Rating: 
Summary: Great use of your imagination
Review: I read the unabriged 600-page version. This book is awesome, but I recomend that you get the abridged version if reading is just an extra end-of-the-day-right-before-I-pass-out-from-exhaustion activity. I gave it four stars because, while the style of the writing is unique and very interesting, and the storyline is the cooooolest, there were times when I felt my mind beginning to wander. There were a couple of times where I just had to put the book down and go do something else. I think it was because this book was written in the mid 1800s, and the way they spoke back then was just odd, with all the "Ye land lubbers" and "Avast ye maties." If you despise the old English way of speaking that is used by the Nantucketers (there are thousands of them in this book, they're everywhere) then I suggest you read the Cliffs Notes and get the jist.
Rating: 
Summary: Moby Dick, a whale with it's own mind and attitude
Review: Moby Dick Moby Dick is a novel written by Herman Melville. Teenagers would be interested in this book because it's about killing whales and wierd people. This book is about how fishermen go out o sea to kill a big white whale that has been killing and eating people for years. The main characters are Ishmael and Quee-queg and the setting is in a bay. The main point of the book is the whale. Like tha time when the group went out to kill Moby Dick because he was causing many deaths toward innocent people and hurting children severely. One of the characters stabbed him in thye side and another, Ahah, stabbed him in the jaw with a spher. I think weak points of the book are that some of the scenes are unexplainable, like the times when Quee-queg gives Ishmael an embalmed head and sometimes what happens dosn't make sense. Strong points of the book are very good punctuation and descriptions on what is happening at certain times. For example, there really isn't much description with the giant squid that tries to eat the people. I would recomend this book because it's exciting and sometimes funny.
Rating:
Summary: A story which deserves to be read in this edition
Review: Some books need to be read in hardcover. Moreover, some deserve the loving attention and craftsmanship that have gone into this reissue of an original American printing classic. I lingered over this novel, twice, relishing the handset Goudy Modern type, and the illustrations, and the smell of the paper albeit typographic reproduction of the original,and I will return again. On entering the fantastic ( I use that world advisedly - eg, as in visionary, extravagant)world of Mr Melville's version of 19th century whaling on the one hand, and the mind of Captain Ahab through the eyes of Ishmael on the other, one is driven relentlessly forward to the inevitable battle between man and nature and man and himself. Startling imagery, evocative detail, and narrative drive seem to power the story off the page into one's mind, indelibly. A great story lovingly retold in this fine edition.
Rating:
Summary: A classic adventure story
Review: Wowwww... I like this book very much. I enjoyed reading it. This book is written using the 1st person point of view. It's like reading someone's journal. There are many positive values that can be derived from the story. It's pretty hard to find the values. Their location, I could say implicit. You have to think about it and even maybe you have to learn them carefully.This book I recommend to everyone to read because I think this book is suitable for youngsters and also for adults. For those youngsters, you guys have to be patient during the reading because this book is somewhat heavy for us. I'm only 18 yrs old, this is not a usual kind of book for me, but I managed to finished it anyway and at the end I know then that I like the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Time to challenge received wisdom
Review: "Whatever you do, don't read it" advised a close friend. I thought that it couldn't be as bad as that....but it was. After a great start, the narrative wallows for a seeming eternity before, I felt, that Melville decided that he'd better draw all this to an end, as he had finished impressing himself, and proceeded to do so in a few rushed pages. I love reading a wide variety of fiction, including "classics", yet you feel that if you criticise this book, and other universally-acclaimed works such as "Wuthering Heights", you have missed something, that you are out of step with those who can really "appreciate" such a fine piece of literature. Or could it be that it is much more honest to say that a book which contains everything you never wanted to know about whales, and seems to have been written by the author to impress the author, is just an utter bore??
Rating:
Summary: Warning: Do not read this while operating heavy machinery...
Review: Because it will put you to sleep. This has to be one of the mostBORING books I've ever attempted to read. I say "attempted"because I couldn't get past the first few chapters. Don't listen tothe powers of established academia: this book really is dull. I thinkthat people say this book is so great because they're afraid of havingan original thought. A thought like "this book is reallybad." Yeah, the "symbolism" is so deep. As deep asthe sea. So deep that it makes me ask all the Big Questions of humanexistence. And if you believe claptrap like that then there isnothing I can do to dissuade you from reading this.
Rating:
Summary: This is the WORST book ever written
Review: I hate Moby Dick. I hate Captain Ahab. I especially hate Herman Melville for writing this novel. It was not popular when it was initially published, and I don't understand why it is popular now. This book is not a fine wine, it does not get better with age. The story is overblown, the characterizations are horrible, and it is impossible to connect in any way with what you read. Had Melville cut this book down to about 25 pages, that would be bearable. Unfortunatly, he never stopped writing, and if he were alive today, he would probably still be adding onto Moby Dick. The only people who like this book are english teachers who derive a feeling of moral superiority from forcing others to read this incredibly bad novel.
Rating:
Summary: A Whale Ahead...!
Review: "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..." Captain Ahab is among literature's most tragic figures--the peg-legged whaler who forever bears the physical and psychological scars of his first encounter with nature's leviathan, Moby Dick. These elements are amply present in themes exploring man's battle against nature (and fellow man), the self-destructiveness of hatred, the bounds of loyalty, commitment to family and the need to revere God. The richness of Melville's prose pours out like thick cream from an iron pitcher. Haunting phrases and word-painted, wild scenes are mixed with weird images and symbolic poetry. In that wild, beautiful romance, Melville seems to have spoken the very secret of the sea, and to have drawn into his tale all the magic, all the sadness, all the wild joy of many waters. It stands quite alone; it strikes a note no other sea writer has ever struck. It is a work not only unique of its kind but a great achievement-the expression of an imagination that rises to the highest, and so is amongst the world's great works of art...
Rating:
Summary: Essential dark literature
Review: Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" is a rich, stirring tale of courage, loyalty, revenge and adventure, told with a great deal of irreverence and dark humour. Captain Ahab is one of the most endearing of literary creations, the peg-legged skipper hell-bent on punishing the whale that cost him a limb. The mighty prose shows Melville to have been deeply influenced by Shakespeare, and in some passages, his love of Shakespeare elevates him to heights of emulation. Never has blank verse resounded more potently in a prose-work!
Rating:
Summary: hilarious and moving
Review: Watch human obsession take all of humanity with it (all the boats that are encountered represent a foreign land). Watch the hilarity for those who read closely, esp. the biology sections (look up what exactly the part of the whale one mariner places upon his head while celebrating a kill). Research pays off with this text more than most I can think of. Do the time and reap the reward.
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