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Moby Dick

Written by: Herman Melville
Narrated by: William Hootkins
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Publisher's Summary

"Call me Ishmael." Thus starts the greatest American novel. Melville said himself that he wanted to write "a mighty book about a mighty theme" and so he did. It is a story of one man's obsessive revenge-journey against the white whale, Moby-Dick, who injured him in an earlier meeting. Woven into the story of the last journey of The Pequod is a mesh of philosophy, rumination, religion, history, and a mass of information about whaling through the ages.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

Public Domain (P)2005 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd.

What listeners say about Moby Dick

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unbelievably deep

Moby Dick is the best book I've ever read save the Bible. However, I can't exactly recommend it to most people. In order to appreciate it you need to really, really, REALLY understand the western literary canon and western history. Understanding religious symbology and hero myths will help a lot too.

if you're a casual reader, this will be a overly long book about whales.

Also: great narrator

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Perfect

The narrators energy with the material is perfect, and obviously the story is legendary. My favorite audiobook of all time.

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Excellent

Being much older now then when first exposed to Moby Dick I think I have learned a few things.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Classic

Haven’t read this since I was a lot younger. It increases in depth and beauty with the years of experience and learning that age brings.

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Fantastic!

This book and this narrator are the best. I simply love 💘 it. The tone is hilarious, serious and mad. The narrative is captivating and what to say about that commentary on colonialism and capitalism.

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    3 out of 5 stars

Needs chapter indexing

Amazing performance by William Hootkins, but since there are so many chapters that are worth skipping, this book really REALLY needs chapter indexing.

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Excellent Performance

While there is no doubt this is a great, timeless novel, parts are just as tedious as a three year whaling voyage. But the passionate narration helped get me through and I'm so glad I did! Thanks for the free classic, Audible!

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Quite Possibly the Greatest Novel I’ve Ever Read

This book is unbelievably good and the narrator is amazing. His Ahab impression is precisely how I imagined the disgruntled captain would sound.

Most People think that Moby Dick is about a man seeking revenge on a whale. While that may be the surface synopsis, I now realize that it’s actually about a man who cannot, despite his own admitted desire to do so, let go of his past, and it ends up destroying him and everyone around him.

Ahab has so strongly sought revenge that it has become a part of him like some malicious parasite. He has defined himself via his desire to exact vengeance upon the Leviathan, and since his identity is so tightly tethered to this desire, he begrudgingly proceeds on with what he knows will be his doom. Without Moby Dick there is no Ahab, and thus the two become one with the sea.

The characters, the themes, the whimsical imagery and elaborate use of metaphors, this book has it all! I kept thinking that one part would be my favourite only for it to be replaced by another. It just kept getting better and better and it’s climax and conclusion genuinely gave me shivers.

I’m definitely going to be rereading this masterpiece once a year going forward.

My sole criticism is that Melville goes off on weird tangents about miscellaneous whale trivia. There’s literally an entire chapter about the different species of whales.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Challenging listen

The narration of this story is excellent but the story is a bit of challenge to listen to because of the style it was written in back in 1851. Still it is a classic.

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Great narration on a historic book

I figured it was about time I heard this. Very interesting and great narrator. I wouldn't call it a novel, more like an essay on the whaling industry with story elements sprinkled in.

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