"It will be a strange sort of a book, tho', I fear; blubber is blubber you know; tho' you may get oil out of it, the poetry runs as hard as sap from a frozen maple tree;--& to cook the thing up, one must needs throw in a little fancy.... Yet I mean to give the truth of the thing, spite of this." Moby-Dick has a monumental reputation. Less well known are the novel's unexpectedly weird, funny, tantalizing, messy, and wondrous moments. Narrator Ishmael, along with the whaleship Pequod's other "meanest mariners, and renegades ...
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"It will be a strange sort of a book, tho', I fear; blubber is blubber you know; tho' you may get oil out of it, the poetry runs as hard as sap from a frozen maple tree;--& to cook the thing up, one must needs throw in a little fancy.... Yet I mean to give the truth of the thing, spite of this." Moby-Dick has a monumental reputation. Less well known are the novel's unexpectedly weird, funny, tantalizing, messy, and wondrous moments. Narrator Ishmael, along with the whaleship Pequod's other "meanest mariners, and renegades and castaways", is beguiled into joining Captain Ahab in his vengeful pursuit of the white whale that "dismasted" him. But along the way, Ishmael takes the reader along many a detour into variegated ways of knowing. In a tone "strangely compounded of fun and fury", Moby-Dick brings outlandish curiosity to bear on the multitudinous, oceanic scale of our diverse world. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
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Seller's Description:
Good in No d/j as Published jacket. Size: 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall; Type: Book N.b. Slight reading crease to spine. Top edge of front cover and ffep wrinkled.
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Very good in very good dust jacket. Am Weihnachtstag 1849 verlässt der Walfänger Pequod die Insel Nantucket, 25 Meilen vor Neuengland. Mit an Bord: Matrose Ishmael, dem die Weltliteratur einen der berühmtesten ersten Sätze eines Romans verdankt: "Nennt mich Ishmael" heißt es da in Herman Melvilles "Moby Dick". Ishmael fährt unter dem Kommando von Kapitän Ahab. Zunächst bleibt der rätselhafte Kapitän in seiner Kajüte, doch bald nagelt er eine Golddublone an den Mast. Es ist die Belohnung für den, der Moby Dick, den weißen Wal, sichtet. Er allein ist Ahabs Ziel-ein Ziel der Rache. Denn Ahab hat durch den gigantischen Wal sein Bein verloren. Deshalb will er ihn zur Strecke bringen. Ishmael wird die Jagd als Einziger überleben. Autor: Herman Melville wurde 1819 in New York als Sohn eines wohlhabenden Kaufmanns geboren. Nach dessen Bankrott und Tod 1832 wurde die Not leidende Familie von Verwandten unterhalten. Zwischen 1839 und 1844 heuerte Melville als Matrose an und gelangte auf einem Walfangschiff bis in die Südsee. Nach einem Schiffbruch kehrte er wieder zurück in die Heimat, arbeitete als freier Schriftsteller, unternahm jedoch immer wieder Fernreisen. Seine anfänglich großen Erfolge als Schriftsteller ließen rasch nach. Sein heute berühmtestes Buch, "Moby Dick", fand, als es 1851 in Amerika erschien, kaum Anklang. Von 1866-85 fristete Melville sein Leben als Zollinspektor, um seine Familie zu ernähren. Er starb 1891 in New York. Christian Brückner, geb. 1943 in Schlesien, studierte Soziologie, Germanistik und Theaterwissenschaft. Er lebt in Berlin und New York City und ist der wohl berühmteste deutsche Synchronsprecher. Das magische Timbre seiner Stimme ist ein Phänomen. Alain Delon, Marlon Brando, Harvey Keitel hat er gesprochen-und natürlich Robert de Niro. Seit etwa 1970 arbeitet er als Synchronsprecher, liest Hörbücher und ist die kommentierende Stimme bei Fernsehdokumentationen. Außerdem ist er als Novalis-, Hölderlin-und Bukowski-Vorleser unterwegs. 1990 erhielt er den Adolf Grimme Preis in Gold.
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Very good. All orders are dispatched within 1 working day from our UK warehouse. Established in 2004, we are dedicated to recycling unwanted books on behalf of a number of UK charities who benefit from added revenue through the sale of their books plus huge savings in waste disposal. No quibble refund if not completely satisfied.
