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Moby Dick: or the Whale
- Narrated by: Mark Nelson
- Length: 23 hrs and 41 mins
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Publisher's summary
Moby-Dick is widely considered to be the Great American Novel and a treasure of world literature. The story details the adventures of the wandering sailor Ishmael and his voyage on the whale ship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab. Ishmael soon learns that Ahab seeks one specific whale: Moby Dick, a ferocious, enigmatic white sperm whale. In a previous encounter, the whale destroyed Ahab's boat and bit off his leg. And Ahab intends to take revenge.
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Fascinating and wonderfully read
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Flint & Silver
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- Abridged
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A swashbuckling triumph of storytelling, Flint and Silver provides a thrilling ride back to the rich and wondrous world of Long John Silver and his fiendish nemesis Joseph Flint in this prequel to the beloved classic Treasure Island.
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where are the other two books in the series??
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The Doones are a clan of murdering thieves, and among their victims is John Ridd's father. The strong, noble Ridd determines to avenge his father's death; but his plans are complicated when he falls in love with one of the hated family - the beautiful Lorna. Lorna is promised against her will to another; and that other will not let her go lightly. Set amid the political turmoils of the late 17th century, Lorna Doone brings West Country history and legends alive with wonderfully imaginative fiction.
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I fell in love with this book
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The first book in an action–packed new SF adventure series. Vulcan is a factory planet, centuries old, Company run, ugly as sin, and unfeeling as death. Vulcan breeds just two types of native: complacent or tough. Sten is tough. When his family is killed in a mysterious accident, Sten rebels, harassing the Company from the metal world’s endless maze-like warrens. He could end up just another burnt–out Delinquent. But people like Sten never give up.
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THE MASTERPIECE BY JERRY SCIARRIO
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In the Internet virtual reality game Buckling Swashes, Earless Erika and Black Corbin are two of the most deadly pirates to sail the online seas. And now they've met their matches: each other. But fearless Earless Erika is really just Amy - a financial analyst with little time in her life for anything but work. And Corbin is none other than the man behind the game - the programmer and owner of the company. He's intrigued by Amy, the only buccaneer to best him in this test of digital testosterone, while she just wants to take his arrogance down a peg. But soon the two find themselves comrades in arms against a merciless rival bent on Corbin's destruction....
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Different and awesome!
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A Red Peace, first in Spencer Ellsworth's Starfire trilogy, is an action-packed space opera in a universe where the oppressed half-Jorian crosses have risen up to supplant humanity and dominate the galaxy. Half-breed human star navigator Jaqi, working the edges of human-settled space on contract to whoever will hire her, stumbles into possession of an artifact that the leader of the Rebellion wants desperately enough to send his personal guard after. An interstellar empire and the fate of the remnant of humanity hang in the balance.
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Suits & Insects War & Technology
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How far is too far? Alan Corday is about to find out. Corday is shanghaied aboard a craft bound for the stars...on a journey at the speed of light, the world he leaves behind fast vanishing into the past. And nothing in the dark, forbidding reaches of space can prepare him for the astounding discovery he will make upon his return from the stars.
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To the Stars
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Idylls of the King
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The Arthurian legend of Camelot has been told many times, but never better than by Alfred Tennyson. Employing some of the most stirring and beautiful blank verse ever written, Tennyson crafted his version of the Knights of the Round Table over the course of nearly fifty years, completing it in 1885. Despite the length of time, Tennyson managed to maintain a high level of style and continuity throughout.
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Beautiful poetry
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Redwall
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Welcome to Mossflower Wood, where the gentle mice have gathered to celebrate a year of peace and abundance. All is well…until a sinister shadow falls across the ancient stone abbey of Redwall. It is rumored that Cluny is coming—Cluny, the terrible one-eyed rat and his savage horde—Cluny, who has vowed to conquer Redwall Abbey! The only hope for the besieged mice lies in the lost sword of the legendary Martin the Warrior. And so begins the epic quest of a bumbling young apprentice—a courageous mouse who would rise up, fight back…and become a legend himself.
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Awesome!
