Year of writing:

1851

Reading time:

Description of the work:

The cult novel "Moby Dick, or the White Whale" is the main work of the American writer Herman Melville. The novel is quite voluminous, has many lyrical digressions, and besides, it is imbued with some biblical images and is distinguished by multi-layered symbolism. Unfortunately, at the time of the release of the novel, contemporaries did not appreciate it, and only in the 1920s "Moby Dick" was rethought and accepted.

"Moby Dick" had a huge impact not only on American, but also on the world of classical literature.

We bring to your attention a summary of the novel "Moby Dick, or the White Whale".

A young American with the biblical name Ishmael (in the book of Genesis it is said about Ishmael, the son of Abraham: “He will be among people like a wild donkey, his hands on everyone and everyone’s hands on him”), bored with being on land and having difficulty in money, accepts decision to go sailing on a whaling ship. In the first half of the XIX century. the oldest American whaling port of Nantucket is far from the largest center of this trade, but Ishmael considers it important for himself to hire a ship in Nantucket. Stopping on the way there in another port city, where it is not unusual to meet a savage on the street, who joined the team of a whaler who visited there on unknown islands, where you can see a buffet counter made from a huge whale jaw, where even a preacher in a church climbs a rope ladder to the pulpit - Ishmael listens to a passionate sermon about the prophet Jonah absorbed by Leviathan, who tried to avoid the path assigned to him by God, and gets acquainted in the hotel with the native harpooner Queequeg. They become bosom friends and decide to join the ship together.

In Nantucket, they are hired by the whaler Pequod, who is preparing to go on a three-year circumnavigation of the world. Here Ishmael learns that Captain Ahab (Ahab in the Bible is the wicked king of Israel, who established the cult of Baal and persecuted the prophets), under whose command he will go to sea, on his last voyage, in single combat with a whale, lost his leg and has not left since then out of gloomy melancholy, and on the ship, on the way home, he even spent some time out of his mind. But neither this news, nor other strange events that make one think about some kind of secret connected with the Pequod and its captain, Ishmael still does not attach any importance. He meets a stranger on the pier, who embarked on obscure, but formidable prophecies about the fate of the whaler and all enlisted in his team, he takes for a madman or a swindler-beggar. And the dark human figures, at night, secretly, climbed onto the Pequod and then seemed to dissolve on the ship, Ishmael is ready to consider the fruit of his own imagination.

Only a few days after sailing from Nantucket, Captain Ahab leaves his cabin and appears on deck. Ishmael is struck by his gloomy appearance and the inescapable inner pain imprinted on his face. Holes were pre-drilled in the deck boards so that Ahab could, by strengthening in them a bone leg made from the polished jaw of a sperm whale, maintain balance during pitching. Watchers on the masts were ordered to look especially vigilantly for the white whale in the sea. The captain is painfully closed, demands unquestioning and immediate obedience even more rigidly than usual, and sharply refuses to explain his own speeches and actions even to his assistants, in whom they often cause bewilderment. “The soul of Ahab,” says Ishmael, “during the harsh blizzard winter of his old age, hid in the hollow trunk of his body and sucked there sullenly the paw of darkness.”

For the first time, Ishmael, who went to sea on a whaler, observes the features of a fishing vessel, work and life on it. The short chapters that make up the entire book contain descriptions of tools, techniques and rules for hunting sperm whales and extracting spermaceti from his head. Other chapters, "whale studies" - from the set of references to whales in various kinds of literature prefaced by the book to detailed reviews of the whale's tail, fountain, skeleton, and finally, whales made of bronze and stone, even whales among the stars - throughout the novel complement the narrative and merge with it, giving events a new, metaphysical dimension.

