Moby Dick Book Reviews

AUTHOR
Herman Melville
SCORE
4
TOTAL RATINGS
2,546

Moby Dick by Herman Melville Book Summary

An Apple Books Classic edition.

Herman Melville’s classic begins with one of the most famous opening lines in world literature: “Call me Ishmael.” Moby Dick was a commercial failure when it was first published in 1851, but during the 20th century, the book’s reputation grew and grew.

The novel features a memorable cast of characters, in particular the ivory-legged Captain Ahab, who lost a limb to the gargantuan white whale named Moby Dick. Now, Ahab’s sole obsession is hunting down the sea creature to exact his revenge. Heedless of warnings, Ahab risks ship and crew in his maniacal pursuit, bearing out Melville’s observation that ”there is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men.”

👋 Do you love Moby Dick books? Please share your friends!

share facebook whatsapp twitter pinterest telegram email
Book Name Moby Dick
Genre Classics
Published
Language English
E-Book Size 820.37 KB

Moby Dick (Herman Melville) Book Reviews 2024

💸 Want to send money abroad for free?

We transfer money over €4 billion every month. We enable individual and business accounts to save 4 million Euros on bank transfer fees. Want to send free money abroad or transfer money abroad for free? Free international money transfer!

Moby Doom. Ok, I've read many classics in my life and liked some, reveled in some, and loathed a few. I'm afraid this one falls into the third category. Yes, there are great lines in the book. Yes, it is Herman Melville's magnum opus. Yes, I am probably a philistine for my opinion. I don't care. I still loathed it. The story of one mans obsessive need to destroy the creature that bit his leg off was, to me, full of "sound and fury, signifying nothing". Read it because you should. Enjoy it if you like. Suffer through it, so I'm not alone in my pain. If I lived near New York, I would scrawl rude words on old Hermans' headstone. It's a classic. With one of the best lines ever written, "From hells' heart, I stab at thee, for hates sake, I spit my last breath at thee..", Herman harpoons the reader. Unfortunately, I had to read almost two thousand pages to get to that line and, in the end, come to grips with the fact it was screamed at a whale. Really, Herman???

Like being on a voyage. It's a loong book and I do not recommend it to everyone. You must be ready to hear the musings regarding the whale and his anatomy, size and role in history. On the other hand, the author goes through pains to help the reader understand the detail of the trade of whaling and to elevate the trade to a noble pursuit. All in all, when you have finished, you will feel as a member of the crew.

Compelling Book!. I never had actually read this book though of course I knew the story. The writing is superb and although much of the language is pertinent to the time period, I enjoyed learning the meaning of many words we no longer use in modern conversation.

Whale. Very boring and long for the book to be so boring.

Meh.. Melville is so verbose that it seems to me he was paid by word. Not that great of a book.

Meh... Classic but boring. I am an avid reader and have read many, MANY good books. This is not one of them. Although it is a classic, it is boring. My advice is not to read it. However, you will probably be forced to anyway, as it is a requirement in the school curriculum.

Moby dick. REALLY GOOD!!

OK?. A little bit too boring

Good!. Great!

Review. I gave it four stars because it was amazing though it was not easy to read it

It is a good book to read.. Hello

Artistry over storyline. The story is of slight concern compared to use of language, observation, philosophy, and comparison found within this incredible lexicon of metaphor. Where else, short of Shakespeare, is such mind-candy to be found? "Delightful inducements to embark, fine chance for promotion, it seems--aye, a stove boat will make me an immortal by brevet. Yes, there is death in this business of whaling--a speechlessly quick chaotic bundling of a man into Eternity. But what then? Methinks we have hugely mistaken this matter of Life and Death, Methinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is my true substance. Methinks that in looking at things spiritual, we are too much like oysters observing the sun through the water, and thinking tha thick water the thinnest of air. Methinks my body is but the lees of my better being. In fact take my body who will, take it I say, it is not me. And therefore three cheers for Nantucket; and come a stove boat and stove body when they will, for stove my soul, Jove himself cannot." "Yonder, by the ever brimming goblet's rim the warm waves blushed like wine." "Though nominally included in the census of Christendom, he was still alien to it. He lived in the world, as the last of the grisly bears lived in settled Missouri. And when spring and summer had departed, that wild Logan of the woods, burying himself in the hollow of a tree, lived out the winter there, sucking his own paws, so, in his inclement, howling old age, Ahab's soul, shut up in the caved trunk of his body, there fed upon the sullen paws of its gloom!"