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The Great Secret
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That is Fanner Marston’s mantra—his reason for being—and while he knows a little about the first and a lot about the second, he may well be on the verge of learning everything there is to know about the third. Power. He may, in fact, be about to uncover the key to gaining absolute control over the entire universe. The only problem is, Fanner is certifiably insane.... His starship has crash-landed, and he’s the sole survivor, which doesn’t matter to him.
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Not up to Hubbard’s normal standard
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"It is the horrible texture of a fabric that should be woven of ships' cables and hawsers. A Polar wind blows through it, and birds of prey hover over it." So Melville wrote of his masterpiece, one of the greatest works of imagination in literary history. In part, 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. But more than just a novel of adventure, more than an encyclopaedia of whaling lore and legend, the book can be seen as part of its author's lifelong meditation on America.
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"Call me Ishmael." Thus starts the greatest American novel. Melville said himself that he wanted to write "a mighty book about a mighty theme" and so he did. It is a story of one man's obsessive revenge-journey against the white whale, Moby-Dick, who injured him in an earlier meeting. Woven into the story of the last journey of The Pequod is a mesh of philosophy, rumination, religion, history, and a mass of information about whaling through the ages.
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Excellent, EXCELLENT reading!
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Labeled variously a realistic story of whaling, a romance of unusual adventure and eccentric characters, a symbolic allegory, and a drama of heroic conflict, Moby Dick is first and foremost a great story. It has both the humor and poignancy of a simple sea ballad, as well as the depth and universality of a grand odyssey.
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I Had No Idea Melville Was So Funny
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Narra la travesía del barco ballenero Pequod, comandado por el capitán Ahab, junto a Ismael y el arponero Queequeg en la obsesiva y autodestructiva persecución de un gran cachalote blanco. Demonio del mar o símbolo de la belleza, Moby Dick es el personaje principal de una historia fascinante de aventuras, en las que se mezclan el bien y el mal.
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Over a century and a half after its publication, Moby Dick still stands as an indisputable literary classic. It 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.
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Not bad at all!
- By S. Barrett on 07-20-06
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Moby Dick
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- Length: 2 hrs and 46 mins
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Ishmael, the narrator, tells of the adventures of Captain Ahab in his relentless quest to seek revenge on the white whale that bit off his leg. Full of allegory and symbolism, Moby Dick is an epic tragedy of tremendous dramatic power and narrative drive. This large-scale adaptation, recorded in America, skilfully reproduces the unique mixture of adventure, myth, history, and philosophy in Melville's epic tale.
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excellent radio drama!
- By Jack Frasier on 05-22-18
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Moby-Dick Or, the Whale
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"It is the horrible texture of a fabric that should be woven of ships' cables and hawsers. A Polar wind blows through it, and birds of prey hover over it." So Melville wrote of his masterpiece, one of the greatest works of imagination in literary history. In part, 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. But more than just a novel of adventure, more than an encyclopaedia of whaling lore and legend, the book can be seen as part of its author's lifelong meditation on America.
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Moby Dick
- By: Herman Melville
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"Call me Ishmael." Thus starts the greatest American novel. Melville said himself that he wanted to write "a mighty book about a mighty theme" and so he did. It is a story of one man's obsessive revenge-journey against the white whale, Moby-Dick, who injured him in an earlier meeting. Woven into the story of the last journey of The Pequod is a mesh of philosophy, rumination, religion, history, and a mass of information about whaling through the ages.
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Excellent, EXCELLENT reading!
- By Jessica on 02-18-09
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- Unabridged
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Labeled variously a realistic story of whaling, a romance of unusual adventure and eccentric characters, a symbolic allegory, and a drama of heroic conflict, Moby Dick is first and foremost a great story. It has both the humor and poignancy of a simple sea ballad, as well as the depth and universality of a grand odyssey.
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I Had No Idea Melville Was So Funny
- By Dave on 05-09-12
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Narra la travesía del barco ballenero Pequod, comandado por el capitán Ahab, junto a Ismael y el arponero Queequeg en la obsesiva y autodestructiva persecución de un gran cachalote blanco. Demonio del mar o símbolo de la belleza, Moby Dick es el personaje principal de una historia fascinante de aventuras, en las que se mezclan el bien y el mal.
