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Moby Dick

by Herman Melville

260 Installments—Entirely free

(Preview)

Members' Rating: 4.15from 41 Ratings and 11 Reviews

Tags: Adventure, Classics, Novel

ISBN:0205514081

Moby Dick
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Description

"Call me Ishmael." So begins Melville's tale of adventure on the high seas. Long ago an enormous white whale ruined the boat and ravaged the body of Captain Ahab. When unsuspecting sailor Ishmael signs on to Ahab's whaling ship years later, he finds himself on a voyage of vengeance against the one and only Moby Dick. Striking for its daring modern style, this classic American novel remains fresh and fun, promising to satisfy all who seek a lively and action-packed yarn.


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About the Author

Herman Melville (1819-1891) was an adventurous and free spirit who used his own experience aboard a whaling vessel as inspiration for his masterpiece, Moby Dick. A daring traveler, he took to the high seas for much of his life, ultimately in search of a life less ordinary. The free-wheeling spirit that marked these early adventures defines the amusing, wild, and roving style of Melville's most famous writings, including Typee, Bartleby, Billy Budd: Sailor, and The Confidence Man. Melville's unusual life led to many long-held misunderstandings of his genius. It was only in the twentieth century that he was recognized as an invaluable figure in American literature.

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Opening Lines (Experimental)

LOOMINGS.
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago--never mind how long precisely--having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating ...

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Member reviews

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4/5 4.00

Reviewed by joebeale on Aug 13, 2012

Lust for the sea

Moby Dick is long, but not too long. Many of the passages are better read out loud than silent, as the character of the speech is sometimes lost without recitation. Overall I found it a bit uneven but still profound in its archetypes and its implications. The technical sections are so numerous and lengthy that it sometimes reads as non-fiction more than fiction. Best to think of it as a sort of dual selection; part fiction and part non-fiction.

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5/5 5.00

Reviewed by hawkinsond on Nov 10, 2011

Damn that fish!!!!

I mean mammal. If you haven't read Moby Dick, you're not an American. Move to Canada. NOW!

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2/5 2.00

Reviewed by lmgraham on Oct 24, 2011

Not my thing...

Not a huge fan of this one, but a worthy read if you are into the classics.

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3/5 3.00

Reviewed by lizkies on Oct 23, 2011

if that is your real name

I'd hoped for more from this, as many people get such great things from it. I found it hard to read and hard to hold together. For something that turns out not to be much of a sequential novel at all, it's quite long. You spend most of the book not knowing what kind of chapter you'll read next, and it's strange in many ways. But, it's also beautiful sometimes. And overall, a satisfying one to conquer. (Reviewed it bigger on Goodreads: http://dft.ba/-12o3)

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4/5 4.00

Reviewed by blattin on May 3, 2009

A classic best read in 5 minute chunks

I would never have gotten through all of Moby Dick if not for Dailylit. There are many long dull parts that would have had me put the book down and probably never pick it back up. As one friend said, "it takes them a very long time to find that whale." And yet, I cannot say that I didn't like these parts of the book, they make it what it is. And so Dailylit really came to the rescue because it allowed me to digest all the philosophical discussions in manageable pieces. In fact, I probably got more out of the book for having the time to ponder a section rather than plowing ahead. If you've ever wanted to read Moby Dick, this is the way to do it.

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Ratings for 'Moby Dick' by Melville, Herman


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Alexei 5.00   2008-08-01
Blaise 5.00   2009-03-25
blattin 4.00 Read review 2009-05-03
caminodiablo 5.00 Read review 2009-03-08
CherylsPearls 2.00   2010-02-22
cresswga 4.00   2009-03-09
danahuff 5.00   2008-06-30
dwightk 5.00   2010-11-11
Estel50 4.00 Read review 2009-05-12
floppydisk 5.00   2008-12-23
fredsmilek 5.00 Read review 2009-03-06
hawkinsond 5.00 Read review 2011-11-10
interimstate 2.00   2008-10-04
jaap 4.00   2009-02-04
jennfitz777 4.00   2009-08-14
jik2040 5.00   2009-03-27
joebeale 4.00 Read review 2012-08-13
Khali 5.00   2008-11-11
LisaHill 3.00 Read review 2009-03-01
lizkies 3.00 Read review 2011-10-23
lizsh 4.00   2009-03-11
lmgraham 2.00 Read review 2011-10-24
loupea 3.00   2010-09-04
marat 5.00   2009-10-17
MegDC 5.00 Read review 2009-01-27

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Moby Dick

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Hi,I am new in this forum,well yes exactly there was a difference between book and film though B ...

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