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| Moby-Dick, Second Edition (Norton Critical Editions) | 
| Author: Herman Melville
Creators: Harrison Hayford, Parker. Hershel
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Category: Book
List Price: $15.65
Buy New: $9.50
You Save: $6.15 (39%)
New (30) from $9.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  326 reviews
Sales Rank: 109426
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2nd
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 768
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 5.4 x 1
ISBN: 0393972836
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.3
EAN: 9780393972832
ASIN: 0393972836
Publication Date: October 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Also Available In:
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Product Description
For this Sesquicentennial Norton Critical Edition, the Northwestern-Newberry text of Moby-Dick has been generously footnoted to include dozens of biographical discoveries, mainly from Hershel Parker's work on his two-volume biography of Melville. A section of "Whaling and Whalecraft" features prose and graphics by John B. Putnam, a sample of contemporary whaling engravings, as well as, new to this edition, an engraving of Tupai Cupa, the real-life inspiration for the character of Queequeg. Evoking Melville's fascination with the fluidity of categories like savagery and civilization, the image of Tupai Cupa fittingly introduces "Before Moby-Dick: International Controversy over Melville," a new section that documents the ferocity of religions, political, and sexual hostility toward Melville in reaction to his early books, beginning with Typee in 1846. The image of Tupai Cupa also evokes Melville's interest in the mystery of self-identity and the possibility of knowing another person's "queenly personality" (Chapter 119). That theme (focused on Melville, Ishmael, and Ahab) is pursued in "A Handful of Critical Challenges," from Walter E. Bezanson's classic centennial study through Harrison Hayford's meditation on "Loomings" and recent essays by Camille Paglia and John Wenke. In "Reviews and Letters by Melville," a letter has been redated and a wealth of new biographical material has been added to the footnotes, notably to Melville's "Hawthorne and His Mosses." "Analogues and Sources" retains classic pieces by J. N. Reynolds and Owen Chase, as well as new findings by Geoffrey Sanborn and Steven Olsen-Smith. "Reviews of Moby-Dick" emphasizes the ongoing religious hostility toward Melville and highlights new discoveries, such as the first-known Scottish review of The Whale. "Posthumous Praise and the Melville Revival: 1893-1927" collects belated, enthusiastic praise up through that of William Faulkner. "Biographical Cross-Light" is Hershel Parker's somber look at what writing Moby-Dick cost Melville and his family. From Foreword through Selected Bibliography, this Sesquicentennial Norton Critical Edition is uniquely valuable as the most up-to-date and comprehensive documentary source for study of Moby-Dick.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 321 more reviews...
 masterpiece November 27, 2008
I'm not sure where to begin reviewing. Many of you who are reading this are at least familiar with the title "Moby Dick" or "The Whale", and if you have read this incredible and penetrating book, most of you (I hope) will be in awe from its memories: fearful, heavy, and strange. For those who say the book is too "wordy", then you simply don't understand style and taste. Melville manages to go from an incredibly tight narrative at one page to something distant and spacey the next page. Indeed, it is a magical novel or as many call it a "masterpiece". Since most people - from what I have gathered here alone - review this book splendidly, I will not spend much time writing about it. In fact, it is best one digests this book arbitrarily, otherwise its weight may not be as profound. There is much speculation one may collect, I imagine, when thinking of this book in deep introspect.
"Penguin Press" did an excellent job compiling this book. The back features very detailed diagrams and sketches of equipment and atlases. There is also an appendix for those who are not very familiar with boat terminology. The introduction is engaging and very helpful for those who have not read the book.
Classic for a reason November 1, 2008
This book has the momentum of a cracking whip. The struckture, almost post-modern in its rambling complexity, moves almost sideways as it speeds up and in the last twenty-five pages suddenly snaps in a bonanza of rich, delicious action.
Nay-Sayers seem not to appreciate the substance all the slow, informative chapters give to the final actions of Ahab and his crew. I personally love this book.
