Moby Dick: Bestsellers and famous BooksSailor Ishmael tells the story of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaler the Pequod, for revenge on Moby Dick, the white whale which on the previous whaling voyage destroyed his ship and severed his leg at the knee. The novel was a commercial failure and out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891, but during the 20th century, its reputation as a Great American Novel was established. William Faulkner confessed he wished he had written it himself, and D. H. Lawrence called it "one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world", and "the greatest book of the sea ever written". "Call me Ishmael" is among world literature's most famous opening sentences. |
Contents
The Counterpane | |
Breakfast | |
The Street | |
The Blanket | |
The Funeral | |
The Sphynx | |
The Jeroboams Story | |
The MonkeyRope | |
Stubb and Flask Kill a Right Whale and Then Have a Talk | |
The Sperm Whales HeadContrasted View | |
The Right Whales HeadContrasted View | |
The Chapel | |
The Pulpit | |
The Sermon | |
A Bosom Friend | |
Nightgown | |
Biographical | |
Wheelbarrow | |
Nantucket | |
Chowder | |
The Ship | |
The Ramadan | |
His Mark | |
The Prophet | |
All Astir | |
Going Aboard | |
Merry Christmas | |
The Lee Shore | |
The Advocate | |
Postscript | |
Knights and Squires | |
Knights and Squires | |
Ahab | |
Enter Ahab to Him Stubb | |
The Pipe | |
Queen | |
Cetology | |
The Specksnyder | |
The CabinTable | |
The MastHead | |
The QuarterDeck | |
Sunset | |
Dusk | |
First Night Watch ForeTop | |
Midnight Forecastle HARPOONEERS AND SAILORS | |
Moby Dick | |
The Whiteness of The Whale | |
Hark | |
The Chart | |
The Affidavit | |
Surmises | |
The MatMaker | |
The First Lowering | |
The Hyena | |
Ahabs Boat and Crew Fedallah | |
The SpiritSpout | |
The Albatross | |
The | |
The TownHos Story | |
Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales | |
Of the Less Erroneous Pictures of Whales and the True Pictures of Whaling Scenes | |
Of Whales in Paint in Teeth in Wood in SheetIron in Stone in Mountains in Stars | |
Brit | |
Squid | |
The Line | |
Stubb Kills a Whale | |
The Dart | |
The Crotch | |
Stubbs Supper | |
The Whale as a Dish | |
The Shark Massacre | |
Cutting | |
The BatteringRam | |
The Great Heidelburgh | |
Cistern and Buckets | |
The Prairie | |
The | |
The Pequod Meets The Virgin | |
The Honour and Glory of Whaling | |
Jonah Historically Regarded | |
Pitchpoling | |
The Fountain | |
The Tail | |
The Grand Armada | |
Schools and Schoolmasters | |
FastFish and LooseFish | |
Heads or Tails | |
The Pequod Meets The RoseBud | |
Ambergris | |
The Castaway | |
A Squeeze of the Hand | |
The Cassock | |
The TryWorks | |
The Lamp | |
Stowing Down and Clearing | |
The Doubloon | |
Leg and Arm The Pequod of Nantucket Meets the Samuel Enderby of London | |
The Decanter | |
A Bower in the Arsacides | |
Measurement of The Whales Skeleton | |
The Fossil Whale | |
Does the Whales Magnitude Diminish? Will He Perish? | |
Ahabs | |
The Carpenter | |
Ahab and the Carpenter The DeckFirst Night Watch | |
Ahab and Starbuck in the Cabin | |
Queequeg in His Coffin | |
The Pacific | |
The Blacksmith | |
The Forge | |
The Gilder | |
The Pequod Meets The Bachelor | |
The Dying Whale | |
The Whale Watch | |
The Quadrant | |
The Candles | |
The Deck Towards the End of the First Night Watch | |
Midnight The Forecastle Bulwarks | |
Midnight Aloft Thunder and Lightning | |
The Musket | |
The Needle | |
The Log and Line | |
The LifeBuoy | |
The Deck | |
The Pequod Meets The Rachel | |
The Cabin | |
The | |
The Pequod Meets The Delight | |
The Symphony | |
The ChaseFirst | |
The ChaseSecond | |
The Chase Third | |
Epilogue AND I ONLY AM ESCAPED ALONE TO TELL THEE | |
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Common terms and phrases
Ahab's aloft beneath Bildad boat boat's bones bows Bulkington cabin called Cape Horn Captain Ahab Captain Peleg Cetology CHAPTER chase chief mate coffin creature crew cried Ahab Daggoo dark darted dead deck devil doubloon eyes feet fish fishery Flask flukes forecastle gunwale hand harpoon head heard heart hoisted instant iron ivory Jonah lance Leviathan living look mast mast-head mate Moby Dick Nantucket Narwhale never night oars ocean once Parsee Peleg Pequod poor Porpoise Queequeg Right Whale rolled round sail sailors savage seemed seen sharks ship ship's shipmates side sight soon sort soul Sperm Whale spermaceti spout standing Starbuck Steelkilt stern stood strange Stubb tail Tashtego tell thee there's thing thou thought turned vessel voyage whale-ship whalemen White Whale wild wind