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Authors: Herman Melville
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Ahab’s quenchless feud seemed mine. With greedy ear I learned the history of that murderous monster against whom I and all the others had taken our oaths of violence and revenge.
All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. He piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody’s expense but his own.
At such times, under an abated sun; afloat all day upon smooth, slow heaving swells; seated in his boat, light as a birch canoe; and so sociably mixing with the soft waves themselves, that like hearthstone cats they purr against the gunwale; these are the times of dreamy quietude, when beholding the tranquil beauty and brilliancy of the ocean’s skin, one forgets the tiger heart that pants beneath it; and would not willingly remember, that this velvet paw but conceals a remorseless fang.
They were one man, not thirty. For as the one ship that held them all; though it was put together of all contrasting things—oak, and maple, and pine wood; iron, and pitch, and hemp—yet all these ran into each other in the one concrete hull, which shot on its way, both balanced and directed by the long central keel; even so, all the individualities of the crew, this man’s valor, that man’s fear; guilt and guiltiness, all varieties were wedded into oneness, and were all directed to that fatal goal which Ahab their one lord and keel did point to.
Published by Barnes & Noble Books 122 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10011
Moby-Dick
was first published in 1851.
was first published in 1851.
Published in 2003 by Barnes & Noble Classics with new Introduction, Notes, Biography, Chronology, Inspired By, Comments & Questions, and For Further Reading.
“Dictionary of Sea Terms” is adapted from Richard Henry Dana’s The Seaman’s Friend, originally published in 1845.
Introduction, Notes, and For Further Reading Copyright © 2003 by Carl F. Hovde.
Note on Herman Melville, The World of Herman Melville and
Moby-Dick
, Inspired by
Moby-Dick
, and Comments & Questions Copyright © 2003 by Barnes & Noble, Inc.
Moby-Dick
, Inspired by
Moby-Dick
, and Comments & Questions Copyright © 2003 by Barnes & Noble, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Barnes & Noble Classics and the Barnes & Noble Classics colophon are trademarks of Barnes & Noble, Inc.
Moby-Dick
ISBN-13: 978-1-59308-018-1
eISBN : 97-8-141-14336-5
ISBN-10: 1-59308-018-2
LC Control Number 2003100589
Produced and published in conjunction with:
Fine Creative Media, Inc.
322 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10001
Michael J. Fine, President and Publisher
Printed in the United States of America
QM
9 11 13 15 17 19 20 18 16 14 12 10
HERMAN MELVILLE
Herman Melville was born in New York City on August 1, 1819, to Allan and Maria Gansevoort Melvill. His father was an importer of French goods and his mother the daughter of a Revolutionary War hero. During a national economic depression, the family business faltered; Herman’s father was unable to stabilize it or provide an adequate income. The family moved to Albany in 1830, and in 1832 Allan Melvill died, leaving the family in debt.
Young Herman took a series of jobs to help support his mother and siblings, working as a bank clerk, a farmhand, and a teacher. He also tried to earn money by writing and in 1839 published two installments of “Fragments from a Writing Desk” in the
Democratic Press and Lansingburgh Advertiser
. However, his career as a serious, full-time writer was not to begin for another seven years. During that interval, Melville worked as a seaman on ships traveling around the world. In 1841 he sailed aboard the
Acushnet
, a whaling vessel bound for the South Seas, and spent time in the Marquesas Islands, Tahiti, and Hawaii. His foreign adventures provided material for his first two novels,
Typee
(1846) and
Omoo
(1847), which were very successful.
Democratic Press and Lansingburgh Advertiser
. However, his career as a serious, full-time writer was not to begin for another seven years. During that interval, Melville worked as a seaman on ships traveling around the world. In 1841 he sailed aboard the
Acushnet
, a whaling vessel bound for the South Seas, and spent time in the Marquesas Islands, Tahiti, and Hawaii. His foreign adventures provided material for his first two novels,
Typee
(1846) and
Omoo
(1847), which were very successful.
In 1847 Melville married Elizabeth Shaw, daughter of the chief justice of Massachusetts and a close friend of his sisters. Around the same time, he began a friendship with Evert Duyckinck, an editor of
The Literary World
, who introduced him to members of the New York literary scene. Over the next few years, he wrote articles for
The Literary World
and
Yankee Doodle
, a satirical magazine modeled on the British magazine
Punch
. In 1849 Melville published
Mardi
, in which he combined a Polynesian adventure with a doomed symbolic quest. When
Mardi
was not well received, he tried to return to his earlier, more successful storytelling mode with
Redburn
(1849) and
White-Jacket
(1850), but the books turned out to be too serious and melancholy to reach a wide audience.
