In 1851, when the American writer, sailor, and traveler Herman Melville first published his novel, contemporaries did not understand it and did not appreciate it. Only in the 1920s did literary historians, critics—and then readers—discover Melville again, and the book about a white whale was recognized as “the greatest American novel” and “a masterpiece of world literature.”
“Moby-Dick” is a unique work written in defiance of any existing genre laws. Here you’ll find everything: an exciting plot and dramatic scenes, descriptions of the sea’s elemental power and vivid human characters, philosophical digressions and dialogues, poetic pictures and scientific reflections. The realia of whaling—the stuff that makes the novel a kind of “whale encyclopedia”—are interwoven with reflections that carry a second, symbolic meaning.