Moby Dick

Moby Dick by Herman Melville was first published in 1851. Starting with the famous line 'Call me Ishmael', Moby Dick is one of the great American novels. The story follows Ishmael who signs up to go on a whaling ship to escape his life on shore. Only well into the voyage does he finally meet the Captain of the ship, Ahab, and he begins to realise the depth of Ahab's obsessive need for vengeance against Moby Dick, the giant white sperm whale that on the ship's previous voyage had bitten Ahab's leg off at the knee. The book is part whaling manual, part adventure story, part quest for revenge, and part biological textbook, and is also the author spent over a year on a whaling ship himself.