An eloquent tale of whaling, teamwork, and revenge, Herman Melville's novel, Moby Dick, the epic of Massachusetts, is truly epic. While unpopular in its day, Moby Dick is currently regarded as an all-time classic, and while plagued with minor style and flaw issues, is definitely an excellent book that everyone should read.
Moby Dick follows a plethora of characters in its 135 chapters and 479 pages- swapping between first and third person and limited and omniscient perspectives voraciously throughout the novel. The book starts with the story of Ishmael (the opening words "Call Me Ishmael" being symbolic of the novel), a man looking for a job who happens upon the Pequod, (albeit with horrible pay) a whiling ship run, but not owned, by the vindictive Captain Ahab, minus one leg and plus a vendetta for the notorious whale Moby Dick, a white monstrosity that is seldom sighted but incontrovertibly real and deviously powerful. Through soliloquies, monumental descriptions, and intense dialogue, Melville delivers the mental and physical battles between Ahab, the capitalist crew of the Pequod who signed up for money and had no intentions of a circumnavigating rat race (until money is put into the equation), and the vast biological landscape of the ocean with it's great White Whale, Moby Dick.
Pros
- End Abruptly and Violently
- Humorous in its cultural differences
- Excellent Character Study
- The White Whale is a beast
Cons
- Superbly Lengthy with mostly description
- Random way of Storytelling
- Makes one lose the game
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