One day, on the orders of Ahab, the Pequod team gathers. A golden Ecuadorian doubloon is nailed to the mast. It is intended for those who first notice the albino whale, famous among whalers and nicknamed by them Moby Dick. This sperm whale, terrifying with its size and ferocity, whiteness and unusual cunning, wears in its skin a lot of harpoons once aimed at it, but in all fights with a person it remains the winner, and the crushing rebuff that people received from it taught many to think, that the hunt for him threatens terrible disasters. It was Moby Dick who cut off Ahab's leg when the captain, finding himself at the end of the chase among the wreckage of whaleboats smashed by a whale, in a fit of blind hatred rushed at him with only a knife in his hand. Now Ahab announces that he intends to pursue this whale throughout the seas of both hemispheres, until the white carcass sways in the waves and releases its last, black blood, fountain. In vain, Starbuck's first assistant, a strict Quaker, objects to him that it is madness and blasphemy to take revenge on a creature devoid of reason, which strikes only by blind instinct. In everything, Ahab replies, the unknown features of some rational principle peep through a meaningless mask; and if you must strike - strike through this mask! The white whale obsessively swims before his eyes as the embodiment of all evil. With delight and rage, deceiving their own fear, the sailors join in his curses on Moby Dick. Three harpooners, having filled the inverted tips of their harpoons with rum, drink to the death of a white whale. And only the ship's cabin boy, the little Negro Pip, prays to God for salvation from these people.

When the Pequod first encounters sperm whales and the whaleboats are preparing to launch, five dark-faced ghosts suddenly appear among the sailors. This is the whaleboat team of Ahab himself, people from some islands in South Asia. Since the owners of the Pequod, believing that during the hunt from a one-legged captain could no longer be of any use, did not provide rowers for his own boat, he led them to the ship secretly and still hid in the hold. Their leader is an ominous middle-aged Parsi Fedalla.

Although any delay in finding Moby Dick is painful for Ahab, he cannot completely give up on whale hunting. Rounding the Cape of Good Hope and crossing the Indian Ocean, the Pequod hunts and fills barrels with spermaceti. But the first thing Ahab asks when meeting with other ships is whether they have seen a white whale. And the answer is often a story about how, thanks to Moby Dick, someone from the team died or was mutilated. Even in the middle of the ocean, one cannot do without prophecies: a half-mad sectarian sailor from an epidemic-stricken ship conjures to be afraid of the fate of the blasphemers who dared to fight against the embodiment of God's wrath. Finally, the Pequod meets with an English whaler, whose captain, having harpooned Moby Dick, received a deep wound and as a result lost his arm. Ahab hurries to board it and talk to a man whose fate is so similar to his. The Englishman does not even think about taking revenge on the sperm whale, but reports the direction in which the white whale left. Again Starbuck tries to stop his captain - and again in vain. By order of Ahab, the ship's blacksmith forges a harpoon of extra hard steel, for the hardening of which three harpooners donate their blood. The Pequod enters the Pacific Ocean.

Ishmael's friend, the harpooner Queequeg, having become seriously ill from working in a damp hold, feels the approach of death and asks the carpenter to make him an unsinkable coffin-boat in which he could set off on the waves to the star archipelagos. And when suddenly his condition changes for the better, it was decided to caulk and tar the coffin, which was no longer needed, in order to turn it into a large float - a life buoy. The new buoy, as expected, is suspended at the stern of the Pequod, surprising a lot with its characteristic shape of the team of oncoming ships.

At night, in a whaleboat, near a dead whale, Fedalla announces to the captain that neither a coffin nor a hearse is destined for this voyage, but Ahab must see two hearses at sea before dying: one built by inhuman hands, and the second, from wood, grown in America; that only hemp could kill Ahab, and even in this last hour, Fedalla himself would go ahead of him as a pilot. The captain does not believe: what does hemp, rope have to do with it? He is too old, he can no longer go to the gallows.

More and more clear signs of approaching Moby Dick. In a fierce storm, the fire of St. Elmo flares up on the tip of a harpoon forged for a white whale. That same night, Starbuck, confident that Ahab is leading the ship to inevitable death, stands at the door of the captain's cabin with a musket in his hands and yet does not commit the murder, preferring to submit to fate. The storm remagnetizes the compasses, now they direct the ship away from these waters, but Ahab, who noticed this in time, makes new arrows from sail needles. The sailor breaks off the mast and disappears into the waves. The Pequod encounters the Rachel, who had been chasing Moby Dick just the day before. The captain of the Rachel begs Ahab to join the search for a whaleboat lost during yesterday's hunt, in which his twelve-year-old son was also, but receives a sharp refusal. From now on, Ahab himself climbs the mast: he is pulled up in a basket woven from cables. But as soon as he is at the top, a sea hawk rips off his hat and takes him to the sea. Again the ship - and the sailors killed by the white whale are also buried on it.

