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Moby Dick

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Moby Dick

By: Herman Melville
Narrated by: William Hootkins
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"Call me Ishmael." Thus starts the greatest American novel. Melville said himself that he wanted to write "a mighty book about a mighty theme" and so he did. It is a story of one man's obsessive revenge-journey against the white whale, Moby-Dick, who injured him in an earlier meeting. Woven into the story of the last journey of The Pequod is a mesh of philosophy, rumination, religion, history, and a mass of information about whaling through the ages.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

Public Domain (P)2005 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd. United States World Literature
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A great yarn about the sea and one man's obsession for an ultimate goal. Melville, who had whaling experience, describes, to the readers of his day, the thrills, the dangers and the way of whaling in his time. We see the type of men that took part, learn about the uses of the whale to society then, such as lighting lamps and umbrella frames. For the modern reader it is first hand knowledge from the past told through the excitement and thrust of story. The narrator, William Hootkins does a good job with the character's voice accents.

History brought to life

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I read this difficult novel when young and did not appreciate it. By listening and reading it many years later, I loved its humanity, humour and wonderful capacious scope. It is a novel that lends itself to be read aloud so listening to such an accomplished actor is a treat.

great novel, beautifully narrated

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William Hootkins narration is so dynamic and passionate he saves Moby Dick from Mellville's arrogant, boring, blow by interminable blow account of the life of an ignorant whaler. The rubbish he spouts for a good two thirds of the book makes me wonder how this story can still be called a classic. The 21st century listener will struggle to tolerate this story. Of the exciting 33% I'd have to say I enjoyed the character and monologues of Stubbs and Ahab and was amused by Ishmael' s initial meeting of Qwequeg but there was too much uninteresting drivel about whalers and whales for me. The conclusion of the story was satisfying and brilliantly read by Hootkins but I will not listen to or read this novel again. Once is enough.

Disappointing story, fantastic narrator.

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I wondered how abridged versions of this book managed to be so short. I now know ..... I also know about whale economy, whale anatomy, whale species, how to kill a whale, how to strip a whale, what each bit is used for and everything else in between. There is no doubt that the subject was thoroughly researched. I found it very interesting and it didn't spoil the story - it just made it incredibly long.

The actual core story of Moby Dick was most enjoyable and very well narrated.

A whale of a time .....

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This was narration at its best. Incredibly well told. Hootkins did a shockingly good job acting multiple voices and a very intense Ahab. His preacher performance is uncanny.
The book itself has a very unusual story full of digressions, which I found gave great context to what is in fact a rather short story.
Navigation across chapters is frustratingly poor as the splits don't correspond to the real chapters making alternating between reading and listening very impractical.

Amazing narration - brilliant book

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