I finally finished this today and it's probably the best

it's top five for me for sure. and i'm old and have read lots of books

my favourite thing is just how infectiously enthusiastic melville is. it's so fun to read. obviously it's a masterpiece on every level, but the one that makes it so joyful is that how clearly and beautifully his love of the subject pours out of every page

>>9000948
Really and excellent book, I could say the same thing. People complain about all the whaling knowledge I guess but I sorta liked it.

>>9000948
In terms of fiction I'd agree. For me it's the GOAT novel.

>>9000948
I think it signals the the next great American novel should be about a Red Adair type character who travels the world extinguishing oil well fires. With alternating chapters about liquid fires and crude oil geology. The obsessive pursuit could be the hunt for an elephant oil field.

>>9000948

Got to about page 100. I want to finish it, but I'm reading Infinite Meme atm. Didn't like the narration in places, Ishmael feels like a bit of a twat desu. I've heard the Ahab stuff gets really good though.

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>>9000948
You feel it too, don't you?

>>9000948
Legendary. One of the first really ambitious books I ever read. I felt like I was on the final frontier.

I love the compendiousness of it, how Melville just info-dumps a chapter on whale ontology without thinking twice, or when the narrative turns into a stage play, complete with directions. The homosexual allusions were pretty risque too. Hard to believe it even got published back in the 1850s.

>>9001010
>Ishmael feels like a bit of a twat desu
He takes a back seat once the Pequod is under way, and becomes more of a narrator than a protagonist. Stick with it, you won't regret it.

>>9000956
>People complain about all the whaling knowledge

>the whale is a fish
>the sperm whale is the largest inhabitant of the globe

You can see their point. I love all the whaling trivia, but he gets some of the basics resoundingly wrong.

I got fucked with this book.
I got an abridged version from the 30's that doesnt include chapter 9 or midnight forecastle and a lot of the other important parts of the book

>>9001283
It's almost like the laws of taxonomy were radically revised since the novel's composition.

>>9001283
He admitted that people like you would bitch about classifying whales as fish but he did it anyway

>>9000979
Worst thing I've ever heard

>>9000948
GOATest of all time, dog

>>9001283
For this is one of those disheartening instances where truth requires full as much bolstering as error. So ignorant are most landsmen of some of the plainest and most palpable wonders of the world, that without some hints touching the plain facts, historical and otherwise, of the fishery, they might scout at Moby Dick as a monstrous fable, or still worse and more detestable, a hideous and intolerable allegory.

The absolute madman

>>9000948
Easily one of the best, yes. Also lol, that cover looks kind of creepy but, somehow, I like it.

>>9001010
Are you reading two behemoths at one time?

I've read, and seen, In The Heart Of The Sea. Why should I bother with this?

love it

Moby Dick is probably my favorite novel (more of a philosophy/nonfiction guy, but I still adore it). Has anyone in this thread read some of Melville's other works? How are they?

Yeah it's fucking great. It's one of those novels you feel, once you've read it, will be with you all your life, as you'll always be trying to decipher its meaning in new ways. Also it's fucking hilarious

>>9003385
You shouldn't. Kill yourself instead

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>>9000948
>best book i've ever read
>fiction

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>>9004061
>he's too stupid to understand