D. Ghhhhhhhhhh

The one of the best piece of literature out there. The book incapacitates you in its deep knowledge about whale fishery and slowly drives you towards the narrative. The alone boy with a cannibal......the crazy captain Ahab fuming with revenge....the shipmates. A must read book for people who love the seas.

Moby Dick or, The White Whale. Oh my, what a long and laborious read. Page after page of details and rabbit trails. Word in use then that are no more in modern dictionaries. Confusing at times. Facinating at times. Yet, always reading on for the violent end all know is coming. Not a book for the beach or bed. Rather a challenge for the stout of heart or stubborn of heart I know not.

Moby Dick. Other than Shakespeare, there is no writing in English as true and magnificent as Moby Dick. An astonishing work of genius.

Moby Dick. Easy to read classic with iconoclastic idiom.

Read it, or else!. Good lord. To all you mental midgets who deem this work to be trash or worthless, you are not worthy to be counted among the human race. Go get drowned by the whale, you sucking suckers!

The American Whaling Odyssey. This is the perfect example of an American Odyssey: admiring the beauty, magesty and divine power of the whale, only to kill it in the most gruesome, slow and cruel way, in order to light our reading nights.

Classic Tale. The reading is hard at times due to the differences in how we talk nowadays. It has some slow chapters when explaining the whales, how the ship works, and some characters. The best part is picturing what the main characters look like and what they are doing. So glad I took the time to read this classic book.

Moby Dick. Read this in sixth grade for fun. Recently watched In the Heart of the Sea and decided I needed to reread it. Loved it just as much this time as the first time.

Classic. A tale of life in the oceans & others fall for gain. Classic of a book.

The Whale. As great as it was when I first read it 45 years ago.

The whale. Melvilles prose is so beautiful, it counters the ugly behavior of humans perfectly

The Best Book Ever Written. Melville wrote the whole of human struggle past, present, and future into this book. All of our works will sink into oblivion. Knowing this, we can only focus on loving each other and soothing the wound that is the knowledge of our mortality.

Moby Dick. Writers, the best writers,recreate what is real and essential in men's souls. Mellvile's tale of the megalomaniacal Ahab and his ill-fated search for vengeance impels the reader headlong into this timeless tale of men's strivings, their victories, their defeats. Hubris is as the maelstrom, concentric to the ego, then gone as the impetus of the whirlpool slowly subsides, as the heart stills its beating.

Moby Dick-Yikes. Took two years----excruciating!!! Read at your own risk.

Chapter 1. Call me Ishmael

Read this book. Long, detailed, and an exciting ride. Lost me at parts, gained me back at others. Overall glad to have read this classic important epic. Beautiful language.

Moby Dick. No wonder this is widely recognized by so many as one of the greatest books ever written! Extraordinary philosophical and technical insight into the struggle between man and animal in their mutual dance of survival.

good. i likrcweafkws wal s

I’m 12 and this was my first time reading the real one. It’s really good and takes me more than an half an hour to read, opposed to the 80 page long children’s version

Weak story-telling, but nice book if you like whales. The story of Ahab's all-consuming vengeance against Moby Dick is not very engaging. However, if you like whales and enjoy reading about them in a marine biology context, then you might get something out of this book.

Couldn't finish, but well written. Probably one of the best written books I've ever read. That said, it seems to drag on forever at times to the point that I lost interest. The story itself is very good, but there is a lot of irrelevent information that cuts into the it. For example, Melville goes on and on in describing different types of whales, and on and on even more in describing the white whale. I understand that at the time this was written any extra reading was considered a bonus, but for me I just wanted to scream "I get the point! The whale is big and white!" I may try to read it again in the future, but for now I'm happy with at least saying I tried.

