Moby-Dick

Melville's epic of Ahab's monomaniacal hunt for the white whale, mixing adventure, tragedy, and the encyclopedia of whaling.

Specifications & Metrics

author

Herman Melville

type

Epic novel / romance

era

American Renaissance (1851)

language

English

setting

Aboard the Pequod, Atlantic and Pacific oceans

parts

2 volumes

Relative Scale in Novels

Core Principles & Analysis

• Dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose friendship reshaped the book mid-draft.
• The sinking of the whaleship Essex in 1820 supplied the plot's real-world anchor.
• 'Call me Ishmael' opens one of the most famous first sentences in fiction.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Moby-Dick