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A review by wise_tamarin
Moby-Dick or, The Whale by Herman Melville
adventurous
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I'm not sure how to put it, but it is definitely an enchanting and reflective read. It is in those category of books that you should at-least try to read and digest at least once in your life. For half of the novel, partly due to the hard-to-read prose and partly due to the technical chapters describing whaling, I did not think this would go down into my foremost favorites.
The feelings I have got in certain portions of this novel would perhaps be comparable and second only to the feelings I got while reading the Bhagavad Gita. For example, in that chapter when Melville describes the whiteness of the whale, I couldn't help but harken back to Vishnu's cosmic form in chapter 11 of the Gita (the same chapter from which Oppenheimer's famous quote comes from).
It is also hilarious at certain portions, especially in the portions of Ishmael's (the narrator) random ramblings.
It would go down in among those select few works that I would like to reread and understand more.
It maybe a tedious read, but I would suggest the reader to stick with it. Try to tame it much like the elusive White Whale beast. Read it slowly, deliberately. Reread portions to grasp it better. Utilize chapter summaries after reading the chapter, to avoid getting lost. And maybe use an annotated edition.
The feelings I have got in certain portions of this novel would perhaps be comparable and second only to the feelings I got while reading the Bhagavad Gita. For example, in that chapter when Melville describes the whiteness of the whale, I couldn't help but harken back to Vishnu's cosmic form in chapter 11 of the Gita (the same chapter from which Oppenheimer's famous quote comes from).
It is also hilarious at certain portions, especially in the portions of Ishmael's (the narrator) random ramblings.
It would go down in among those select few works that I would like to reread and understand more.
It maybe a tedious read, but I would suggest the reader to stick with it. Try to tame it much like the elusive White Whale beast. Read it slowly, deliberately. Reread portions to grasp it better. Utilize chapter summaries after reading the chapter, to avoid getting lost. And maybe use an annotated edition.