Book Review of Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

Ishmael joins the crew of a whaling vessel captained by a man on a maniacal hunt for the whale that took his leg. The great white whale is their quarry as they set sail into the open ocean.

Moby-Dick is part adventure and part encyclopedia on whaling.

I read a copy with footnotes and end notes printed by Barnes & Noble, my favorite printer of classic books, and it gave me context and understand of language and culture as I read about whaling.

Herman Melville was a gifted writer and his prose was at times almost lyrical. The chapters about the adventure, chasing the great white whale, were thrilling and well-paced. I enjoyed the story of chasing the whale and the effect it had on the crew. There were a lot of intricate plot elements he planned out very well, small things that happened which played a big role later on.

Unfortunately, the story of the hunt for Moby-Dick is less than half the book. The rest of it is painful postulation on the meaning of whales, information about the whaling industry, and other unnecessary explanations. Those chapters made reading the book painful and long. If Melville had kept just to the adventure, it would be a fantastic book, full of heart-pounding adventure. But he didn't.

I understand why it's a classic, but I also understand why so many people don't like it.

I want to give the book two stars because I hated the postulation and explanations, but because I did very much enjoy the adventure, I'll give it a higher rating.