Call me Ishmael. I have set sail on a whaling ship to try my hand at whaling. But our captain has his own prey. We have been traveling the seas looking for the white whale, Moby Dick, who causes destruction wherever he swims. Will we survive a battle with the great whale? Find out in this stunning graphic novel adaptation of Herman Melville's classic by Rod Espinosa. Creator biographies and a glossary help reluctant readers take the first step on the road to classic literature.
This is a thrilling story of a white whale, called Moby Dick. In this enthralling novel, the ship captain (Ahab) tries to kill Moby Dick. Ultimately, Ahab is killed by Moby Dick on the high seas. Only one person of his crew is left alive to tell about the story of this conflict. In fact, Melville wants to state that if we give 'space' to others,they will also give 'space' to us. The original flavor of these classics has been carefully retained in these abridged versions.
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (1851) is a novel by Herman Melville considered an outstanding work of Romanticism and the American Renaissance. Ishmael narrates the monomaniacal quest of Ahab, captain of the whaler Pequod, for revenge on Moby Dick, a white whale which on a previous voyage destroyed Ahab's ship and severed his leg at the knee. Although the novel was a commercial failure and out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891, its reputation as a Great American Novel grew during the twentieth century. William Faulkner confessed he wished he had written it himself, and D. H. Lawrence called it "one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world", and "the greatest book of the sea ever written". "Call me Ishmael" is one of world literature's most famous opening sentences.The product of a year and a half of writing, the book is dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne, "in token of my admiration for his genius", and draws on Melville's experience at sea, on his reading in whaling literature, and on literary inspirations such as Shakespeare and the Bible. The detailed and realistic descriptions of whale hunting and of extracting whale oil, as well as life aboard ship among a culturally diverse crew, are mixed with exploration of class and social status, good and evil, and the existence of God. In addition to narrative prose, Melville uses styles and literary devices ranging from songs, poetry and catalogs to Shakespearean stage directions, soliloquies and asides.The work was first published as The Whale in London in October 1851 and then under its definitive title Moby-Dick in New York in November. There were hundreds of slight but important differences between the two editions. The London publisher censored or changed sensitive passages and Melville made revisions as well, including the last-minute change in the title for the New York edition. The whale, however, appears in both editions as "Moby Dick", with no hyphen.
Moby Dick, the great American novel, sadly goes unread by many because the original version is a very difficult read. Surviving the ordeal is often considered more noteworthy than discussing the story itself. "I finished Moby Dick," is said in tones usually reserved for oxygen-deprived mountain peaks, or famous last words. Is it any wonder that willing, serious readers abandon it?Now Melville's superb storytelling genius, at the heart of Moby Dick, is carefully preserved in William Pocock's newly abridged edition. Gone are the frustrating diversions, opaque musings, and endless trips to the dictionary of archaic polysyllabic terms.This wonderful, exciting, humorous, and often profound adventure story is no longer buried under an avalanche of words. With this edition, you'll enjoy with ease and pleasure Melville's full epic adventure. Discover why Captain Ahab's relentless hunt for Moby Dick is one of the greatest tales ever told.
Now the classic novel by Herman Melville is an illustrated storybook perfect for kids! Kid Classics: Moby Dick is full of adventure and excitement! Herman Melville was a sailor before he was a famous author, and he pulled from his seafaring experience when he wrote Moby Dick; Or, the Whale in 1851. Now, here is the fun new just-for-kids version of Herman Melville’s classic Moby Dick, abridged and retold while remaining true to Melville’s original text. It’s a story that you can’t put down: The sailor Ishmael tells the tale of whaling ship Captain Ahab’s obsessive quest to get revenge on Moby Dick, the legendary giant white sperm whale who bit off his leg! With page after page of captivating illustrations, this magical hardcover will be the fought over favorite in your home and schoolroom! Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet. He also worked as a schoolteacher, clerk, and sailor, and his writing was not well known at the time of his death; however, in years since Moby Dick has become known as one of the greatest novels of all time.
It was an obsession that would destroy them all. On a cold December night, a young man called Ishmael rents a room at an inn in Massachusetts. He has come from Manhattan to the north-east of America to sign up for a whaling expedition. Later that same night, as Ishmael is sleeping, a heavily tattooed man wielding a blade enters his room. This chance meeting is just the start of what will become the greatest adventure of his life. The next day, Ishmael joins the crew of a ship known as the Pequod. He is approached by a man dressed in rags who warns him that, if he sails under the command of Captain Ahab, he may never come back. Undaunted, Ishmael returns early the next morning and leaves for the high seas. For the crew of the Pequod, their voyage is one of monetary gain. For Captain Ahab, however, it is a mission driven by hatred, revenge, and his growing obsession with the greatest creature of the sea.