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Moby Dick
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Over a century and a half after its publication, Moby Dick still stands as an indisputable literary classic. It 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.
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Not bad at all!
- By S. Barrett on 07-20-06
By: Herman Melville
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Moby Dick
- (Classic Drama)
- By: Herman Melville
- Narrated by: F. Murray Abraham
- Length: 2 hrs and 46 mins
- Abridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Ishmael, the narrator, tells of the adventures of Captain Ahab in his relentless quest to seek revenge on the white whale that bit off his leg. Full of allegory and symbolism, Moby Dick is an epic tragedy of tremendous dramatic power and narrative drive. This large-scale adaptation, recorded in America, skilfully reproduces the unique mixture of adventure, myth, history, and philosophy in Melville's epic tale.
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excellent radio drama!
- By Jack Frasier on 05-22-18
By: Herman Melville
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Alison Larkin Presents: Moby Dick and Two Poems by Herman Melville
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- Length: 25 hrs and 9 mins
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Melville’s epic tale of one man versus a great white whale will delight Melville devotees as well as those who have yet to sail on this adventure in this mesmerizing new recording read by Jonathan Epstein. The mountain whose whale-like shape first gave Melville the idea of writing Moby Dick rests in the Berkshire Hills, Massachusetts, a short drive away from The Alison Larkin Presents recording studio. At the end of the recording, Larkin interviews Jonathan Epstein and recording engineer Galen Wade about the experience recording the great novel.
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Absolutely outstanding
- By Mary Katherine Worth on 03-05-21
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Moby Dick
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The outcast youth Ishmael, succumbing to wanderlust during a dreary New England autumn, signs up for passage aboard a whaling ship. The Pequod sails under the command of the one-legged Captain Ahab, who has set himself on a monomaniacal quest to capture the cunning white whale that robbed him of his leg: Moby-Dick. Capturing life on the sea with robust realism, Melville details the adventures of the colorful crew aboard the ship as Ahab pursues his crusade of revenge, heedless of all cost.
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Gripping despite the minutiae
- By Sarah C on 06-06-08
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Moby Dick (AmazonClassics Edition)
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Ignoring prophecies of doom, the seafarer Ishmael joins the crew of a whaling expedition that is an obsession for the ship's captain, Ahab. Once maimed by the White Whale, Moby Dick, Ahab has set out on a voyage of revenge. With godlike ferocity, he surges into dangerous waters - immune to the madness of his vision, refusing to be bested by the forces of nature.
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This is the one!
- By Anonymous User on 11-14-18
By: Herman Melville
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Moby Dick
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Ishmael, a sailor looking for his next adventure, and his friend who happens to be a former prince, sign up to join a whaling ship in Nantucket. The morning before they set sail on their voyage, many ominous signs of what the pair's fate may be are seen and heard through sermon and prophecy as the two friends ignore the warnings and make their way to the docks. Soon into the trip, the one-legged Captain Ahab announces that the whaling adventure is really a hunt for one very specific large, white sperm whale.
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Wow!
- By Bluestramp on 07-04-17
By: Herman Melville
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Moby Dick
- By: Herman Melville
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 25 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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On a previous voyage, a mysterious white whale had ripped off the leg of a sea captain named Ahab. Now the crew of the Pequod, on a pursuit that features constant adventure and horrendous mishaps, must follow the mad Ahab into the abyss to satisfy his unslakeable thirst for vengeance.
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A different but compelling reading
- By Tad Davis on 04-14-10
By: Herman Melville
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Moby Dick
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- By: Herman Melville
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- Length: 26 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Moby-Dick is widely considered to be the Great American Novel and a treasure of world literature. The story details the adventures of the wandering sailor Ishmael and his voyage on the whale ship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab. Ishmael soon learns that Ahab seeks one specific whale: Moby Dick, a ferocious, enigmatic white sperm whale. In a previous encounter, the whale destroyed Ahab's boat and bit off his leg. And Ahab intends to take revenge.