The golden doubloon is faithful to its owner: a white hump emerges from the water in front of the captain himself. The chase lasts for three days, three times the whaleboats approach the whale. After biting Ahab's whaleboat in two, Moby Dick circles around the captain thrown aside, preventing other boats from coming to his aid, until the approaching Pequod pushes the sperm whale away from its victim. As soon as he was in the boat, Ahab again demands his harpoon - the whale, however, is already swimming away, and he has to return to the ship. It's getting dark, and on the Pequod they lose sight of the whale. All night the whaler follows Moby Dick and at dawn overtakes again. But, having tangled the line from the harpoons pierced into it, the whale smashes two whaleboats against each other, and attacks Ahab's boat, diving and hitting the bottom from under the water. The ship picks up people in distress, and in the confusion it is not immediately noticed that there is no Parsi among them. Remembering his promise, Ahab cannot hide his fear, but continues the pursuit. Everything that happens here is predetermined, he says.

On the third day, the boats, surrounded by a flock of sharks, again rush to the fountain seen on the horizon, a sea hawk reappears above the Pequod - now it carries the torn ship pennant in its claws; a sailor was sent to the mast to replace him. Enraged by the pain caused to him by the wounds received the day before, the whale immediately rushes to the whaleboats, and only the captain's boat, among the rowers of which Ishmael is now, remains afloat. And when the boat turns sideways, the torn corpse of Fedalla appears to the rowers, fastened to the back of Moby Dick with loops of a line wrapped around a giant torso. This is the first hearse. Moby Dick is not looking for a meeting with Ahab, still trying to leave, but the captain's whaleboat is not far behind. Then, turning towards the Pequod, which had already raised people out of the water, and having unraveled the source of all its persecution in it, the sperm whale rams the ship. Having received a hole, the Pequod begins to sink, and Ahab, watching from the boat, realizes that in front of him is the second hearse. No longer be saved. He directs the last harpoon at the whale. The stump line, whipping up in a loop from the sharp jerk of the downed whale, wraps around Ahab and carries him into the abyss. The whaleboat with all the rowers falls into a huge funnel on the site of an already sunken ship, in which everything that was once the Pequod is hidden to the last chip. But when the waves are already closing over the head of the sailor standing on the mast, his hand rises and nevertheless strengthens the flag. And this is the last thing you can see above the water.

Having fallen out of the whaleboat and remaining behind the stern, Ishmael is also dragged to the funnel, but when he reaches it, it already turns into a smooth foam pool, from the depths of which a rescue buoy - a coffin - unexpectedly breaks out to the surface. On this coffin, untouched by sharks, Ishmael stays on the high seas for a day until a strange ship picks him up: it was the inconsolable Rachel, who, wandering in search of her missing children, found only one more orphan.

"And I alone escaped to tell you..."

You have read the summary of the novel "Moby Dick, or the White Whale". We suggest you go to the section "Summaries" to read other statements by popular writers.

Moby-Dick, or The Whale, 1851 is Herman Melville's magnum opus, the ultimate work of American Romantic literature. A long novel with numerous lyrical digressions, imbued with biblical imagery and multi-layered symbolism, was not understood and accepted by contemporaries. The rediscovery of Moby Dick happened in the 1920s.

The story is told on behalf of the American sailor Ishmael, who went on a voyage on the whaling ship Pequod, whose captain, Ahab, is obsessed with the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bvengeance on the giant white whale, the whaler killer known as Moby Dick (on a previous voyage, he bit off Ahab's leg, and since then the captain uses a prosthesis.)

American novel

"Moby Dick" is perhaps the first in the bust.

Speaking about the great American novel of the 19th century, the literary critic Belousov notes that HE looked like a snow-white cross against the sky. According to the Sakhalin.ru website, OH is directed forward and to the left from the end of the head at an angle of 45 degrees. Name it in two words.