 The worst book ever written October 13, 2008
0 out of 7 found this review helpful
Before reading "Moby Dick" I considered "War and Peace" the worst book I had ever read, but compared to "Moby Dick" "War and Peace" is a light, fun read where your eyes just fly across the page. It's almost impossible to acurately descibe how bad of a book "Moby Dick" is. First of all, classiflying it as fiction is a mistake. Probably a good 60% of the book is non-fiction - chapter after chapter dedicated to every imaginable detail of the biology of the whale and every imaginable nuance of whaling. These non-fiction chapters are made all the more unbearable by the style of writing, which is so pretentious, poetic and over the top that at times it actually made me laugh out loud. Almost every sentence is 100 words long with 10 commas. And the over the top writing is not confined to the book's non-fiction chapters, it's just the opposite - it gets even worse when Melville switches over to the fiction. Especially in the many and endless soliloquies. The ridiculous writing style completely crushes any chance the book might have had of actually telling a story. Finishing the entire book is something that I'm proud of myself for having done, which is never the mark of a good read. I would suggest that unless a person wants to torture themself, read something else. Although I do think there is some value in setting your mind to reading the worst book ever written from cover to cover, and acomplishing that goal. It's the ultimate test of patience and courage, and succeeding will make you a better person, which is maybe what Herman Melville had in mind when he wrote this piece of junk.
a challenge to read and understand; requires some pondering... October 9, 2008
hard book but all the more rewarding. the narration in itself is part of the melvilles point. moby dick reads as a organized history and methodology of the whaling industry and is often times drawn out and dull. but this narrations illustrates the point of mans obsession of understanding the universe. ishmael is by no means a definite resource on whaling as is shown by his constant interjections of myth and exaggeration. ishmaels narrations goes on to illustrate man's nature to intertwine emotion with reality, thus proving the futility of understanding the world.
the obsessive pursuit of something larger than what men can understand in their finite knowledge is accumulated as the arrogance of ahab. ahab shows us that we are emotional beings who cast aside all rationality for ones personal gratification. it is an allegory of mans futile pursuit of understanding and commanding the world, ultimately, ahab shows us that man cannot escape his arrogance/ignorance. Moby-Dick or, The Whale (Penguin Classics)
Get back to the Pequad please! October 9, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
My title might imply that I didn't enjoy this... certainly Moby Dick is a daunting book to pick up, and it's very easy to catch your eyes skimming rather than reading... but I would have to say, once read, it is easy to figure out why this book is a classic.
Sure it took me a while to get past my knowledge of whales, the fact that they aren't fish and that they are intelligent animals. And having been out of school for several years now, it took a bit to knock the cobwebs out of the brain to read the writing style of the time. But in reality this is a fantastic story on so many levels. The meaning and the subtext are brilliant. For those of you who have spent your life under a rock...
Moby Dick is the tale of Ishmael, a teacher turned whaler who joins the ship the Pequod to sail in search of whales for the oils, blubber and meat they contain. If you are not sure how whaling works, don't worry - Ishmael is going to give you an entire tutorial on the topic. You will also learn the history of the whale, and all about it's anatomy... or what they perceived these things to be at the time the book was written. So Ishmael sets sail to learn that his new captain - Ahab, is a little bit on the OCD side... you see he's recently lost a leg to this huge white sperm whale the sailors call "Moby Dick." And well, Ahab took this as a personal slight so he's out to capture and kill Moby Dick.
Because this is a review and not a term paper I am not going to go into the deeper meaning of everything, instead I'll just say that yes, this is a daunting book to pick up, but it is also a wonderful read.
So why not 5 stars? Well mainly from personal taste... I liked the story of Ahab, the ship, and the hunt... but Ishmael won't stay on topic and keeps going on and on about the size of a whale's jaw or how the Kracken was actually a whale, or that St. George actually killed a whale and called it a dragon. I found myself wanting to shake Ishmael and tell him "Enough of this, get back to the STORY!" But as I said... this was just personal taste, egged on by the fact that I REALLY liked the story part of the book. Now I had read the childrens version of this back in the 3rd grade, and it was my favorite classic for years. I had always dreaded reading the full version, but in reality it didn't take me more than a week, and I wasn't trying all that hard. I would highly recommend that any avid reader at least give this a try. It is truly a classic for a reason.
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