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Heed the advice
- By Agnes Crow on 08-17-14
By: Herman Melville
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Moby Dick
- By: Herman Melville
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- Unabridged
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Widely considered one of the great American novels, Herman Melville's masterpiece went largely unread during his lifetime and was out of print at the time of his death in 1891. Called the greatest book about the sea ever written by D.H. Lawrence, Moby Dick features detailed descriptions of whale hunting and whale oil extraction as well as beautiful, incisive writing on race, class, religion, art, and society.
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One of the best audiobooks ever made
- By John Mark P Foster on 02-05-19
By: Herman Melville
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Moby Dick (Dramatized)
- By: Herman Melville
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 1 hr and 55 mins
- Abridged
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A splash of the sea and the salt in the ocean air signals the beginning of the greatest whaling adventure of all time. This is literature's great voyage. The challenge of a man against the wonders of nature's ocean, of a man against his own weakness and strengths, and of a man against a demon, or perhaps his God, as he searches for his nemesis, the great white whale.
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A LIFELIKE DRAMATIZATION
- By Mary Burnight on 09-15-23
By: Herman Melville
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Why Read Moby-Dick?
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- Narrated by: Nathaniel Philbrick
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- Unabridged
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The New York Times best-selling author of seagoing epics now celebrates an American classic.Moby-Dick is perhaps the greatest of the Great American Novels, yet its length and esoteric subject matter create an aura of difficulty that too often keeps readers at bay. Fortunately, one unabashed fan wants passionately to give Melville's masterpiece the broad contemporary audience it deserves.
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A beautiful love letter to an amazing novel
- By Darwin8u on 10-20-12
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Moby Dick
- The Classic Tale
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Moby-Dick or The Whale is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship Pequod, for revenge on Moby Dick, the giant white sperm whale that on the ship's previous voyage bit off Ahab's leg at the knee. A contribution to the literature of the American Renaissance, the work's genre classifications range from late Romantic to early Symbolist. Its reputation as a "Great American Novel" was established only in the 20th century, after the centennial of its author's birth.
By: Herman Melville
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Moby Dick
- By: Herman Melville
- Narrated by: Bodo Primus
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- Abridged
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Wo ist Moby Dick, der gefährlichste aller Wale? Der einbeinige Kapitän Arab hat nur noch eines im Kopf: ihn zu töten. Über die Meere des Südens und des Nordens geht die abenteuerliche Jagd, bis Ahab und der weiße Wal aufeinander treffen. Wie wird der erbitterte Kampf enden?
By: Herman Melville
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Moby Dick
- By: Herman Melville
- Narrated by: Jeff Moon, Ron Altman, Marty Krz, and others
- Length: 23 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Moby Dick, which has been considered the great American novel, was first published in 1851. For material, Melville drew on his experience on whaling ships between 1841 and 1844, the sinking of the whaling vessel Essex in 1820, and extensive perusal of literature on whaling and many other subjects.
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A story I have read more than a dozen times and always find something new
- By Pandra Selivanov on 07-30-24
By: Herman Melville
What listeners say about Moby Dick: or the Whale
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- John Smith
- 03-10-12
Can't beat a well read classic for this price!
Where does Moby Dick: or the Whale rank among all the audiobooks you???ve listened to so far?
I had recently read Moby Dick in print form, then listened to this audio version. Don't know if I could have followed the story on the audio without having read it first... it would have required rapt attention. And an occasional pause to consult the dictionary! This was a very enjoyable listen... and drew me into the story quite powerfully!
What did you like best about this story?
After listening to Moby Dick, I felt like I could hunt, harpoon, skin, and boil down the oil from a whale! While some complain of Melville's excursions into the details of whaling ships, whaling life, and whales, I found it facinating!
Which character ??? as performed by Mark Nelson ??? was your favorite?
Ahab is revealed as a conflicted,
If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
The cost of revenge... to one and to many.
Any additional comments?
I can see why many consider this one of the best... if not the best... American novel. I know I will be visiting this novel again, and possibly soon.
