobeying" God by continuing to pursue Moby and in the end, he and his crew are all punished for it, just like he was "punished" the first time by losing his leg--and just like all those other people they run into were punished (the Pequod runs into various people throughout this book who have lost limbs, family members, crew members--all while chasing Moby and every one of these people warns Ahab to quit pursuing Moby OR ELSE). Or at least that's one interpretation (it's a solid one that's easy to explain). As for the actual book well...personally, I'm not a huge fan.... I definitely prefer Benito Cereno and Bartleby the Scrivener to this 800 page beast.

I recently went looking for the best replacement copy for a sadly beaten-up and marked-up copy of Moby-Dick from many years back. After a bit of research and various recommendations, I suggest this Norton Critical edition. It is an authoritative text, well edited and annotated, and not unreasonably priced. I particularly like the glossary, "pictorial account" and contemporary engravings included as part of the "Contexts" or appendices, and the short essays or criticisms included seems well-selected. If I could make the print somewhat larger and include some of the illustrations in the text, I would. As for Moby-Dick the book --- well, you either find it extraordinary (in a good way) or not. Put me in the first camp.

La consegna, come al solito, celere. Le condizioni del prodotto, in quanto nuovo, sono eccellenti. Consiglio questo testo a tutti coloro che vogliono studiare a fondo l'opera di Melville in lingua originale, con tanto di illustrazioni e sezioni dedicate all'ambiente mercantile e alla biologia marina

Good second hand price!

Natürlich finden sich in Moby Dick unglaublich moderne Gedanken, aber dieses Buch bringt jeden vernünftigen Leser an seine Grenzen. Genremix, hochphilosophisch, sarkastisch und bildlich - das Alles macht Moby Dick zu dem Klassiker aus dem 19ten Jahrhundert!

Ops I think they've ran out of the anniversary edition, would love that one but this 2002 edition is still good.

Ich muss diese Version für die Uni kaufen, jedoch habe ich bisher keinen Vorteil gegenüber anderen günstigeren (oder als ebook sogar kostenlosen) Varianten entdecken können. Wem es also nur um die Geschichte geht, sollte sich dieses Buch auf keinen Fall kaufen.