Moby-Dick

Book summary

Ishmael, a sailor with no ties on land, signs on at Nantucket aboard the Pequod, a whaler under Captain Ahab. Maimed years earlier by a white sperm whale, Ahab has turned the hunt into an obsession to which he bends his whole crew. The ship works its way down the oceans, between whale hunts, forecastle stories and omens no one dares name. The novel explores obsession, the indifference of nature and the border between knowledge and excess. Melville weaves an adventure narrative, a scholarly enquiry into whales and a metaphysical meditation.