Moby Dick
by Herman Melville · first published 1851
26% recommend64% neutral10% critical
Why HN recommends it
Richly written whaling novel valued for its phrasemaking, humorous digressions, and a vast, indifferent universe as antagonist; also a window into 19th-century whaling. Rewards patient readers and rereaders.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"Command the murderous chalices! Drink ye harpooners! Drink and swear, ye men that man the deathful whaleboat's bow -- Death to Moby Dick!" So Captain Ahab binds his crew to fulfil his obsession -- the destruction of the great white whale. Under his lordly but maniacal command the Pequod's commercial mission is perverted to one of vengeance. To Ahab, the monster that destroyed his body is not a creature, but the symbol of "some unknown but still reasoning thing." Uncowed by natural disasters, ill omens, even death, Ahab urges his ship towards "the undeliverable, nameless perils of the whale."
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Moby Dick Finally got around to reading it, I was amazed at how modern it felt for a book written in 1850.
on “Ask HN: Read any good books lately?” ↗…feller, is treatin’ people as things. - If On A Winter’s Night, A Traveler: a perfect joke that you can tell once, plus a love story. - Good Omens: Gaiman and Pratchett team up, what’s not to love? - Moby Dick: And so the universal thump is passed round, and all hands should rub each other’s shoulder-blades, and be content. - Lucky Jim: grad school, a survival guide. Come in on the fa la la las, there’s a…
on “Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?” ↗Maybe I'm a few years too late but I highly recommend reading Moby Dick. The shear amount of information in the book in parallel to the story makes believe Melville had access to Wikipedia in the 1800s.
on “The Art of Whaling: Illustrations from the Logbooks of Nantucket Whaleships” ↗…sounding like a pretentious asshole, over the past few years I've been reading the classics I was forced to in high school and college and hated at the time, along with many "new" ones. Now books like Moby Dick, The Brothers Karamosov, and even Pride and Prejudice are oddly just as entertaining as the works of Koonts, King, etc. This might simply be because I love fiction but hardly ever read it anymore. Or…
on “Choose your reading carefully” ↗If you're looking to read Melville without tackling the lengthy Moby-Dick, I highly recommend the short story Benito Cereno: http://www.esp.org/books/melville/piazza/contents/cereno.htm... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Cereno
on “What Happened to the Book Herman Melville Wrote After ‘Moby-Dick’?” ↗If you ever get a chance to read Moby Dick, you will both a) read one of the greatest works of American literature and b) learn more about the biology and behavior of whales and the 19th-century whaling industry than you can possibly imagine.…
on “A New species of whale has been discovered off the western coast of Mexico” ↗Right now, Charlie Stross Wireless, a short story collection. However, what I'm going to read very shortly will be Moby-Dick for the third time; my daughter just read it in her high school English class and it became clear to me that it's time to read it again. Good Lord, that man could turn a phrase.
on “Ask HN: What are you reading right now?” ↗…so hard to recommend something without a frame of reference. Personally, I've found myself re-reading The Lord of the Rings lately. But, if I had to pick one book that was my favourite, I might say Moby Dick. (I'll admit that I actually read it first after seeing the Wrath of Khan as a kid)
on “Ask HN: What is the best fiction book you've ever read? ” ↗Crazy to Grasp: - Hermann Hesse - The Glass Bead Game - Hofstädter - Gödel, Escher, Bach - Bulgakov - Master and Margherita - Melville - Moby Dick - Joyce - Ulysses - Everything by Baudrillard (esp. 'Agony of Power') - Everything by William Burroughs (The ticket that exploded, Place of dead roads, Discipline of DE) Not that crazy to grasp, but…
on “Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?” ↗Infinite Jest Ulysses The Selfish Gene The Histories of Herodotus Moby-Dick Gödel, Escher, Bach
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books?” ↗in no particular order: Lord of the Rings Cryptonomicon Anathem Moby Dick The Master and Margarita Walden Arabian Sands Gawain and the Green Knight Beowulf
on “Ask HN: What books have most influenced the way you see the world?” ↗Moby Dick I'm halfway through it. I'd held off on reading it for years just due to its reputation but I'm finding it incredibly enjoyable, humorous, and in many ways not at all what I was expecting.
on “Ask HN: Which books do you wish you'd read earlier in life?” ↗I think a lot of people overestimate Moby Dick. It's actually a pretty funny book in many places. There's a fart joke in the first 3 pages! Still, melville had a lot to say about human nature, abolitionism, philosophy, xenophobia... name a pressing…
on “Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?” ↗But also other things. At the time I was digging tatters with my grandad, I was also reading with him a cartoon adaption of Melville's great book "Moby Dick", and from that point on digging up tatters was interspersed with cries of "Thar she blows!" and "Tis the great white whale!" as the tatters came to the surface. You don't get this stuff with lettuce.
on “How to Prepare for a Recession” ↗Okay. At the risk of giving something away, it's definitely worth reading Moby Dick. I've tried to read some "old" "classics" in the past few years, and truth be told a lot of them can fall flat, feeling not only from but also stuck in a different era. Moby Dick is something I think…
on “Utopia Clicker” ↗