Moby Dick by Herman Melville — Bibliomancer edition cover
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Fiction · 1851

Moby Dick

Or, The Whale

Herman Melville

Reading time
about 15.5 h
Length
213,125 words · 586 pages in print
Structure
136 chapters · 1 front-matter section
Language
English
Era
Victorian

“Call me Ishmael.” A schoolteacher signs on to a Nantucket whaler and finds himself under the command of Ahab, a captain who has lost a leg to a white sperm whale and means to have his revenge on it. Around that pursuit Herman Melville builds an encyclopaedia of the sea — the trades, the animals, the men — and a meditation on obsession, knowledge and fate.

First published in London and New York in 1851, the book was largely neglected in Melville’s lifetime and recognised in the twentieth century as one of the great American novels. Its mixture of narrative, drama, sermon and natural history remains unlike anything else in the language.

Between the “Etymology” at its opening and the Epilogue at its close, much of the book’s argument is carried in the chapter titles themselves.

Introduction

Editorial matter by Bibliomancer — separate from the author’s text.

Herman Melville wrote Moby-Dick in about eighteen months, in New York and then at Arrowhead, his farm outside Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he could see Mount Greylock from his desk and where, in the summer of 1850, he met Nathaniel Hawthorne. The friendship changed the book. What had begun as another of the sea romances that had made Melville’s early reputation — Typee and Omoo were his best-sellers — grew into something that is a novel, a treatise on whales, a play in blank verse, a sermon and an encyclopaedia by turns. It was published in London by Richard Bentley in October 1851 as The Whale, in an expurgated text that also, by accident, omitted the epilogue, so that English reviewers complained that the narrator could not have survived to tell the story; and in New York by Harper & Brothers in November 1851 as Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, with a dedication to Hawthorne. It sold about three thousand copies in Melville’s lifetime and was out of print when he died in 1891. Its rediscovery in the 1920s is one of the famous reversals of literary history.

The first sentence is a joke and an invitation, and the book keeps both promises. It is very funny, especially in its first quarter at New Bedford and Nantucket; it is also a sustained attempt to say what a whale is, what a man is who hunts one, and what it means to go to sea under a captain who has decided what the universe is for. The chapters on cetology, on the whiteness of the whale, on the try-works and the line are not interruptions; they are the book’s way of holding the reader inside the work of the ship while the plot, which is simple, waits. The ending, when it comes, takes three chapters.

This edition follows the Gutenberg text, which derives from the American first edition and restores the epilogue. It includes the “Etymology” and “Extracts” that Melville placed before chapter one, the whole of the cetological apparatus, and Melville’s own footnotes. Nothing has been abridged. It is long; readers who have been told to skip the whale chapters should try, at least once, not to.