Answer: Fountain of the sperm whale.

Credit: Whale fountain.

Comment: The great American novel is Moby Dick. Whale fishing is developed on Sakhalin.

Source: 1. R. Belousov. Secrets of great books - M.: Ripol Classic, 2004.
2. http://www.sakhalin.ru/boomerang/sea/kit%20zub10.htm

A book about something big

Quote: "In order to create a great book, you need to choose a great topic." End of quote. With the title character of the quoted book, Christopher Buckley compared a chic limousine. Name this book.

Answer:"Moby Dick, or the White Whale".

Credit:"Moby Dick".

Comment: The limousine is big and white.

Source: 1. Melville G. Moby Dick, or the White Whale. - St. Petersburg: ABC classics, 2005.
- S. 561.
2. Buckley K.T. They smoke here. - M.: Foreigner: B.G.S.-PRESS, 2003. - S.
263.

Just a book about whales

Handing out text:

In Danish "hvalt" means arched, vaulted.

What novel is this quote from?

Answer:"Moby Dick, or the White Whale".

Credit:"Moby Dick".

Comment: One of the possible versions of the origin of the English word "whale".

Source: G. Melville. Moby Dick or White Whale
(http://www.flibusta.net/b/166245/read).

Something terrible in the sea, sea killer

Operating in the Pacific Ocean, Moha X killed more than thirty people in twenty years, until it died in 1859. What proper name did we replace with X?

Answer: Dick.

Comment: The white whale, nicknamed Moha Dick, is the prototype of Moby Dick.

Source: Belousov R. The Mystery of Hippocrene. - M.: Soviet Russia, 1978. - S. 172,
183.

In one American film, a student at a lecture on American literature claims that the author of this literary work, written in the middle of the century before last, is a plagiarist, and that he stole the idea from Steven Spielberg himself. What literary work are you talking about?

Answer:"Moby Dick".

Today we will consider the most famous arbitrariness of the American writer Herman Melville, or rather its summary. "Moby Dick, or the White Whale" is a novel based on real events. It was written in 19651.

About the book

"Moby Dick, or the White Whale" (we will present a summary below) became the main work of G. Melville, a representative of American romanticism. This novel is replete with numerous lyrical arguments, has references to biblical stories, and is replete with symbols. Perhaps that is why he was not accepted by his contemporaries. Neither critics nor readers understood the full depth of the work. Only in the 20s of the 20th century, the novel seemed to be rediscovered, paying tribute to the author's talent.

History of creation

The plot of the novel was based on real events, which can be confirmed by a brief retelling. Herman Melville ("Moby Dick" became the pinnacle of his work) took the case of the Essex ship as the basis for the work. This ship went fishing in 1819 in Massachusetts. For a whole year and a half, the crew was engaged in whale hunting, until one day a huge sperm whale put an end to this. On November 20, 1820, the ship was rammed several times by a whale.

After the shipwreck, 20 sailors survived, who managed to get on boats to Henderson Island, which was uninhabited in those years. After some time, some of the survivors went to look for the mainland, the rest remained on the island. Travelers for 95 days wandered at sea. Only two survived - the captain and another sailor. They were picked up by a whaling ship. They were the ones who told what happened to them.

In addition, the personal experience of Melville, who sailed on a whaling ship for a year and a half, also got into the pages of the novel. Many of his then acquaintances turned out to be the heroes of the novel. So, one of the co-owners of the ship appears in the work under the name of Bildad.

Summary: "Moby Dick, or the White Whale" (Melville)

The main character is a young man Ishmael. He is experiencing severe financial problems, and life on land gradually begins to bother him. Therefore, he decides to go on a whaling ship, where you can earn good money, and it’s impossible to get bored at sea at all.

Nantucket is the oldest American port city. However, by the beginning of the 19th century, it ceased to be the largest fishing center, it was replaced by younger ones. However, it is important for Ishmael to hire a ship here.

On the way to Nantucket, Ishmael stops at another port town. Here you can meet savages on the streets who have landed on ships on some unknown island. Buffet counters are made from huge whale jaws. And the preachers in the churches climb up on the pulpit.