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6 people found this helpful
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- carrieandcorgi
- 10-20-16
Moby Dick not
I had read Moby Dick in high school (I think). I have seen the movie. I had recently watched a documentary about the whaleship Essex. I love whales, particularly angry big white whales. So downloading Moby Dick was a no-brainer. Wow. What a strange, sublime, and confusing book! I felt like Melville had written the last three chapters, put them away for a few years, and then filled in the beginning so he had a novel. Only it's not really a novel. He wrote it prior to Darwins publishing origin of species in 1859. I wonder what kind of book Melville would have written if he had first read origin of species.
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- jon orourke
- 09-26-19
A Classic for a Reason
I have been meaning to read Herman Melville's Moby Dick for at least 50 years but never had the time or energy. I've had a beautiful, leather-bound copy on my bookshelf for at least the last 30 years, and I tried twice to read it, but each time I ran out of patience with the unfamiliar, difficult and convoluted mid-19th century language.
But now I'm fully retired and decided a month ago to finally "git-er-done" with an Amazon Audible version which I listened to ... some times actually reading along with my hard copy version. Herewith are some recommendations/points to consider before making the considerable investment of time and effort to "consuming" this true masterpiece.
#1 - Sample the various Amazon Audile versions before selecting the "performance" you buy; there are several audible versions, and I found substantial differences between each.. Choose the version that suites your tempo, style, etc. You'll be spending 25+ hours with the individual.
#2 - It's not at all just a tall sea farer's yarn. It is much, much more. First it includes quite a bit of technical information about a) the US whaling industry around 1840; b) the physical characteristics and behavior of whales in general and the Sperm Whale in particular; c) the physical characteristics of Nantucket whale ships that plied the seas around 1850; d) sailing in general [it helps to study up on technical vocabulary for the various parts of sail ships]; e) the actual processing of the whale carcass once caught and killed; etc.
By the end of the book you will have a greater appreciation for just how dangerous those sails were, how incredibly bloody and vicious the slaughter was. [Melville provides detailed information about how many millions of buffalo were slaughtered to edge of extinction at this time and contrasts the buffalo slaughter with the parallel attempt to slaughter the earth's entire whale population during the same period -- he opines that the immense difficulty in finding and killing whales saved the whales. Also the fortuitous discovery of fossil fuel oil underground in Pennsylvania in 1859. That effectively ended the demand for Sperm Whale oil as a source of energy. Appalling today to think that we humans slaughtered nearly the entire population of these great beasts just for oil for our lighting. [Also appalling to realize that Japan is still slaughtering whales for meat, though numbers have gone down as demand for whale mea in Jaan has decreased in recent decades.]
If you want to listen to or read Moby Dick I recommend that you alsoaccess the several on-line "annotated" versions which are easy to read. The annotations explain all technical terms. as well anachronistic English terms. Quite easy to follow. Moby Dick has 135 chapters [some very short], and in every chapter you will come across vocabulary, technical words, references to Greek, Egyptian mythology, etc. The annotated version provides background explanations that greatly enhance the readers appreciation of Melville's thoughts and ideas.
Melville is an intellectual heavy weight [Melville and Hawthorne were very close], and Moby Dick includes many very 'heavy' thoughts and soliloquys on the nature and origin of all existence, aethiism, animism, racism, economic inequality, unequal political power structures, the meaning of life, the utility or non-utility of religion, whether there is life after death, the need to preserve life all around the earth, truth, cultural differences [the 20 crew members are from every continent corner of the globe, and many different languages and cultures were represented on their ship, the Pequod. a Native American word]
Captain Ahab [named after a Biblical reference to an evil Israeli king who was the husband of evil Jezebel] is an Egyptian sailing master with 40 years of continuous sailing experience [he says in one soliloquy that only 3 of his 40 years as a sailor have been spent on land]. Although technically more than well-qualiifed and able to lead his crew of 20, he also suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Behavior. As the story unfolds, his obsession, mental stability and decision-making abilities gradually deteriorate into full-blown madness.