Contents

  1. Etymology
  2. Chapter 1 — Loomings
  3. Chapter 2 — The Carpet-Bag
  4. Chapter 3 — The Spouter-Inn
  5. Chapter 4 — The Counterpane
  6. Chapter 5 — Breakfast
  7. Chapter 6 — The Street
  8. Chapter 7 — The Chapel
  9. Chapter 8 — The Pulpit
  10. Chapter 9 — The Sermon
  11. Chapter 10 — A Bosom Friend
  12. Chapter 11 — Nightgown
  13. Chapter 12 — Biographical
  14. Chapter 13 — Wheelbarrow
  15. Chapter 14 — Nantucket
  16. Chapter 15 — Chowder
  17. Chapter 16 — The Ship
  18. Chapter 17 — The Ramadan
  19. Chapter 18 — His Mark
  20. Chapter 19 — The Prophet
  21. Chapter 20 — All Astir
  22. Chapter 21 — Going Aboard
  23. Chapter 22 — Merry Christmas
  24. Chapter 23 — The Lee Shore
  25. Chapter 24 — The Advocate
  26. Chapter 25 — Postscript
  27. Chapter 26 — Knights and Squires
  28. Chapter 27 — Knights and Squires
  29. Chapter 28 — Ahab
  30. Chapter 29 — Enter Ahab; to Him, Stubb
  31. Chapter 30 — The Pipe
  32. Chapter 31 — Queen Mab
  33. Chapter 32 — Cetology
  34. Chapter 33 — The Specksnyder
  35. Chapter 34 — The Cabin-Table
  36. Chapter 35 — The Mast-Head
  37. Chapter 36 — The Quarter-Deck
  38. Chapter 37 — Sunset
  39. Chapter 38 — Dusk
  40. Chapter 39 — First Night-Watch
  41. Chapter 40 — Midnight, Forecastle
  42. Chapter 41 — Moby Dick
  43. Chapter 42 — The Whiteness of the Whale
  44. Chapter 43 — Hark!
  45. Chapter 44 — The Chart
  46. Chapter 45 — The Affidavit
  47. Chapter 46 — Surmises
  48. Chapter 47 — The Mat-Maker
  49. Chapter 48 — The First Lowering
  50. Chapter 49 — The Hyena
  51. Chapter 50 — Ahab’s Boat and Crew. Fedallah
  52. Chapter 51 — The Spirit-Spout
  53. Chapter 52 — The Albatross
  54. Chapter 53 — The Gam
  55. Chapter 54 — The Town-Ho’s Story
  56. Chapter 55 — Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales
  57. Chapter 56 — Of the Less Erroneous Pictures of Whales, and the True Pictures of Whaling Scenes
  58. Chapter 57 — Of Whales in Paint; in Teeth; in Wood; in Sheet-Iron; in Stone; in Mountains; in Stars
  59. Chapter 58 — Brit
  60. Chapter 59 — Squid
  61. Chapter 60 — The Line
  62. Chapter 61 — Stubb Kills a Whale
  63. Chapter 62 — The Dart
  64. Chapter 63 — The Crotch
  65. Chapter 64 — Stubb’s Supper
  66. Chapter 65 — The Whale as a Dish
  67. Chapter 66 — The Shark Massacre
  68. Chapter 67 — Cutting In
  69. Chapter 68 — The Blanket
  70. Chapter 69 — The Funeral
  71. Chapter 70 — The Sphynx
  72. Chapter 71 — The Jeroboam’s Story
  73. Chapter 72 — The Monkey-Rope
  74. Chapter 73 — Stubb and Flask Kill a Right Whale; and Then Have a Talk over Him
  75. Chapter 74 — The Sperm Whale’s Head—Contrasted View
  76. Chapter 75 — The Right Whale’s Head—Contrasted View
  77. Chapter 76 — The Battering-Ram
  78. Chapter 77 — The Great Heidelburgh Tun
  79. Chapter 78 — Cistern and Buckets
  80. Chapter 79 — The Prairie
  81. Chapter 80 — The Nut
  82. Chapter 81 — The Pequod Meets the Virgin
  83. Chapter 82 — The Honor and Glory of Whaling
  84. Chapter 83 — Jonah Historically Regarded
  85. Chapter 84 — Pitchpoling
  86. Chapter 85 — The Fountain
  87. Chapter 86 — The Tail
  88. Chapter 87 — The Grand Armada
  89. Chapter 88 — Schools and Schoolmasters
  90. Chapter 89 — Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish
  91. Chapter 90 — Heads or Tails
  92. Chapter 91 — The Pequod Meets the Rose-Bud
  93. Chapter 92 — Ambergris
  94. Chapter 93 — The Castaway
  95. Chapter 94 — A Squeeze of the Hand
  96. Chapter 95 — The Cassock
  97. Chapter 96 — The Try-Works
  98. Chapter 97 — The Lamp
  99. Chapter 98 — Stowing Down and Clearing Up
  100. Chapter 99 — The Doubloon
  101. Chapter 100 — Leg and Arm
  102. Chapter 101 — The Decanter
  103. Chapter 102 — A Bower in the Arsacides
  104. Chapter 103 — Measurement of the Whale’s Skeleton
  105. Chapter 104 — The Fossil Whale
  106. Chapter 105 — Does the Whale’s Magnitude Diminish?—Will He Perish?
  107. Chapter 106 — Ahab’s Leg
  108. Chapter 107 — The Carpenter
  109. Chapter 108 — Ahab and the Carpenter
  110. Chapter 109 — Ahab and Starbuck in the Cabin
  111. Chapter 110 — Queequeg in His Coffin
  112. Chapter 111 — The Pacific
  113. Chapter 112 — The Blacksmith
  114. Chapter 113 — The Forge
  115. Chapter 114 — The Gilder
  116. Chapter 115 — The Pequod Meets the Bachelor
  117. Chapter 116 — The Dying Whale
  118. Chapter 117 — The Whale Watch
  119. Chapter 118 — The Quadrant
  120. Chapter 119 — The Candles
  121. Chapter 120 — The Deck Towards the End of the First Night Watch
  122. Chapter 121 — Midnight.—The Forecastle Bulwarks
  123. Chapter 122 — Midnight Aloft.—Thunder and Lightning
  124. Chapter 123 — The Musket
  125. Chapter 124 — The Needle
  126. Chapter 125 — The Log and Line
  127. Chapter 126 — The Life-Buoy
  128. Chapter 127 — The Deck
  129. Chapter 128 — The Pequod Meets the Rachel
  130. Chapter 129 — The Cabin
  131. Chapter 130 — The Hat
  132. Chapter 131 — The Pequod Meets the Delight
  133. Chapter 132 — The Symphony
  134. Chapter 133 — The Chase—First Day
  135. Chapter 134 — The Chase—Second Day
  136. Chapter 135 — The Chase.—Third Day
  137. Epilogue

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The text is free of copyright. This edition was prepared from an authoritative digitisation, processed by Bibliomancer and held to human review; every automated correction is recorded in its transformation log. Rights assessed for CA, EU, GB, US.

Part of American Literature.

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About the author

Herman Melville

1819–1891 · Victorian

A Bibliomancer biography of Herman Melville is in preparation. See all their books.

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