Moby Dick (Wordsworth Classics), Paperback Book, By: Herman Melville

With an introduction and notes by david herd, lecturer in english and american literature at the university of kent at canterbury and co-editor of 'poetry review'. Moby dick is the story of captain ahab's quest to avenge the whale that 'reaped' his leg. The quest is an obsession and the novel is a diabolical study of how a man becomes a fanatic. But it is also a hymn to democracy. Bent as the crew is on ahab's appalling crusade, it is equally the image of a co-operative community at work: all hands dependent on all hands, each individual responsible for the security of each. Among the crew is ishmael, the novel's narrator, ordinary sailor, and extraordinary reader. Digressive, allusive, vulgar, transcendent, the story ishmael tells is above all an education: In the practice of whaling, in the art of writing. Expanding to equal his 'mighty theme' - not only the whale but all things sublime - melville breathes in the world's great literature. Moby dick is the greatest novel ever written by an american. About herman melville Herman melville (1819-91) stammte aus einer verarmten new yorker familie. Er ging früh zur see und verdingte sich als matrose, unter anderem auch auf walfängern. Seine reisen führten ihn bis in die südsee. 1844 kehrte er in die usa zurück, lebte als freier schriftsteller und war von 1866-85 als zollinspektor in new york tätig. Der romancier und autor von kurzgeschichten und lyrik gilt als einer der bedeutendsten amerikanischen schriftsteller. Sein meisterwerk 'moby dick' zählt zu den klassikern der weltliteratur.