There are two narrators -- 1 -- Ishmael ["Call me Ismael" the young sailor who is the sole survivor and the principle narrator ... & who parallels Herman Melville's own extensive sailing experience, including those on whaling ships. 2 - There is also a third person narrator/author. In addition, there are several chapters that read like a screenplay for a Shakespeare play ... just dialogue between 2 or 3 people, or a single person soliloquy. Interesting author's technique. This is not a starightforward seafarer's tale/story. Much more complicated. Keeps you on your toes.
If you have Amazon Prime or Netflix I'd also recommend watching a few of the many film versions of Moby Dick. For me it was interesting to see how director's, producers and writers treated the novel, emphasizing different themes and aspects of the massive work. [Interesting back story: When first published, Moby Dick was a complete failure ... didn't sell or make a profit, even though Melville was already an established and serious novelist with several best sellers to his credit. For 70 years Moby Dick sat unread & unappreciated until Hollywood decided to make its first movie version -- starring John Barrymore. This first silent movie version of Moby Dick, though very distorted, revived interest in the novel. Then came the Gregory Peck version [Ray Badbury wrote the screenplay] which really increased interest in and demand for, and appreciation of the novel. I liked best the 2010 movie version with William Hurt as Ahab and Ethan Hawke as Starbuck. There are several other versions. I also found as useful background the documentary on the true story of the whaling ship "Essex" that was sunk by an attacking whale and on which Moby Dick was based. Amazon Prime also has a few documentary discussions of the novel by professors who have studied and teach courses on this immense novel. Interesting that Moby Dick lay completely ignored by the public for 70 years, and now they are teaching college courses on it today. Gives hope to unrecognized writers.
Not an easy read or study by any means, [much of it reads like poetry]. but it's well worth the effort if you have the time and inclination. :-jor
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- Eileen N. Wagner
- 03-08-15
Never gets old
Was this my 3rd or 4th reading? Each time was wildly better than the last.
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- Aristobulus
- 04-17-19
One of the greatest works of American fiction
Full of action, beautiful prose, and thoughtful philosophy, this book will long live in my mind and heart.
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- Josh
- 09-16-19
Very long and meandering
I want to love Classics. Honestly, I do. And I thought Moby Dick would be the one to cure me of my frustration at some other recent listens. But it really didn’t. I admit to have fazed out frequently in the 24 hour listen. The narrator was ok but his accents with the sailors was unimpressive. I would not recommend this audiobook.
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- James
- 11-17-23
The Great American Novel, brilliantly read.
Wonderful, lively narration of one of the funniest, most interesting books ever written. —a tapestry of adventure, natural history, philosophy, and more than you ever wanted to know about whales! This is America’s first great claim to literary excellence.
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- Craig
- 06-14-13
I Just Couldn't Read This Book!
What made the experience of listening to Moby Dick: or the Whale the most enjoyable?
I have tried to read this book in paper no fewer than 3 times and could never get past about 30 chapters because the language always slowed me down to a crawl. There is a lot of colloquialism in the writing. Listening to it was a joy, however. I never needed to worry about interpreting the language incorrectly or go back for context.
What other book might you compare Moby Dick: or the Whale to and why?
I've not read or listened to another book like MD. I guess that's why it's such a classic.
Any additional comments?
If you're a fan of any pop culture, Moby is a must-listen! You'll find yourself thinking, "Hey, I've heard that before," or, "so that's where that came from!" Thoroughly enjoyable.
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- rfi123158
- 04-02-17
outstanding
great book. well read. I am going to listen to it again as soon as I am done with this review :)
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- Wayne
- 05-21-12
Very accessible reading of classic novel
Would you listen to Moby Dick: or the Whale again? Why?
I would definitely want to listen to Moby Dick again. It is such a multi-layered and well-written novel.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Moby Dick: or the Whale?
Of course, the novel revolves around the events leading up to and including the encounter with Moby Dick. Those events provide the most memorable moments of the novel.
What about Mark Nelson’s performance did you like?
Mark Nelson's understated performance is very appropriate to the whalemen depicted in the novel. His use of various voices for the different characters is never overly theatrical.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Due to the length and depth of this novel it is best to read it a few chapters at a time. Its relatively short chapters make this book very much suited to the audio format.
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