At the inn, the young man meets Queequeg, a native harpooner. Very quickly they become good friends, so they decide to enter the ship together.

"Pequod"

Still only at the very beginning of our summary. "Moby Dick, or the White Whale" is a novel that begins in the port city of Nantucket, where Ishmael and his new friend are hired on the Pequod. The whaler is preparing for a round-the-world voyage that will last 3 years.

Ishmael becomes aware of the history of the captain of the ship. Ahab on the last voyage, having entered the fight with a whale, lost his leg. After this event, he became melancholic and sullen and spends most of his time in his cabin. And on the way from the voyage, as the sailors say, he was even out of his mind for a while.

However, Ishmael did not attach much importance to this and some other strange events associated with the ship. Having met a suspicious stranger on the pier, who began to predict the death of the Pequod and its entire crew, the young man decided that this was just a beggar and a swindler. And the obscure dark figures that boarded the ship at night, and then seemed to dissolve on it, he considered simply the fruit of his fantasies.

Captain

The oddities associated with the captain and his ship are also confirmed by the summary. "Moby Dick" continues with Ahab leaving his cabin only a few days after the start of the voyage. Ishmael saw him and was struck by the gloominess of the captain and the seal of incredible inner pain on his face.

Especially so that the one-legged captain could maintain balance during a strong pitching, small holes were cut in the deck boards, into which he placed his artificial leg, made from the jaw of a sperm whale.

The captain gives the order to the sailors to look out for the white whale. Ahab does not communicate with anyone, he is closed and requires from the team only unquestioning obedience and instant execution of his orders. Many of these commands cause confusion among subordinates, but the captain refuses to explain anything. Ishmael understands that some dark secret lurks in the gloomy thoughtfulness of the captain.

First time at sea

"Moby Dick" is a book, a brief summary of which tells about the sensations experienced by a person who first went to sea. Ishmael closely observes life on a whaling ship. Melville gives this description a lot of space on the pages of his will. Here you can find descriptions of all kinds of auxiliary tools, and rules, and basic methods of whale hunting, and methods by which spermaceti is extracted from fish - a substance consisting of animal fat.

There are chapters in the novel that are devoted to various books about whales, reviews of the structures of whale tails, fountains, and a skeleton. There are even references to figurines of sperm whales made of stone, bronze and other materials. Throughout the novel, the author inserts information of various kinds about these extraordinary mammals.

Golden doubloon

Our summary continues. Moby Dick is a novel that is interesting not only for its reference materials and information about whales, but also for its exciting plot. So, one day, Ahab gathers the entire crew of the Pequod, who sees a golden doubloon nailed to the mast. The captain says that the coin will go to the one who first notices the approach of the white whale. This albino sperm whale is known among whalers as Moby Dick. He terrifies sailors with his ferocity, huge size and unprecedented cunning. His skin is scarred with harpoon scars, as he often fought people, but invariably came out victorious. This incredible rebuff, which usually ended in the death of the ship and the crew, taught the whalers not to try to catch him.

About the terrible meeting of Ahab and Moby Dick tells a summary of the chapters. G. Melville describes how the captain lost his leg when, finding himself among the wreckage of the ship, he rushed in a rage at the sperm whale with one knife in his hand. After this story, the captain announces that he is going to pursue the white whale until its carcass is on the ship.

Upon hearing this, Starbuck, the first mate, confronts the captain. He says that it is unreasonable to take revenge on a being deprived of reason for the actions that it has committed, obeying blind instinct. Moreover, there is blasphemy in it. But the captain, and then the whole team, begin to see the embodiment of universal evil in the image of a white whale. They send curses to the sperm whale and drink for his death. Only one cabin boy, Negro Pip, prays to God, asking for protection from these people.

The pursuit

The summary of the work “Moby Dick, or the White Whale” tells how the Pequod first met sperm whales. Boats begin to be lowered into the water, and at that moment those very mysterious dark ghosts appear - Ahab's personal team, recruited from immigrants from South Asia. Until that moment, Ahab kept them hidden from everyone, keeping them in the hold. The unusual sailors are led by a middle-aged, sinister-looking man named Fedalla.