Moby Dick. Man this book is good except my two little kids now think dick means whale cuz I told them the name and what it was about :)

Worth the Effort!. It took me quite a while to read this masterpiece. I don't know if I could have read it without e-books and the ability to look up the meaning of a word instantly through iBook. (I need to know what words mean!) It's an amazing book in so many ways. I'm not a literary critic but I did appreciate the various styles certain sections were written in and the incredible amount of character development, including Moby Dick! There's quite a lot of stuff to chew on when it comes to Ahab, Starbuck, Ishmael and what we can learn from them.

The best novel ever written. Read it a few times.

A ocean of time has passed. I was assigned this book as a eighth grade student for summer vacation. It felt like a prison sentence. Found the cliff notes and forgot about it until this night. Winters storm, a north easter, crippled the power grid and with some fire light I gave Melville another shot. The second time around was captivating.

Boring and hard to stay interested. I really truly do not understand why this book is held up the way it is. I had to force myself to finish it just so I could say I read it. It must be one of those things were is either love it or hate it. I found it boring and uninteresting. It was hard to keep up with at times.

Amazing adventure. I like adventures and this is a good one. I began reading this book a long time ago. I was discouraged by it's narration of small details. I enjoyed reading Victor Hugo's Les Miserables which had similar wanderings about small details like sewers and churches. Similarly but monotonously, Moby Dick contained chapters about " a cetacean skeletal system" and "reasons why to talk about a skeletal system" and how the narrator knows about said system - that gives you an idea. Not to complain about Melville's writing, this story is a great one and I encourage you to read it for it's classic status and deeper meaning and significance.

Moby Dick. I didn't read the book for a while. I just skimmed it. So I hated it. 😴👍

Moby Dick! A great book, well spoken!. Loved this - most excellently read. Thank You.

Finally read it!. …..don’t recall reading it in school so glad I read it now. Some of the vocabulary and obtuse references may be over students heads. Well researched in many ancillary topics and superbly written. It belongs high on the pantheon of the worlds best books.

Classic. I'm not sure what impelled me to pick this book up other than my enjoyment of classical literature. Moby Dick is a famed story. I thoroughly enjoyed the beginning. Melville has a wide-ranging writing style that breathes life into settings and characters. One minute, the narrator is poetic, almost to a fault, the next, he's educating the reader at length on biological and historical subjects, and in a very scientific manner. It's apparent early on that Melville harbored a sincere and authentic love for the subject of whales and whaling. It's unbelievable what whalers were once subjected to and Moby Dick offers invaluable historical insight into the bygone culture. As the story drags on, it becomes stale and tedious. There's way too much unnecessary symbolism and minute detail. It seems as though Melville was compensated by the page. The ending was a huge disappointment for me, although I won't spoil it for anyone. Despite how I felt at the onset of reading, I would not recommend this book to anybody. I would even be so bold to say as it doesn't deserve its lofty pedestal in American literature or literature at large. Melville simply wastes too much paper and attention. Edit: In the weeks after reading this book, I've been haunted by the story (in a good way). The more I talk about it and explain it, the more I realize I'm in love with it. Though the ending left me underwhelmed, the overall experience has left an indelible impression on me. Forget what I said about Moby Dick not being a classic; it most definitely is. I still talk about it and probably always will.

Moby Dick. The language was a constant struggle. I needed to use the dictionary continuously. It was like reading a book in another language. I did not "enjoy" it, but I "conquered" it. 😊

Moby Dick. I read this book after 25 years of not reading it in high school. It was sort of a bucket list thing to do. I'm glad I read it, but of 135 chapters, I really only liked about ten of them. The rest were irrelevant to the action of the book. They were descriptive and supplementary, but it was too much fluff. No one needs a whole chapter on chowder. I'm off to read The Scarlet Letter now.

worst book ever. the worst book ever so is the movie hated it! i watched the movie in high school and i was just disgusted with the killing whales. so not worth anything in my opinon.......

My favorite book. Beautiful story about a man who hates a whale

Book review. Crapy book has alot of adds in the front of it what a disgrace

One of my favorite novels. Still the great American novel!

💰 A universe of opportunities: Payoneer

Did you know that you can earn 25 USD from our site just by registering? Get $25 for free by joining Payoneer!

