Moby Dick
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is a novel written by Herman Melville and first published in 1851.
The story is narrated by Ishmael, a young man with experience in the merchant navy, who decides that his next trip will be on a whaler, and travels to Nantucket, Massachusetts, an island known for its whaling industry. There he befriends the harpooneer Queequeg, and the two sign aboard the whaler Pequod, whose crew is drawn from many nations and races.
Ahab is the Pequod's captain, and once at sea he reveals that the voyage has a single purpose: revenge on the white whale named Moby Dick. In an earlier hunt the whale took off Ahab's leg, and hatred and the obsession with killing it have consumed him ever since.
However, the task they embark on is quite dangerous and the captain's tyranny and hatred blind him to the danger in which he is placing both the ship and the crew.
What follows is a confrontation between man and nature, with the white whale standing for everything Ahab cannot master.
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Public domain (US)·No sign-up·DRM-free·Real text, not scans
Copyright note. Moby Dick by Herman Melville is believed to be in the public domain in the United States only. It may still be copyrighted in other countries. If you are not in the United States, please check your local laws to ensure this eBook is in the public domain in your country before downloading Moby Dick in PDF or EPUB.
- Pages
- 664
- Reading time
- 18 hours 6 minutes
- Pace
- Intermediate
- First published
- 1851
- Language
- English
- Downloads
- 5,733
175 years later, still timely
Why Read Moby Dick in 2026?
An obsession sets sail and collides with reality. Encyclopedic, funny, eerie—and unexpectedly modern about risk and leadership.
Today's connection
Melville mixes adventure with essay to ask what happens when one will overrides a crew. Ecology, labor, and myth all matter here. Read it as a voyage in attention: detail by detail, the world enlarges.
Sea of meanings
Work, nature, and story interlock.
Charisma’s cost
Vision without limits endangers all hands.
Many modes
Drama, jokes, facts—surprisingly alive.
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About the author
Herman Melville
Sea, symbol, and obsession joined to democracy, risk, and doubt.
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From Moby Dick
Call me Ishmael.
I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.
As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.
All mortal greatness is but disease.
It is not down on any map; true places never are.