Rating: 
Summary: Whale of a Tale
Review: Well, Obi-wan, the circle is now complete; when I left you I was but the pupil,- now I am the master! For me, Moby Dick has always been a symbol of my unhappy childhood, (it wasn't that bad, in retrospect, it just seemed alot like Moby Dick at the time). It reminds me of it. It was always a book (literate) grown-ups seemed to know about; it came on TV; it always appeared in the childrens' classics section of the understocked bookstores of the sixties, and was too boring and too abstruse for a child to seriously contemplate, much like life. As I grew and experienced the awkwardness of youth, it still was a daunting and formidable idea to contemplate reading MD: one of those activities like joining the Marines, or getting a career and settling down, or having one's tonsils out, which must perhaps be done eventually, but one resists because it only serves to highlight and accent one's own frail mortality. It is the classic American novel in terms of style, it seems to me, because the prose is classic American prose of the 19th century: highly seasoned with Biblical turns of phrase and psychology, but accessible in the main. It IS interesting to me in the way it presents the problem of man's mortality. Beethoven-like, Ahab defies all the "thou-shalts" of a moral universe. Perhaps this is what is so maddening to mankind: we seem to live in a moral universe, and yet for some men, punishment seems more ruthlessly exacting and swift when WE are the transgressor, -not when we are the transgressed. Perhaps this is a truly human response: to defy the powers that seem to mock us in our weakness: compel us to strive and inevitably fail. Nietzsche observes in the Prologue to "Thus Spake Zarathustra" that the 3 transformations of the Spirit lead to a state of being where one has thrown off the "thou shalt" system, but as Joseph Campbell observes, the person who has thrown off the "thou shalt" system, (the civilizing system of obedience to authority, tradition, etc.), IS in fact a civilized human being; he has internalized the "thou shalt" system, and thrown it off as a "thou shalt". Ahab appears to fall into that category of men, like Dostoevsky's Raskolkin, who at great torture and strain to themselves, attempt to overcome the moral order of the universe, without having been civilized by this "thou shalt" system. Older and wiser now than my childhood days, I look now at Moby Dick and feel not so awed by it anymore. I have myself lived through some of what Ahab appears to perceive, and feel, and carry out. There is a dark side to us all, but one finally becomes the master: I have read Moby Dick, and have felt as does Ahab, and am no longer intimidated by the work, or life's questions, or what MD represented to me as a child. (I have been civilized by the "thou shalt" system, perhaps?) The question of morality vs. integrity is not confined to MD; it is much larger than MD, and knit into the fabric of our experience as human beings. I can now look at Ahab not intellectually, but with empathy: no word passes between us, but I know his struggle, and Melville's moral. A central question of the book: is the business of being a man morality, or facing life with the strength of our own convictions, no matter how life may try to turn us against them? I no longer am sure, but I am sure that neither was Melville.
Rating: 
Summary: More than a novel
Review: Probably anyone who picks up this book already knows the story of the whalers against the whale, driven by Captain Ahab's obsession with killing Moby Dick. But there's a lot more in this book besides: it's a treatise on whales and whaling, it's a novel about friendship, and it gives you all the excitement of an adventure story. In some ways Moby Dick is very much a nineteenth century novel along the lines of the work of Jules Verne--it is full of lengthy asides intended to instruct the reader. Although this tendency slows the pace, it makes Moby Dick a more substantial novel than it would otherwise be, and worthy of its status as a classic.
Rating: 
Summary: A classic, but a medicre one.
Review: This book is supposed to be the book to end all books. All other symbolic books or classics are held up to Moby Dick and normaly receive an unflattering comparison. Hearing all this wonderful dogma, I went out to read Herman Melville's MOBY DICK. I found it dry and inconsistent. Moby Dick is a sea-faring tale by an author who adamently denied any symbolic inflection whatsoever in his book. I found it very jumpy, whereas Ishmael would divulge his thoughts on many and varied subjects such as the nature of whales. Suddenly, you find yourself a month ahead of where you thought you were. The insigts on Ahab are masterful, however, as well as the symbolism. (Melville would kill us all.) That is the only thing that saves this book. If you will take some advice from a fellow bibliophile, don't bother to read this "book to end all books." It's not worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: Travel & explore a dynamic sea-faring adventure on a couch.
Review: Journey back in time to the nineteenth century New England. Live the life of a hardy, diligent sailor in pursuit of high-sea glory, and face the most cryptic, diabolical symbol of humanity, the Great White Whale. Encounter strange people, and visit exotic isles where no landlubber has ever venture before. Ahoy, matey! Captain Ahab awaits!
Rating:
Summary: Liked it but don't know why
Review: Just as I had figured out all the mythical symbolism, man vs nature, religion etc. Melville interupts to mock my pretensions and tell me that the story is perfectly true to life, it's all about killing whales for money, and not some "monstrous allegory". But I can't believe that. The message of the book is not handed to you on a plate, you have to figure it out. The author speaks with lots of voices. This book left me deeply confused. I can't pretend to have understood most of it, but I want to read it again
Rating:
Summary: Great first sentence. Then it's all downhill.
