When we close the book after those final words, the feeling is unmatched throughout all of literature. When Ishmael's work is complete-and Ahab has danced his date with destiny- Moby Dick's effect upon the reader is profound.
The sheer depth of understanding that Melville bestows to his readers allows them to feel the wind in their hair, the sweat on their brows, and the stench of the whale. There are entire chapters of the book devoted to making sure the reader has enough knowledge of 19th centure whaling, because that knowledge is needed for full impact of Moby Dick's formidability when the time comes for Ahab to battle with the eponymous whale.
Related: The 9 Best Sites to Buy Used Books Online, Ranked Moby Dick's Scale Is Deceptively EpicĪs each chapter of Moby Dick flows forward, Melville never stops short of aggrandizing the elusive white whale-and not just the titular whale, but he explores all kinds of different whales. Here are a few reasons why Moby Dick is the greatest novel ever writetn. Now, a mere 130 years after Melville's death, Moby Dick is rightly regarded as a towering masterpiece of Western literature. Orson Welles' unfinished film adaptation remains the most tantalizing version of the book the world would never see, and Bob Dylan has admitted that Moby Dick had a profound effect on him and his work. The tale of Ahab's monomania from the perspective of a lowly crew member captured the imaginations of great artists. The original British print of the novel (which lacked the epilogue) was largely replaced with the American print (which did feature the epilogue), which was a better representation of Melville's work. Related: The 5 Best Absurdist Novels That Tell Must-Read Surreal Storiesīut then! Ever so slowly, Moby Dick began to rise in the literary world. Fortunately, over the next 20 years, publishing house Harper & Brothers did revive the book-and managed to keep it alive despite it teetering on the verge of irrelevance. His writing career had yielded limited success, and to add insult to his memory, The New York Times listed his masterpiece with the erroneous title "Mobie Dick."Īnd that was that: Melville was gone and his greatest book ever written fell out of print. When Herman Melville died on the morning of September 28, 1891, he was practically penniless.
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