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Description
Written with wonderfully redemptive humor, Moby-Dick is the story of an eerily compelling madman pursuing an unholy war against a creature as vast and dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself. Introduction by Andrew Delbanco Explanatory Commentary by Tom Quirk
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis
Cast of Characters/Important People
- Captain Ahab: Captain of the Pequod, bound up in his mad obsession to pursue and destroy the White Whale.
- Ishmael: The narrator of the novel, both fascinated and afraid of Ahab's unwavering determination.
- Queequeg: Ishamel's friend, a savage, harpooner
- Starbuck: The first mate of the Pequod: a reverent and courageous man who tries many a time to turn Ahab away from his mission, for the sake of all their lives.
- Stubb: second mate on the Pequod
- Flask: third mate on the Pequod
- Tashtego: indian, Stubb's officer
- Daggoo: Flask's officer
- Fedallah: harpooner on Ahab's boat, mystery man, wears a white turban and black shirt, compared to the devil
Memorable Quotes
-
“How it is I know not; but there is no place like a bed for confidential disclosures between friends. Man and wife, they say, there open the very bottom of their souls to each other; and some old couples often lie and chat over old times till nearly morning. Thus, then, in our hearts’ honeymoon, lay I and Queequeg—a cosy, loving pair.”
Ishamael -
“All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. He piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it.”
Ishmael -
“All men live enveloped in whale-lines. All are born with halters round their necks; but it is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death, that mortals realize the silent, subtle, ever present perils of life.”
-
“Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the spear!”
-
“Call me Ishmael.”
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“Ignorance is the parent of fear . .”
-
“Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off--then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.”
-
“There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness. And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces. And even if he for ever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains; so that even in his lowest swoop the mountain eagle is still higher than other birds upon the plain, even though they soar.”
First Sentence
One spring I arrived at the whaling port of Nantucket in search of a seafaring life.
Table of Contents
Glossary
- Bilge-pump: A device used to remove water that collects in the very bottom of a ship
- Carrol Ground: A whale-hunting area off the coast of Angola, Africa
- Jove: Jupiter, the chief god of Roman mythology
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