Review: "Call me Ishmael." It's undoubtedly one of the most widely recognized opening lines of any classical novel. Unfortunately, it's also the best line in the book. This is a vast, slow-moving work in which all of the action takes place in the last twenty or so pages. Most of the rest is a more or less inaccurate description of the whaling industry and the anatomy of whales. The sea is perhaps one of the most colorful and compelling backdrops for a novel filled with tension and power, but Melville fails to communicate either of these except in rare moments. Coupled with this is his failure to fully develop what would have been some very interesting characters. One of those rare cases in which the movie was better than the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Moby Dick: Two Books in one!
Review: It's an allegory. No! It's an encyclopedia entry! Herman Melville tells a gripping, affecting tale of an obsessed Captain's quest for a white whale. Told by Ishmael, a member of Captain Ahab's crew, the novel recounts one man's obsession with a whale. However, the philosophical implications of his obsession soon become evident. Whiteness is equated with purity and goodness, as well as absence and death. Ahab's quest for revenge eventually causes his destruction as well as the destruction of those on board the Pequod. Did God send the whale to tempt Ahab, or save him? Is Ahab Jonah, waiting to be swallowed whole and reborn? Is the whale God? Is the whale Satan? Ahab and Ishmael grapple with these questions, and Melville challenges the reader to do so as well.
All of this sounds like a compelling read; it is. However, it is only half the story. The other half, unfortunately, comes in the form of more information than anyone ever wanted to know about whales, whale hunting and whale habits. In one chapter, types of whales are chronicled. In another, the method of collecting ambergris from whales is detailed.
The information, while presented well, is completely out of context. It would have been better suited as an appendix or introduction to the novel. Instead, it breaks up the flow of the narrative and pulls the reader out of Ahab's thrall. The story of Moby Dick hypnotizes and captivates us as surely as it does the Captain, but Melville is not content to let us drift along with the Pequod. Instead, we have to endure an Encyclopedia Brittanica full of information on whales. Moby Dick is a great novel and it is a fascinating factual chronicle. Unfortunately, the two do not peacefully coexist. I emerged from my reading experience frustrated. Melville could have easily given us the best of both worlds. Instead, he chops up Moby Dick and feeds him to his readers in bits and pieces, causing us to shift gears continuously. Keeping us on our toes, perhaps? Maybe, but it does not q!uite work. I only wish that great literature had a fast forward button.
Rating:
Summary: An American classic comparable to the great Greek tragedies.
Review: First I have to say that Moby Dick is probably easier to get into if you occasionally like to read poetry. Otherwise it's a challenge for the average reader like myself, and a challenge that I personally found worthwhile. It's not the "light read" to take to the beach for summer vacation. There is a flow to the writing that is an essential part of drawing the reader into the story, similar to Shakespeare. The plot is exciting without it, but the writing is what raises this story to a classic. Captain Ahab (our hero?) is a man whose personality and fate have been twisted from a comfortable course as a successful whaler. When we meet him, he is well on his way to turning from an intelligent, logical captain and family man into a driven hunter. As we read, we notice the remains of what was a simple love story: A man of strong senses and the passions of an artist; in love, as he knows it, with whaling. Instead of a life of turbulence, which would seem more to fit his intense, sensitive nature, Ahab is a respected whaler with a deep and quiet love for the ever-changing sea living a lonely but content life providing for a rarely seen family. We watch his submersed passion turn from a sense of joy in pitting himself against the giants of the deep, to a slow, consuming hatred of one whale--Moby Dick. Moby Dick is the great white whale who took Ahab's leg and left him with eternal physical pain. Where this physical pain began, so through the story Ahab's emotions follow. Moby Dick changes Ahab's submerged passion from gentle love and appreciation to intense hate. Ahab has been betrayed. He has been hurt. In his contorted mind, his pain can only be removed by the death of Moby Dick. We came on a game, a hunt. Now the hunt is everything and death is the only end. In the telling of this tragic adventure, we are swept into the picture. We feel the vastness of the deep ocean, the power and beauty of nature, the awesome strength of the whale, the fury of the storm, the boredom of endless hours of waiting, and the exhilaration of the battle of man against nature. We become one with, now, the man, now, the whale. Words disappear behind feelings. And we feel it all. "Moby Dick" takes us on a splendid trip to a time and a place and a state of mind. This book can entertain the readers who like "Starship Troopers" and enchant those who enjoy Phyllis Whitney. For those not into long sentences and rhythm, it may be more work than fun to get started, but I don't believe anyone could stick with the book to the end without growing as a reader and ultimately liking the book a great deal.
Rating:
Summary: The epic of the American idea and of the problem of evil
Review: Herman Melville's Moby Dick stands in relation to the American idea as Virgil's Aeneid does to the Roman idea. In this epic masterpiece, Melville tells the story of the tormented and obsessed Captain Ahab's pursuit of the white whale, Moby Dick, who maimed him once on a whaling voyage and has since come to represent to him the whole unresolvable problem of evil, human suffering,and the heartlessness of nature, the universe, and ultimately God. Ishmael, the narrator of the tale, follows Ahab's doomed quest and interprets philosophically the story of which he has become a part, seeing in the search for the white whale a microcosm of the state of humanity in general, and of modern, naturalistic America in particular. The beauty of the language mirrors the beauty of the world which Ishmael sees and interprets, and which so often seems deceptive in its promises of peace, friendship, and certitude.
Rating:
Summary: Very good, but I have read some better books
Review: This classic story is one of the best books I have ever read, but not the best. This story didn't blow me away, but it isn't the average book (it's better).
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