The Literary World
, who introduced him to members of the New York literary scene. Over the next few years, he wrote articles for
The Literary World
and
Yankee Doodle
, a satirical magazine modeled on the British magazine
Punch
. In 1849 Melville published
Mardi
, in which he combined a Polynesian adventure with a doomed symbolic quest. When
Mardi
was not well received, he tried to return to his earlier, more successful storytelling mode with
Redburn
(1849) and
White-Jacket
(1850), but the books turned out to be too serious and melancholy to reach a wide audience.
In 1850 Melville purchased a farm, Arrowhead, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and thus became a neighbor to author Nathaniel Hawthorne. The two had a close friendship—Melville dedicated his masterwork,
Moby-Dick
(1851), to Hawthorne. Like his other recent novels,
Moby-Dick
was not highly acclaimed when it was first published. Critics and readers were confused and disappointed, having expected a narrative more akin to the literary-journalistic style of the author’s earlier works. The failure of
Moby-Dick
and of his subsequent novels tormented Melville. He eventually gave up writing as a profession and for nineteen years held a job as a customs inspector at New York harbor. During this time he wrote poetry, some of it reflecting the political climate of the 1860s, the American Civil War, and Reconstruction.
Moby-Dick
(1851), to Hawthorne. Like his other recent novels,
Moby-Dick
was not highly acclaimed when it was first published. Critics and readers were confused and disappointed, having expected a narrative more akin to the literary-journalistic style of the author’s earlier works. The failure of
Moby-Dick
and of his subsequent novels tormented Melville. He eventually gave up writing as a profession and for nineteen years held a job as a customs inspector at New York harbor. During this time he wrote poetry, some of it reflecting the political climate of the 1860s, the American Civil War, and Reconstruction.
Herman Melville died in 1891. It was not until the “Melville revival” of the 1920s that
Moby-Dick
and the author’s other works gained him the status in which he is held today—as one of America’s greatest writers. Melville’s short novel
Billy Budd
was published in 1924.
Moby-Dick
and the author’s other works gained him the status in which he is held today—as one of America’s greatest writers. Melville’s short novel
Billy Budd
was published in 1924.
THE WORLD OF HERMAN MELVILLE AND
MOBY-DICK
MOBY-DICK
| 1819 | Herman Melvill is born on August 1 in New York City to Allan and Maria Gansevoort Melvill, the third of eight children. (The family will add the final ‘e’ in Melville after Allan’s death.) The United States is recovering from an economic depression, and businesses like Allan Melvill’s import concern are still struggling. The family is financially unstable and frequently borrows money from relatives. |
| 1826 | Herman contracts scarlet fever, which leaves him with permanently weakened eyesight. |
| 1830 | Allan Melvill’s business fails, and the family moves to Albany, New York. Herman enrolls at the Albany Academy, where he remains until his father’s death. |
| 1832 | Allan Melvill dies, deeply in debt. Herman takes a number of jobs, such as bank clerk and farmhand, to help his family financially. |
| 1835 | Herman enrolls in the Albany Classical School, where he is exposed to James Fenimore Cooper, Sir Walter Scott, Lord Byron, and other early-nineteenth-century British poets. |
| 1837 | Melville teaches in a school near Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The family is forced into bankruptcy and can no longer maintain their home in Albany. They move to Lansingburgh, New York. |
| 1838 | Melville studies surveying at Lansingburgh Academy, in hopes of working as an engineer on the Erie Canal, a plan that never comes to fruition. |
| 1839 | Melville publishes two installments of “Fragments from a Writing Desk” in the Democratic Press and Lansingburgh Advertiser . The amateurish composition provides insight into Melville’s literary influences; he quotes directly from or |
| alludes to Thomas Campbell’s The Pleasures of Hope , Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy , William Shakespeare’s Hamlet , Lord Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage , Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe , poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Greek and Roman mythology. | |
| In June Melville signs on as a crew member on a ship traveling between New York and Liverpool. He finds the grime, poverty, and starvation of Liverpool astonishing and horrifying, and sees for the first time the need for social reform. He returns to the United States in October and takes another teaching position, this time in Greenbush, New York. | |
| 1840 | Melville works as a substitute teacher in Brunswick, New York. He and a friend, Eli James Fly, look for work in Galena, Illinois, near Melville’s uncle. |
| 1841 | Melville ships as a seaman aboard the Acushnet , a whaling vessel bound from New Bedford, Massachusetts, for the South Seas; the trip provides facts and ideas for Moby-Dick . Before the voyage, he goes to the Seaman’s Bethel and hears a sermon, just as Ishmael listens to Father Mapple in the Whaleman’s Chapel before sailing with the Pequod . |
| 1842 | Melville deserts ship with Richard T. Greene in the Marquesas Islands and spends several weeks among the natives of the Taipi valley. An Australian whaling ship picks him up on August 9; when they reach Tahiti, he and others are held in light confinement as mutineers after refusing to obey orders from the first mate. Melville befriends the ship’s doctor, and the two become “beachcombers” throughout the Tahitian islands, where they encounter native villages and Catholic and Protestant missionaries. |
