Moby Dick

I've always thought about reading it, but I've never started. Would you guys recommend it?

Is it a hard book to read?

Other urls found in this thread:

shmoop.com/moby-dick/chapter-1-summary.html
chasingflukes.com/reading_guide-overview/glossary-contents/
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bump.

anybody?

You don't have to bump this shit, Veeky Forums is a low-traffic board.
And to answer your question, no, Moby dick isn't difficult to read. Read it or don't, who cares?

did you like it?

It has incredibly boring passages. It's overly verbose in a lot of areas, but that's typical of literature from the time period.

Personally, I didn't care for it, but I will probably revisit it with a reading guide at my side

Lurk for literally 10 minutes and you'll hear enough about moby dick to make you want to not read it

Imo the greatest book ever. It's not very difficult, I'm a non-native English speaker and can understand it without a dictionary (although it does help). It's excellent if you can read only for the philosophy and prose.

Plebs like this scum are the filth of this board.

Moby Dick isnt boring OP. Anyone who can't appreciate the richness of thought in the 'non-plot' chapters, can't see the humour, the beauty and the place od those chapters in the Behemoth that is Moby Dick should not be reading literature.

They are either irrational contrarians or under educates Cunts.

My favourite book. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever read, it's touching, it's a long philosophical lecture, it's an epic of Greek proportions. It's everything.

You are a pleb my man, not trying to hurt your feelings or judge you, buy try to go deeper into a book the next time. Moby Dick is rich as fuck, if you know where how to look.

Your spelling shows that you are a shining beacon of education as well.

This guy gets it

Just wanted to chime in. I read Moby Dick this year and it's probably the best thing I've ever read. I can not recommend it highly enough. I don't think it is very difficult but it has tons of references to the Bible and Shakespeare. Get an annotated edition like the Norton critical so these aren't lost on you. It confounds me that there are people on this board who find it "boring". The sheer diversity of content will keep you engaged. The book consists of dozens of very short chapters with extreme stylistic differences. e.g. You will get a chapter with gritty, realistic depictions of whaling, an encyclopedic, technical description of different kinds of whales, some literary monologuing loaded with allusions, and abstract philosophical musings all interwoven to create a totally unique novel. I think Bloom described it not as a novel but an 'epic prose poem'. It is arguably the high watermark of American literature. It also happens to be consistently entertaining and sometimes funny.

tl;dr just read it

things that make moby-dick easier than advertised:

- the chapters are really short, little bitesized portions
- it's actually really funny

I ordered this book a few days ago, should get here soon.

How much am I missing out on if I don't understand the allusions/1? Also should I research the themes, symbols, and motifs before I start? I just want to ensure I'm getting a wholesome experience on my first read-through, especially since the book is quite long and occassionally challenging for someone who doesn't have their face buried in a book around the clock.

Not op, but should I start with Moby-Dick as my first Melville work, or should I read Bartleby or some of his other works first?
I plan on getting through paradise lost before I read Moby-Dick along with some other literature I know influenced it.

Read it op.

>that fucking Queequeg introduction
Sorry my bucktoothed reclusive friend, Melville did it first!

Got so angry you mistyped. Calm down

I'm reading it on my kindle paperwhite which makes it convenient since I can just hold my thumb on an antiquated word to see what it means instead of stopping to look up the word.

if ure a pleb yes

Another vote for 'my favourite book'.

First 100 pages - very easy, Ishmael is on dry land and getting to know his new buddy Queequeg.

Then the middle section is very discursive and is is prob the part people struggle with. My advice is to to read this part in one chapter sittings. It can, upon first reading, be difficult, but re-readings are very rewarding.

Last 100 pages - more exciting than any thriller. Mad Ahab fights Moby Dick. Super easy to read.

fucking scum, i was riveted

make sure you get the only patrician version

this

holy..... i want more...

What's a good edition to get?

...

My spelling is a beacon of haste and a phone. And of being Dutch.

>My spelling is a beacon of haste and a phone. And of being Dutch.

Holy....I want more

This tbqh familia

>allusions

The book is one long allusion, user.

Here is the two sites that I mainly used while reading. This one for chapter summaries when I couldn't understand what the fuck was happening:

shmoop.com/moby-dick/chapter-1-summary.html

and this one for the obscure references. Just go back to it every time you read a chapter. Also I used the Wodsworth edition which has endnotes that help you out as well.

chasingflukes.com/reading_guide-overview/glossary-contents/

Why the massive distracting text about what edition it is? Seems pretty egotistical tbph

>>Is it a hard book to read?
It depends if you're used to reading older literature. There are certainly some older, more difficult vocabulary words and sentences in the book. I first read it when I was 16 and was overwhelmed by the prose. Now, I can read it and appreciate the beauty of it since I'm not tripping over words and trying to interpret the meanings of sentences. I definitely suggest reading it twice to fully understand its importance and get the most out of it.

you're both wrong, best edition is right here and never gets posted.

surprised this is the best image of it I could find without taking a picture of my own copy

>Le snobby Veeky Forums patrician meme

I like you.
>tfw you will never see the painting hanging in the bar filled with whalers

Gonna try to read this again while eating some delish homemade clam chowder. Any recipes, m8s?

I didn't like it that much, found it a bit irritating.
I would like to read it again though and maybe take it a bit slower to take it all in.

i have the harold beaver penguin version with exhaustive endnotes and commentary- they take up more pages than the text itself.

how can your puny edition even compete?

I read this as a child. So, no, it isn't hard to read.

congrats senpai

Haha I was just saying it's easy to understand the plot and what's going on. A child wouldn't pick up the greater meaning of the work or allusions, but it's not as difficult as something like Ulysses.

So, what's the best hardcover edition?

Moby Dick is fantastic. I suggest you read it. English is my second language so some parts were a little difficult for me, but maybe you won't have the same problem.

''Know ye now, Bulkington? Glimpses do ye seem to see of that mortally intolerable truth; that all deep, earnest thinking is but the intrepid effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea; while the wildest winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast her on the treacherous, slavish shore?

But as in landlessness alone resides highest truth, shoreless, indefinite as God—so, better is it to perish in that howling infinite, than be ingloriously dashed upon the lee, even if that were safety! For worm-like, then, oh! who would craven crawl to land! Terrors of the terrible! is all this agony so vain? Take heart, take heart, O Bulkington! Bear thee grimly, demigod! Up from the spray of thy ocean-perishing—straight up, leaps thy apotheosis!

My favorite line of the book.

folio society

Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure. Consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks. Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began.

Consider all this; and then turn to this green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life. God keep thee! Push not off from that isle, thou canst never return!

mine

That's a nice cover for a book that isn't short of beautiful covers.

What makes this version the best?

Is this edition okay?

the cover? we dont read on Veeky Forums so covers are essentially the most important part of any book for us.