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Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is a 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville, sailor Ishmael's account of the obsessive quest for vengeance of Ahab, captain of the whaler Pequod, on the white whale Moby Dick that on the ship's previous whaling voyage bit off Ahab's leg at the knee. A contribution to the literature of the American Renaissance, the work's genre classifications range from late Romantic to early Symbolist literature. The book was published to mixed, predominantly debunking reviews, became a commercial failure, and was out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891. Its reputation as a Great American Novel was established in the 20th century, after the centennial of its author's birth. William Faulkner confessed he wished he had written it himself,and D. H. Lawrence called it "one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world", and "the greatest book of the sea ever written"."Call me Ishmael" is among world literature's most famous opening sentences.
Melville began writing Moby-Dick in February 1850, and in May he thought he was half way. In June, he proposed the book to his English publisher, thinking it would be ready in the autumn of 1850. Eventually, it would take him eighteen months to write the book, a full year more than he had first anticipated. Writing was interrupted by making acquaintance with Nathaniel Hathorne in August 1850, and by the creation of the "Mosses from an Old Manse" essay as a first result of that friendship. The dedication of the book is also to Hawthorne, "in token of my admiration for his genius".
The basis for the work is Melville's 1841 whaling voyage aboard the Acushnet. Additionally,the novel draws on whaling literature, and on literary inspirations such as Shakespeare and the Bible. The white whale is modeled on the notoriously hard to catch actual albino whale Mocha Dick, and the ending is based on the sinking of the whaler Essex by a whale. The detailed and realistic descriptions of whale hunting and of extracting whale oil, as well as life aboard ship among a culturally diverse crew, are mixed with exploration of class and social status, good and evil, and the existence of God. In addition to narrative prose, Melville uses styles and literary devices ranging from songs, poetry, and catalogs to Shakespearean stage directions, soliloquies, and asides.
In October 1851, the chapter "The Town Ho's Story" was published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine. The same month, the whole book was first published in three volumes as The Whale in London, and under its definitive title as a single volume in New York in November. Hundreds of differences, mostly slight and some important, are seen between the two editions. The London publisher censored or changed sensitive passages and Melville made revisions, as well, including the last-minute change in the title for the New York edition. The whale, however, appears in both editions as "Moby Dick", with no hyphen. One factor that led British reviewers to scorn the book was that it seemed to be told by a narrator who perished with the ship; the British edition lacked the Epilogue, which accounts for Ishmael's survival. About 3,200 copies were sold during the author's life.
