Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of Moby-Dick : or, The Whale (Penguin Classics)

Moby-Dick : or, The Whale (Penguin Classics)


A shiphand named Ishmael meets other seafaring men including the strange and hypnotic Captain Ahab. Captain is obsessed with catching the the great white whale named Moby Dick.

I started the book knowing there would be a lot about whales...probably too much. I thought I would give it a shot anyway. At first it was actually better than I thought. We meet Ishmael, and Ishmael meets Queequeg. Together they get to know each other a little and decide to join the crew of Captain Ahab's ship. The story with just Ishmael and Queequeg was interesting I wanted more and it made me hopeful as I read for a bit....but then the direction of the book changed.

Unfortunately about as soon as they get on the Captain Ahab's boat, all the interesting things about Ishmael and Queequeg were gone, not just in one chapter but way too many. By the time I start reading a chapter that is basically a page from an encyclopedia I had enough.

I could not continue reading. I really dislike not finishing a book but my brain could not take the drawn out details about Ahab and the white whale or other whales. Whales are magnificent creatures but man did this just make them really boring.