Moby Dick; or, The Whale (Large Print): Annotated

“I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing...”Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick was published in London in October 1851 as The Whale and a month later in New York City as Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. Melville's magnum masterpiece, Moby Dick, is widely recognised as one of the finest American novels.The narratorial phrase "Call me Ishmael" is notably used in the beginning of Moby Dick. The reader is introduced to a multitude of people, many of whom have religious names, in the midst of a narrative of suffering, beauty, and lunacy. The captain of the ship is Ahab, whom Ishmael and his friend Queequeg quickly discover is losing his mind. Ahab's first mate, Starbuck, notices the problem as well and is the only one who expresses his dissatisfaction with Ahab's growing obsessive behaviour throughout the novel.It's the tale of an unsettlingly captivating maniac waging an unholy battle against a creature as huge, terrifying, and mysterious as the sea itself. More than just an adventure story, more than a compendium of whaling myth and legend, Moby Dick is a frightening, captivating, and vital social statement filled with some of literature's most memorable and lasting characters. Melville's naval epic has inspired several films throughout the years, never losing its cultural clout.Sneak Peek:"What I’ve dared, I’ve willed; and what I’ve willed, I’ll do! They think me mad—Starbuck does; but I’m demoniac, I am madness maddened! That wild madness that’s only calm to comprehend itself! The prophecy was that I should be dismembered; and—Aye! I lost this leg. I now prophesy that I will dismember my dismemberer. Now, then, be the prophet and the fulfiller one. That’s more than ye, ye great gods, ever were. I laugh and hoot at ye, ye cricket-players, ye pugilists, ye deaf Burkes and blinded Bendigoes! I will not say as schoolboys do to bullies—Take some one of your own size; don’t pommel me! No, ye’ve knocked me down, and I am up again; but ye have run and hidden."Title DetailsOriginal 1851 TextLarge, easy-to-read print throughout6 x 9 InchesMatte CoverWhite Paper Read more