Author(s): Herman Melville

Classics

A new edition of one of the most popular classics of world literature with a wealth of extra material, including illustrations and an apparatus focusing on the life and works of Herman Melville Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. When the young Ishmael gets on board Captain Ahab's whaling ship, little does he suspect that the mission on which he is about to embark is the fulfillment of his master's obsessive desire for revenge on Moby Dick, a white whale who has already claimed countless human victims and destroyed many fleets. With some sinister crew members in their midst and the hazardous conditions of the sea to contend with, the expedition becomes increasingly dangerous the closer it gets to its quarry. One of the great American novels, Moby Dick epically combines rip-roaring adventure, a meticulously realistic portrayal of the whaling trade, and a profound philosophical disquisition on the nature of good and evil.