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Good. All orders are dispatched within 1 working day from our UK warehouse. Established in 2004, we are dedicated to recycling unwanted books on behalf of a number of UK charities who benefit from added revenue through the sale of their books plus huge savings in waste disposal. No quibble refund if not completely satisfied.
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Seller's Description:
Good. All orders are dispatched within 1 working day from our UK warehouse. Established in 2004, we are dedicated to recycling unwanted books on behalf of a number of UK charities who benefit from added revenue through the sale of their books plus huge savings in waste disposal. No quibble refund if not completely satisfied.
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Seller's Description:
Good. All orders are dispatched within 1 working day from our UK warehouse. Established in 2004, we are dedicated to recycling unwanted books on behalf of a number of UK charities who benefit from added revenue through the sale of their books plus huge savings in waste disposal. No quibble refund if not completely satisfied.
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Very good. Bumping and tear to edge of cover Next day dispatch by Royal Mail. International delivery available. 1000's of satisfied customers! Please contact us with any enquiries.
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Very good. Simply Brit – welcome to our online used book store, where affordability meets great quality. Dive into a world of captivating reads without breaking the bank. We take pride in offering a wide selection of used books, from classics to hidden gems, ensuring there's something for every literary palate. All orders are shipped within 24 hours and our lightning fast-delivery within 48 hours coupled with our prompt customer service ensures a smooth journey from ordering to delivery. Discover the joy of reading with us, your trusted source for affordable books that do not compromise on quality.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Very good. Simply Brit – welcome to our online used book store, where affordability meets great quality. Dive into a world of captivating reads without breaking the bank. We take pride in offering a wide selection of used books, from classics to hidden gems, ensuring there's something for every literary palate. All orders are shipped within 24 hours and our lightning fast-delivery within 48 hours coupled with our prompt customer service ensures a smooth journey from ordering to delivery. Discover the joy of reading with us, your trusted source for affordable books that do not compromise on quality.
This book was just like new & in excellent condition.
dekesolomon
Oct 31, 2009
Whaling is a deep subject.
A lot of people can't understand Moby-Dick. And I think, to an extent, nobody can fully understand this book who doesn't know at least a little about the transcendentalist movement in American literature.
Transcendentalism, to Thoreau and Emerson, et al., was the idea that one can get to know God by studying nature. Thoreau was transcendentalism's greatest proponent. That's what 'Walden Pond' was all about.
Melville used Ahab and the whale to show (to put it as simply as possible) that one thing we learn when we study nature is that God isn't necessarily a creature we'd like to be closely acquainted with. When little Pip, the cabin boy, falls out of the whaleboat -- to take one example -- he sinks down and down, then he goes down a little farther, then farther still, and then he sinks some more until, bye and bye, he sank so far down in the ocean that he 'saw God's foot on the treadle of the loom.' At that point his mind snapped and when he finally broke surface, he was as crazy as a crap-house mouse. Having seen God, he became a madman, and his derangement was permanent.
Ahab is crazy because he, too, has met God -- and the damned thing took his leg off. He was not happy about losing his leg. He has sworn vengeance on God (manifest in the unstoppable power of the whale) and he will have it if it kills him -- as of course it finally does. Ahab's rage against God reflects the human creature's rage to order the insane universe (God) in which we live.
I mean, that vein is deep and rich. Moby-Dick gives us plenty of room to think and plenty of material to think about, and if we bother to think about it we'll be thinking for a long while. How about the scene where the men sit in a circle around a tub, squishing spermaceti between their fingers? Is there a circle-jerk going on there? Is there a hint at the homosexuality that was so common in all-male crews who spent months and years at sea?
In sum, I believe the novel has at least three purposes and at least two of those are didactic. On the one hand it discourses on transcendentalism, on the nature of God and the nature of man and the relationship between them. On the other hand, it discourses on the life of the whalers. We learn from reading Moby-Dick a very great deal about life and work on a wooden, wind-powered, Yankee whaling vessel. You can read it one way, you can read it the other way, or you can read it as a straight-up, meaningless adventure yarn. No matter how you read it, it's a whale of a tale and it's one that always yields more to those who re-read it.
I give it five stars because I think it earns every one of 'em.
abc20
Aug 6, 2007
Where to start with Moby Dick...
Had to read this book for English. The opening was really interesting, and it wasn't too bad until they were on the boat and Melville goes on and on about whale parts. I was warned about this in advance, so I just skimmed over those parts. It's really a great classic story if you can get beyond Melville's style at times.