| 1843 | Melville spends four months in the Sandwich Islands (as Hawaii was then called), at Lahaina (Maui) and Honolulu. In August he enlists in the U.S. Navy as an ordinary seaman and sails for home. |
| 1844 | Back in New York, Melville begins writing about his sailing adventures. |
| 1846 | With the help of his older brother, Gansevoort, Melville publishes his first book, Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life , a novel about his stay with the natives in the Marquesas. The |
| poet Walt Whitman reads the novel and writes in the Brooklyn Eagle that it is “a strange, graceful, most readable book.” | |
| 1847 | Melville publishes Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas , another account of his travels and experiences with natives in the Pacific Islands. Both Typee and Omoo are hugely successful. He begins a friendship with Evert Duyckinck, an editor of The Literary World . Over the course of the next few years, Duyckinck will introduce Melville to William Cullen Bryant, Bayard Taylor, N. P. Willis, probably Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe, and other members of the New York literary scene. |
| In August Melville marries Elizabeth Shaw, daughter of family friend Lemuel Shaw, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. Melville’s attempts to secure a gov ernment appointment in Washington are unsuccessful, and he and Elizabeth settle in New York City. Over the next few years, he writes articles for The Literary World and Yankee Doodle , a satirical magazine modeled on the British maga zine Punch . | |
| 1849 | The Melvilles’ first child, Malcolm, is born. Melville publishes Mardi: And a Voyage Thither , which begins as a Polynesian adventure but becomes a doomed symbolic quest. Mardi is not well received by critics or readers. Melville tries to return to his earlier, more successful storytelling mode with Redburn: His Voyage. Being the Sailor-Boy Confessions and Reminiscences of the Son-of-a-Gentleman, in the Merchant Service ; however, his increasing seriousness and melancholy are evident. |
| 1850 | Melville publishes White-Jacket; Or, The World in a Man-of- War , another unsuccessful attempt to regain his earlier audience. The Melvilles purchase Arrowhead, a farm near Pittsfield, Massachusetts; Nathaniel Hawthorne lives in nearby Lenox, and the two men begin a strong and lasting friendship. |
| 1851 | Melville publishes Moby-Dick; Or, The Whale , to poor reviews. The Melvilles’ second son, Stanwix, is born. |
| 1852 | Melville publishes the dark novel Pierre; Or, The Ambiguities ; it too fares badly with critics and readers. |
| 1853 | The Melvilles’ daughter, Elizabeth, is born. Copies of Melville’s books are destroyed in a fire at his publishing house, Harper and Brothers. Because there is not enough demand for his works, the books are not reprinted. Melville writes for Putnam’s Monthly Magazine and Harper’s New Monthly Magazine . |
| 1855 | Melville publishes Israel Potter , a novel of the Revolutionary War. Elizabeth and Herman have a second daughter, Frances. |
| 1856 | Melville publishes The Piazza Tales , a collection that in cludes the stories “Bartleby the Scrivener (1853),” “The Encantadas (1854),” and “Benito Cereno (1855),” which had been published in Putnam’s Monthly Magazine . |
| 1856—1857 | |
| His physical and emotional health jarred by poor reviews of his novels over the last few years, Melville takes a travel va cation in Europe and the Middle East. He visits Rome, Naples, Syria, Salonica, Jerusalem, Joppa, Beirut, Athens, Alexandria, and Cairo. | |
| 1857 | Melville publishes the dark comedy The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade , a satire on materialism in the United States. |
| 1857— | |
| 1860 | He tries to earn a living as a lecturer. He begins writing po etry but cannot find a publisher for his first collection. In 1860 he sails to San Francisco, a trip meant both for enjoy ment and to improve his health, but he has an unpleasant time and returns home to New York via Panama. |
| 1861 | Melville meets President Abraham Lincoln. The four-year American Civil War begins. Melville’s thoughts on the di vided nation and the war are evident in his poetry. In some poems he reveals a pessimistic fear that a victorious North will be corrupted by its success and in others a sympathy for human suffering and loss. |
| 1863 | The family moves from Pittsfield to New York City. |
| 1866 | Melville publishes Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War , a series |
| of poems. He begins work as a customs inspector at New York harbor. | |
| 1867 | Melville’s son Malcolm dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound; it is unclear whether his death is an accident or suicide. |
| 1876 | With financial backing from his uncle, Melville publishes Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land , which addresses the problem of religious doubt. |
| 1885 | Melville resigns as customs inspector. |
| 1886 | His son Stanwix dies of tuberculosis in a San Francisco hos pital. |
| 1888 | Melville publishes John Marr and Other Sailors , a book of poetry. He takes a short trip to Bermuda. |
| 1891 | He publishes another book of poems, Timoleon . Melville dies of a heart attack on September 28 in New York City. |
| 1920s | Beginning around 1920, in a “Melville revival,” critics re examine the author’s works, to great acclaim. |
| 1924 | The short novel Billy Budd is published. |
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