Despite the fact that the captain is only chasing Moby Dick, he cannot completely stop hunting other whales. Therefore, the ship hunts tirelessly, and the barrels of spermaceti are filled. When the Pequod meets with other ships, the captain first asks if the sailors have seen a white whale. Most often, the answer is a story about how Moby Dick killed or maimed someone from the team.

New ominous prophecies are also heard: a distraught sailor from an epidemic-infected ship warns the crew against the fate of blasphemers who risked entering the battle with the embodiment of God's wrath.

One day, fate brings the Pequod to another ship, whose captain harpooned Moby Dick, but as a result was seriously injured and lost his arm. Ahab is talking to this man. It turns out that he does not think to take revenge on the whale. However, he reports the coordinates where the ship collided with the sperm whale.

Starbuck again tries to warn the captain, but all in vain. Ahab orders a harpoon to be forged from the hardest steel that is on the ship. And the blood of three harpooners goes to tempering a formidable weapon.

Prophecy

More and more for the captain and his team becomes a symbol of evil Moby Dick (Moby Dick). The short description focuses on the events taking place with Queequeg, Ishmael's friend. The harpooner falls ill from hard work in dampness and feels that death is imminent. He asks Ishmael to make a funeral boat for him, on which his body would glide over the waves. When Queequeg is on the mend, they decide to convert the boat into a life buoy.

At night, Fedalla tells the captain a terrible prophecy. Before he dies, Ahab sees two hearses: one made by a non-human hand, the other from American wood. And only hemp can cause death to the captain. But before that, Fedalla himself would have to die. Ahab does not believe - he is too old to be on the gallows.

Approximation

More and more signs that the ship is approaching the place where Moby Dick lives. A summary of the chapters describes a ferocious storm. Starbuck is convinced that the captain will lead the ship to destruction, but he does not dare to kill Ahab, trusting fate.

In a storm, the ship meets another ship - "Rachel". Its captain reports that he followed Moby Dick the day before, and asks Ahab to help in search of his 12-year-old son, who was carried away along with the whaleboat. However, the captain of the Pequod refuses.

Finally, a white hump is seen in the distance. For three days the ship is chasing the whale. And now the Pequod catches up with him. However, Moby Dick immediately attacks and bites the captain's whaleboat in two. With great difficulty, he manages to save. The captain is ready to continue hunting, but the whale is already swimming away from them.

By morning, the sperm whale is overtaken again. Moby Dick crashes two more whaleboats. Sinking sailors are brought aboard, it turns out that Fedalla is missing. Ahab begins to be afraid, he remembers the prophecy, but he can no longer refuse the persecution.

The third day

Beckons captain Moby Dick. A summary of all the chapters paints pictures of gloomy omens, but Ahab is obsessed with his desire. The whale again destroys several whaleboats and tries to leave, but Ahab continues to pursue him on the only boat. Then the sperm whale turns around and rams the Pequod. The ship begins to sink. Ahab throws the last harpoon, the wounded whale abruptly goes into the depths and carries away the captain, entangled in the hemp rope. The ship is pulled into a funnel, and the last whaleboat, where Ishmael is located, is pulled into it.

denouement

Only Ishmael is left alive from the entire crew of the Melville ship. Moby Dick (a brief summary confirms this), wounded, but alive, goes into the depths of the ocean.

The main character miraculously manages to survive. The only thing that survived from the ship was the failed and tarred coffin of his friend. It is on this structure that the hero spends a day on the high seas until sailors from the Rachel ship find him. The captain of this ship still hoped to find his lost child.

Masterpieces of literature do not always immediately receive full recognition. Moreover, they can look for their admirers for many years, since contemporaries rarely appreciate their geniuses. If the author is ahead of his time with his thinking and boundless imagination, then the work remains unclaimed until the rest of the world is able to comprehend such an extraordinary creation. The book of one of these writers celebrates its anniversary this year - November 14 marks 165 years since the first publication of the novel "Moby Dick, or the White Whale" Herman Melville in the USA.

Edition cover, photo source https://books.google.com

This work is highly ambiguous. Someone considers it predictable and boring, complaining about the unreasonably large volume; there are also those who consider it one of the cult books of world literature, a must-read for every self-respecting intelligent person. Either way, it's rare to find someone who hasn't heard of this novel or its author. What is so remarkable about this book?