500 pages, 150+ illustrations 71⁄2 × 91⁄4 in. 19.05 × 23.495 cm. Hat & Beard Press is celebrating Herman Melville's 200th birthday with a full-color edition of Moby-Dick, illustrated by the rediscovered art of Gilbert Wilson. Film director John Huston declared him "a brilliant artist and one of America's foremost painters." Pearl S. Buck sponsored an exhibition of his work in New York, and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wrote about his work in her newspaper column. Yet, for most of his life, artist Gilbert Brown Wilson (1907-1991) lived in relative obscurity, despite a critical splash in the 1930s. He sacrificed financial security for artistic freedom. An acolyte of Diego Rivera and an assistant to Rockwell Kent, Wilson became recognized for his gargantuan murals at Indiana State University and Antioch College, and for the controversy sparked by his "social realist" style. But Moby-Dick became Wilson's lifetime obsession, for which he produced more than 200 paintings and drawings, and helped inspire Huston's 1956 film adaptation starring Gregory Peck and Orson Welles. This large, coffee-table book will showcase never-before-published artwork, notes, and meditations on the novel--drawing from unprecedented access to Wilson's estate. The book will also provide a platform for the international art community to reassess and rediscover this remarkable man and his work. The edition pays homage to Melville's original text, while breathing new life into the story via Wilson's vibrant, timeless artwork. Critics have called Moby-Dick "the most ambitious book ever conceived by an American writer"--and Wilson's version will be the most ambitious illustrated edition of that book. Edited by Robert K. Elder Images courtesy of the Swope Art Museum.
The Pearson Education Library Collection offers you over 1200 fiction, nonfiction, classic, adapted classic, illustrated classic, short stories, biographies, special anthologies, atlases, visual dictionaries, history trade, animal, sports titles and more
Our intrepid narrator, a former schoolteacher famously "called" Ishmael-is that actually his name?- signs up as sailor on a whaling voyage to cure a bout of depression/being a misanthropic dirtbag. On his way to find a ship in Nantucket, he meets Queequeg, a heavily tattooed South Sea Island harpooneer just returned from his latest whaling trip. Ishmael and Queequeg become best buds and roommates almost immediately. Together, they sign up for a voyage on the Pequod, which is just about to start on a three-year expedition to hunt sperm whales.On board the Pequod, Ishmael meets the mates-honest Starbuck, jolly Stubb, and fierce Flask-and the other harpooneers, Tashtego and Daggoo. The ship's commander, Captain Ahab, remains secluded in his cabin and never shows himself to the crew. Uh, that's ominous. Oh well. The mates organize the beginning of the voyage as though there were no captain.Just when Ishmael's curiosity about Ahab has reached a fever pitch, Ahab starts appearing on deck-and we find out that he's missing one leg. When Starbuck asks if it was Moby Dick, the famous White Whale, that took off his leg, Ahab admits that it was and forces the entire crew to swear that they will help him hunt Moby Dick to the ends of the earth and take revenge for his injury. They all swear.After this strange incident, things settle into a routine on board the good ship Pequod. While they're always on the lookout for Moby Dick, the crew has a job to do: hunting sperm whales, butchering them, and harvesting the sperm oil that they store in huge barrels in the hold.Ishmael takes advantage of this lull in plot advancement to give the reader lots (lots) of contemporary background information about whale biology, the whaling industry, and sea voyages. The Pequod encounters other ships, which tell them the latest news about the White Whale. Oh yeah, and everyone discovers that Ahab has secretly smuggled an extra boat crew on board (led by a mysterious, demonic harpooneer named Fedallah) to help Ahab do battle with Moby Dick once they do find him.Over the course of more than a year, the ship travels across the Atlantic, around the southern tip of Africa, through the Indian Ocean, among the islands of southeast Asia, into the Sea of Japan, and finally to the equator in the Pacific Ocean: Moby Dick's home turf.Despite first mate Starbuck's misgivings and a variety of bad omens (all the navigational instruments break, a typhoon tries to push the ship backwards, and the Pequod encounters other ships that have lost crewmembers to Moby Dick's wrath), Ahab insists on continuing to pursue his single-minded revenge quest. In a parody of the Christian ceremony of baptism, he goes so far as to dip his specially forged harpoon in human blood-just so that he'll have the perfect weapon with which to kill Moby Dick.Finally, just when we think the novel's going to end without ever seeing this famous White Whale, Ahab sights him and the chase is on. For three days, Ahab pursues Moby Dick, sending whaling boat after whaling boat after him-only to see each one wrecked by the indomitable whale. Finally, at the end of the third day, the White Whale attacks the ship itself, and the Pequod goes down with all hands.Even while his ship is sinking, Ahab, in his whaling boat, throws his harpoon at Moby Dick one last time. He misses, catching himself around the neck with the rope and causing his own drowning/strangling death.The only survivor of the destruction is Ishmael, who lives to tell the tale because he's clinging to the coffin built for his pal Queequeg when the harpooneer seemed likely to die of a fever.
