About the book

Ishmael goes to sea seeking a change of life and finds himself aboard the Pequod, a whaling ship commanded by the elusive Captain Ahab. The voyage brings him into a working community whose skills, beliefs, and temperaments are as varied as the ocean around them. Melville moves freely between shipboard adventure, comic observation, technical description, and philosophical speculation. A rope, a whale, or an ordinary task can open onto a question about the world and our place in it. The result asks for an unhurried reader, one willing to follow detours as well as the chase. Beneath its extraordinary range lies a growing tension between shared labour and one person’s consuming purpose.

Obsession
Life at sea
Knowledge and uncertainty

Why read it

For a capacious, surprising voice that turns a voyage into a whole way of seeing.

Based on the first American edition (1851) · English text

Contents and reading sections

Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Section 4
Section 5
Section 6
Section 7
Section 8
Section 9
Section 10
Section 11
Section 12
Section 13
Section 14
Section 15
Section 16
Section 17
Section 18
Section 19
Section 20
Section 21
Section 22
Section 23
Section 24
Section 25
Section 26
Section 27
Section 28
Section 29
Section 30
Section 31
Section 32
Section 33
Section 34
Section 35
Section 36
Section 37
Section 38
Section 39
Section 40
Section 41
Section 42
Section 43
Section 44
Section 45
Section 46
Section 47
Section 48
Section 49
Section 50
Section 51
Section 52
Section 53
Section 54
Section 55
Section 56
Section 57
Section 58
Section 59
Section 60
Section 61
Section 62
Section 63
Section 64
Section 65
Section 66
Section 67
Section 68
Section 69
Section 70
Section 71
Section 72
Section 73
Section 74
Section 75
Section 76
Section 77
Section 78
Section 79
Section 80
Section 81
Section 82
Section 83
Section 84
Section 85
Section 86
Section 87
Section 88
Section 89
Section 90
Section 91
Section 92
Section 93
Section 94
Section 95
Section 96
Section 97
Section 98
Section 99
Section 100
Section 101
Section 102
Section 103
Section 104
Section 105
Section 106

About the book

Why read it

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