Moby Dick or, the Whale

Herman Melville's novel about obsession and revenge. Seen through the eyes of Ishmael, a wandering sailor, the voyages of the whaling ship Pequod, commanded by the one-legged Captain Ahab. Ahab is not just seeking any whale, but the almost mythical Moby Dick, a white sperm whale, which, in an earlier encounter, had destroyed Ahab's ship and bitten off his leg. Ahab is bent on revenge. Moby Dick or, The Whale is often considered one of the Great American Novels because of its extensive use of symbolism and metaphor to explore class and social status, good and evil, human nature and revenge, and through Ishmael, the meaning of life and Man's place in the universe. Ishmael often interrupts the narrative to embark on long soliloquies, issue stage directions to other characters as though on stage, and to explain in detail day to day life on a whaling vessel, sailing, and the nature and anatomy of whales.