AP Novel: Moby Dick
Author: Herman Melville


In the classic novel Moby Dick, written by Herman Melville, first time whale man Ishmael discovers just what being a whaler is. This takes you into the adventures of a whaling fleet versus the great white whale.

In the 1948 novel a young merchant sailor names Ishmael, who has never killed anything before, finds a ship named the Pequod and joins her crew in the hunt for the great white known as Moby Dick. Thus changing everything that Ishmael thought he knew about himself, while tossing the reader into a whirlpool of adventure.

Ishmael’s adventures include sleeping with a savage, Queequeg, and learning more about who Captain Ahab truly is.

When Ishmael tells the reader, “ while the life of a great whale’s body may have been a real terror to his foes, in death his ghost becomes a powerless panic to a world”, it shows just how much respect must be given to a creature that was not only known in life but in death.

I personally did not enjoy this book, but I recommend it for those looking to learn more about how whaling life was such a time ago.