Epic Sea Books. Moby Dick. Herman Melville

'Moby Dick', Herman Melville's 1851 masterpiece, tells the story of Captain Ahab's search for revenge on a great white whale that on a previous voyage had hacked off his leg.

It is an extraordinarily book, a sprawling novel, a text book on whales and whaling, and an insight into a dark and intense character who was prepared to loose everyting in his quest for vengeance on an 'evil phenomenon of the natural world'.

"Call me Ishmael" as the novel begins, is one of the most famous opening lines in literature. The narrator, a young seaman from Manhattan, had just boarded the Nantucket-based whaling ship 'The Pequad' and inadvertently teamed up with Captain Ahab on his epic voyage of vengeance.

Ishmael's first glimpse of Ahab was startling and disturbing. An intense, frightening figure with a scar down his face, one leg missing from the knee down, replaced by a prosthesis fashioned from a whale's jawbone.

Rallying the crew with a rousing speech, Captain Ahab succeeded in infusing a powerful motivating force for the single, secret objective of his fraught voyage of revenge.

Melville describes in gruesome detail the epic battles that ensued, ending with the defeat and death of Captain Ahab, the distruction and death of the 'Paquad' and her crew, and the ultimate victory of Moby Dick. Only Ishmael survived, having clung to a makeshift buoy for a whole day, before being rescued.

The novel is profound and symbolic, full of ideas and feelings that relate to the mysteries of life. Captain Ahab's obsession with the distruction of the great white whale, Moby Dick, represents sheer hate for something he believes is evil, and in destroying it, he is destroying evil.  An obsession that in the end destroyed him.

One of America's great works of literature.

THE AUTHOR.

Herman Melville wrote with a unique personal style, that was unfamiliar in literature in the early 19th century. Born in New York City in 1819 into a wealthy household, he lived there for eleven years until emotionally and financially broken, his father died and the family were forced to relocate to Albany.

Then in a state of poverty, the young Meville tried his hand at various jobs, eventually becoming a cabin boy on a merchant ship. This chance association with the sea inspired him to write his first book 'Redburn' (1849). A berth on a whaling ship in the Pacific and other sea trips gave him the knowledge to write 'Typee' (1846) and 'Omoo' (1847). His stories of travel and adventure soon propelled him to reward and respect in the literary world and gave him the confidence to write his masterpiece, 'Moby Dick'

At first, this complex literary work, rich with symbolism and profound themes, was largely rejected, seriously damaging Melville's reputation as a writer. Deeply disappointed, he eventually abandoned his literary career for a job in the Custom House, in the Port of New York City.

He died on September 28th 1891, unaware that his masterpiece, Moby Dick, would resurface in the 1920s, restoring his reputation as a literary genius, and becoming one of the most famous works of American literature.

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Another epic sea book has just been published. 'The Crying Sea' is inspired by a true sea tragedy that occurred off Malta in 2008. This gripping tale of intense human drama is available online at: www.bridgepublishing.net