Hard but worthwhile. A difficult book to read but oh so satisfying when you finish. As a text book on whales and whaling it must be at the pinnacle.

Excellent. Just a pure classic masterpiece, everyone should read,

Sublime. A great start to the book I learnt so much about the bloody industry of whaling and I loved the dramatisation of over looked people like the sailors in fairness I found it confusing in the middle slightly but what an ending it also has some amazing quotes in the book as well also it has very interesting chapters eg the cassock but it is Herman Melville’s best work

A classic and chaotic book. Ishmael’s account is intriguing but somewhat confusing. It’s was educational to here him recall cetology and the origin of certain myths. Some of the symbolism in peoples names and a little bit of irony adds to this book a good read.

Moby dick or the whale. It's a very good and interesting book but very complicated.

🧠 Join the movement! Experience the world's No.1 brain supplement

Imagine you at your best. All the time. Picture yourself at your sharpest and most productive. Your most alert and focused. Your most lucid, creative and confident. At work. At play. In every area of your life. Add Mind Lab Pro® v4.0 to your daily routine and uncap your true potential. Buy Now!

Wow. I give it 10 out of 10

I’m going to get a. I have to get back home from the

Boring to tears. I always wanted to use be able to say that I’ve read Moby Dick, but it was just dragging on and on. If you want to know the story however, go to sparknotes summary of it. I myself am not from sparknotes, but, i would just rather read that than the whole entire book.

👉 Are you looking for an Adsense alternative advertising platform?

Adsterra is the most preferred ad network for those looking for an alternative to AdSense. Adsterra is the ideal choice for new sites with low daily traffic. In order to advertise on the site in Adsterra, like other ad networks, a certain traffic limit, domain age, etc. is required. There are no strict rules. Sign up!

Worst book ever. This was the worst novel I've ever read. Incredibly dull and boring. If this book is an American Classic I'm sure glad to be Canadian. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

Tough. Liked the whaling history but found the chapters unrelated to the plot hard to get through. Glad I read it but wouldn’t reread.

Please wait! Moby Dick book comments loading...

Herman Melville - Moby Dick Discussions & Comments

Have you read this book yet? What do you think about Moby Dick by Herman Melville book? Ask the bookpedia.co community a question about Moby Dick!

Moby Dick E-book (PDF, PUB, KINDLE) Download

Moby Dick ebook moby-dick (820.37 KB) download new links will be update!

Moby Dick Similar Books

Book Name Score Reviews Price
Great Expectations 4/5 748 $0.99
Pride and Prejudice 3.5/5 271 Free
The Perks of Being a Wallflower 4.5/5 8,176 $11.99
Jane Eyre 4.5/5 2,834 Free
Wuthering Heights 4/5 4,860 Free

Enhance sleep, vision, cognition, flexibility, energy, long-range health and more. Performance Lab CORE Formulas support all aspects of human performance, across all walks of life. Boosts work performance and productivity with nootropics for focus, multitasking under stress, creative problem-solving and more.

Other Books from Herman Melville

Summary of Moby Dick by Herman Melville

The Moby Dick book written by Herman Melville was published on 17 October 1851, Friday in the Classics category. A total of 2,546 readers of the book gave the book 4 points out of 5.

Free Classics Books
Book Name Author Price
Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy Free
Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy Free
Joan of Arc Lucy Foster Madison Free
Oedipus King of Thebes Sophocles & Gilbert Murray Free
Oliver Twist Charles Dickens Free

Coinbase is the world's most trusted place to buy and sell cryptocurrency. Open an account today, and if you buy or sell $100 or more of crypto, you'll receive $10 worth of free Bitcoin!

Paid Classics Books
Book Name Author Price
The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection C. S. Lewis $2.99
Chronicle of a Death Foretold Gabriel García Márquez & Gregory Rabassa $11.99
The Old Man and The Sea Ernest Hemingway $0.99
Doctor Zhivago Borìs Pasternàk $0.99
Lady Oracle Margaret Atwood $1.99

Jasper is the generative AI platform for business that helps your team create content tailored for your brand 10X faster, wherever you work online.