Moby Dick
Authors and publishers are not able to post replies in the review topics.
-
- Posts: 20
- Joined: 07 Jan 2014, 16:44
- Bookshelf Size: 0
Re: Moby Dick
-
- Posts: 12
- Joined: 17 Jan 2014, 00:38
- Bookshelf Size: 0
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-uab-blazer.html
- Fran
- Posts: 28072
- Joined: 10 Aug 2009, 12:46
- Favorite Book: Anna Karenina
- Currently Reading: Hide and Seek
- Bookshelf Size: 1208
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-fran.html
- Reading Device: B00I15SB16
See forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewtopic.php ... loud+atlasuab_blazer wrote:I don't want to stray to far from the topic of Moby Dick, but has anyone else read Cloud Atlas? I only ask because of how closely David Mitchell was able to imitate Melville in the Adam Ewing story line. I read (actually I listened) both of these book within the same year and I immediately noticed the similarities.
A world is born again that never dies.
- My Home by Clive James
- sissybear
- Posts: 183
- Joined: 24 Jan 2014, 20:51
- Bookshelf Size: 0
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-sissybear.html
-
- Posts: 233
- Joined: 10 Feb 2014, 14:28
- Favorite Book: See Favorite Author
- Bookshelf Size: 2
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-klyons1.html
- Latest Review: "A Vision of Angels" by Timothy Jay Smith
-
- Posts: 32
- Joined: 21 Feb 2014, 17:59
- Bookshelf Size: 0
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-ian.html
-
- Posts: 233
- Joined: 10 Feb 2014, 14:28
- Favorite Book: See Favorite Author
- Bookshelf Size: 2
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-klyons1.html
- Latest Review: "A Vision of Angels" by Timothy Jay Smith
- rachelseamount
- Posts: 5
- Joined: 11 Mar 2014, 16:54
- Bookshelf Size: 0
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-rachelseamount.html
- PashaRu
- Posts: 9174
- Joined: 15 Mar 2014, 17:02
- Currently Reading: Vicars of Christ - The Dark Side of the Papacy
- Bookshelf Size: 191
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-pasharu.html
- Latest Review: "Damn Females on the Lawn" by Rachel Hurd
I love Melville's writing in this book. (Unlike Typee, which I found excruciatingly boring.) And different chapters/subjects bring different styles of writing. For example, Chapter 40 is written as a play - complete with some "stage direction!" Chapter 99 is positively riveting and the writing will take your breath away. Chapter 9 contains a wonderful passage where Jonah's conscience is compared to a swinging lamp in his room on the ship. And passages such as these:
"Top-heavy was the ship as a dinnerless student with all Aristotle in his head." (ch 110)
"Hither and thither, on high, glided the snow-white wings of small, unspeckled birds; these were the gentle thoughts of the feminine air; but to and fro in the deeps, far down in the bottomless blue, rushed mighty leviathans, sword-fish, and sharks; and these were the strong, troubled, murderous thinkings of the masculine sea." (ch 132)
"Whale, this high and mighty god-like dignity inherent in the brow is so immensely amplified, that gazing on it, in that full front view, you feel the Deity and the dread powers more forcibly than in beholding any other object in nature." (ch 79)
"Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian." (ch 3)
What's not to like?
The Norton Critical Edition is great, with a wonderful 250-page appendix.
-
- Posts: 36
- Joined: 02 May 2014, 14:06
- Bookshelf Size: 22
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-bookworm1990.html
- Latest Review: "My Passage to Africa" by Brian C Rushton
- Aussie-reader
- Posts: 248
- Joined: 24 Jan 2014, 08:25
- Bookshelf Size: 0
Why is it a must read, whether I like it or not??jellymonty wrote:Moby Dick is a MUST READ whether you like it or not! I enjoyed doing a book report on it in school and also enjoyed the movie with Patrick Stewart. It's a classic book and anyone that hasn't read it really should it. I found it exciting and thrilling and i just love his passion to kill the whale at any cost!! I encourage you to read it. You'll love it
I'm not in habit of reading books I don't like
I mean,its not my sort of book and I am not a fast reader and my "to read list" is over flowing already - sorry, not going to find room on it for Moby Dick, there are so many other books I want toread.
Just as an aside though, I did read a very good book called Ahab's wife: the Stargazer, by Sena Jeter Naslund - written in 2005 (so, no, not a classic, as such ) a fictional account of Ahab's wife and her life at sea and on land.
- PashaRu
- Posts: 9174
- Joined: 15 Mar 2014, 17:02
- Currently Reading: Vicars of Christ - The Dark Side of the Papacy
- Bookshelf Size: 191
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-pasharu.html
- Latest Review: "Damn Females on the Lawn" by Rachel Hurd
Hang in there! See my post above for my thoughts on this book. As you get toward the end, the action picks up and you'll have a hard time putting it down. It's well worth it to stick with it.bookworm1990 wrote:I'm about halfway through this book and I've gotten to the non - fiction-esque part. Although I enjoyed his chapter entitled The Advocate because it defends a profession that has historically received bad press. However the chapter on classifying whales has literally taken the wind out of my sails. Where's Ahab? Where's the white whale? It seems like the story of Ahab has been muted in favor of a whale lesson.
-
- Posts: 36
- Joined: 02 May 2014, 14:06
- Bookshelf Size: 22
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-bookworm1990.html
- Latest Review: "My Passage to Africa" by Brian C Rushton
-
- Posts: 141
- Joined: 20 May 2014, 01:38
- Bookshelf Size: 5
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-titanoboa92.html
- Latest Review: "Aim For The Moon" by Gladys Lim
- Timea
- Posts: 268
- Joined: 09 Apr 2014, 07:32
- Favorite Book: <a href="http://forums.onlinebookclub.org/shelve ... =1580">The Dimension Scales and Other Stories</a>
- Currently Reading: Arhipelagul Gulag I
- Bookshelf Size: 242
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-timea.html
- Latest Review: "Murder Inc." by Christian Cipollini