Immediately, in the first sentence, Melville introduces us to his hero Ishmael, on behalf of whom the story is being told. He is a sailor on a ship "Pequod", whose captain is Ahab, obsessed with the idea of ​​​​revenge on the white sperm whale moby dick. These three characters compete for title throughout the book, but it's hard to see them in isolation from each other. Another important character of the book is the ocean itself: the reader becomes part of one of the most beautiful stories associated with the water element. Landscapes and descriptions of the sea occupy one of the main places in the novel; it is filled with lyrical digressions, each time drawing a new picture of the ocean. The author does not repeat, each of the descriptions is unique and filled with deep love for the sea.

The novel is filled with special terminology- it could well become a kind of manual on maritime affairs, whales and whalers. Types of whales, types of whales, subspecies of whales, tail and whiskers of whales - all this is described in extraordinary detail in the novel. The reader has to wade through dozens of whaling tales, some of which startle with brutality that the author doesn't even try to avoid. We are forced to watch the moments, unpleasant to the imagination, of killing such a majestic creature, pumping blubber from a whale and sawing its bones. Thanks to the abundance of reference data, after reading the novel, a clear and extensive idea of ​​whales as mammals and as an object of hunting is formed. The writer uses scientific, religious and just worldly knowledge to make it all more believable. Also, this book is a pass to the life of a real sailor. By the end of the work, you will understand the names of ship parts and nautical jargon, and you will also learn a lot about the life, customs and psychology of sailors on long voyages.

However, the whale in the novel is not only a creature that really exists in the material world, but also acts as a symbol of indifference to fate. The work is filled with biblical motifs, which are far from clear to every reader, since they are hidden under the most ordinary, at first glance, characters and events. The most obvious reference in the sacred text is the name of the ship's captain, Ahab, who bible is an unholy king. Some other heroes also give rise to a feeling of allusion, forcing them to look for ghostly connections between the text of the work and the Holy Scripture. These hints are confusing, each sentence seems ambiguous, you have to make a lot of effort to understand the true meaning of what the author puts into certain verbal constructions.

Another reason why some people love "Moby Dick" and others do not understand what can attract in it is the uniqueness of Melville's artistic language. Logical sentences seem to float one after another, the text is filled with subtle humor. The book seems to have been written by several people, one of which is a historian, another is a biologist, and the third is a philosopher looking for the meaning of existence. Concentration symbolism in the novel is transcendent, the author skillfully handles images, in the reflections and words of the characters there is often a hidden meaning. At the same time, not everyone likes the slow pace of development of events and the constant rotation of the story around whaling. The overload of the text, the abundance of outdated terms and the underdevelopment of the characters' characters - this is what its opponents reproach the novel for.

Film poster (1956), photo source https://www.kinopoisk.ru

Another key concept of the novel is human obsession. Captain Ahab, devoured the idea of ​​revenge, chasing Moby Dick as if chasing the death that surrounded the ship, trying diligently, but in vain, to argue with her. The idea of ​​inevitability runs like a red thread through the whole novel, the White Whale is inevitability, that very predestination from which it is impossible to escape, it is stupid and pointless to avoid it, because what is destined will come true in any case. The question is not when this will happen, but how a person will meet his fate - will he adequately endure all trials or go crazy from impotence.

The novel is written thoroughly and qualitatively, it stands out among many similar books with the concept of "happy ending", maintaining intrigue to the end, sending only hints of who's side will be rock and who is in charge of everything. God? A person or maybe an element?

Not all questions are answered, there is a high probability of getting tired of the abundance of terminology and its omnipresence or getting confused in references to the Bible. But despite all this, the novel is worth reading. Moreover, he is worthy of admiration. "Moby Dick, or the White Whale" is a multi-genre work about the meaning of existence, which will be useful to anyone who has ever wondered how his fate is shaping up. The book awakens a variety of emotions, expands consciousness, in a word, is an excellent example of the power of good literature on a person.

Angela Saidakhmetova

Main photo source: ecoterria.com