Herman Melville's Moby-Dick Is Published
Herman Melville's *Moby-Dick*, or *The Whale*, was published on November 14, 1851, and is now regarded as a classic of American literature. The novel, which follows the obsessive quest of Captain Ahab to hunt the elusive white whale, Moby-Dick, was inspired by real-life maritime disasters and the legendary sperm whale known as "Mocha Dick." At the time of its release, *Moby-Dick* did not achieve commercial success, facing criticism for its unconventional structure and dark themes, which reflected a more indifferent view of nature. The decline of the whaling industry also contributed to its lukewarm reception. However, the novel gained recognition in the 20th century, particularly after being rediscovered in the literary canon during the early 1900s, spurred by changing societal perspectives following World War I. Melville's complex narrative incorporates various literary styles, making it a rich subject for scholarly interpretation. Despite struggling financially throughout his life, Melville continued to write, producing other works of fiction and poetry until his death in 1891. *Moby-Dick* remains a profound exploration of obsession, nature, and the human condition, inviting readers to reflect on its many layers.
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Herman Melville's Moby-Dick Is Published
Herman Melville's Moby-Dick Is Published
Herman Melville's most famous novel, Moby-Dick, or The Whale, was published on November 14, 1851. Moby-Dick was not a great success in Melville's lifetime, but since its rediscovery in the 20th century it has been recognized as a classic.
Melville was born on August 1, 1819, in New York City. His father, an importer, died in 1832, leaving the family with financial problems. After Melville completed his schooling at the age of 15 he spent two years at various jobs before signing on as a cabin boy aboard a ship bound for Liverpool, England. Upon his return to the United States, he joined the whaling vessel Acushnet in January 1841 and headed for the South Seas. When the Acushnet anchored in the Marquesas Islands 18 months later, Melville and a companion jumped ship and lived for a month with the natives. He next sailed from 1843–44 with the frigate United States. These years of travel and adventure would inspire some of his best-known and most popular works, including Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life (1846) and its sequel, Omoo (1847).
Melville wrote three more novels over the next three years—Mardi (1949); Redburn, His First Voyage (1849); and White Jacket, or the World in a Man-of-War (1850)—before writing his greatest work, Moby-Dick (1851), which he would dedicate to his friend and neighbor, the author Nathaniel Hawthorne. Moby-Dick is based on two separate stories of disasters at sea. The first was that of the legendary wreck of the Essex, a whaling ship which left Nantucket for the South Pacific and was rammed by an 80-foot sperm whale in 1820. After 90 days at sea, only 5 of the 20 crew members were rescued, the rest having died from starvation and cannibalism. The other incident involves a notorious, gigantic white sperm whale with a reputation for terrorizing ships and their crews. Because it was frequently sighted off the island of Mocha, it became known as “Mocha Dick.” It is from this story that Melville is said to have derived the name, as well as the color, for his fictional whale.
The essence of Moby-Dick is the struggle between Captain Ahab, master of the whaler Pequod, and Moby-Dick, the white whale that tore off his leg. It is told through the eyes of Ishmael, a man who signs aboard the whaler. On one level, it is an adventure story. On another level, it is full of allegory and symbolism, as Ahab's destructive obsession with killing the whale prompts the narrator (and the reader) to analyze the captain's true motivation, the meaning of his quest, and, in one famous chapter, the “whiteness of the whale.” The book is written in a varied style, containing soliloquies, action, and technical passages about the science of cetology. Many interpretations of Moby-Dick have been offered by scholars over the last century, but their only point of agreement is that it is one of the richest, most complex works in American literature.
Moby-Dick was neither a critical nor a financial success for Melville when it was published. Its unconventional structure and style struck reviewers as “absurd,” “inartistic,” and “eccentric.” Moreover, the whaling industry was in decline since the discovery of kerosene and no longer held the same romantic fascination for the public as it did earlier in the century. A third reason for the novel's critical and financial failure may have been its dark theme, for in Moby-Dick nature is shown to be not only indifferent to the struggles of men but also greater than men, posing insurmountable challenges.
Whatever the reason, U.S. sales of the book lagged well behind those in Great Britain, where Moby-Dick attracted the attention of some of England's more discerning readers. Just before World War I, Everyman's Library republished the novel in England, and Melville's centenary in 1919 saw a new appreciation of the book by returning war veterans, whose outlook had turned decidedly dark and introspective. These circumstances along with the 1921 publication of the biography Herman Melville, Mariner and Mystic by Raymond Weaver, contributed to the novel's rediscovery in the 20th century. In 1941 the American scholar F. O. Matthiessen included Melville among the canon of great 19th-century writers in his landmark work American Renaissance, and Melville's place in the world of American letters was secure.
Melville continued to write after Moby-Dick's publication, composing works of fiction, including the novel The Confidence-Man (1857), and poetry, beginning with the Civil War collection Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866). Unable to support his family with his writing, he lectured for a short time until, from 1866 to 1885, he took a position as a customs inspector for New York City. Melville died on September 28, 1891, in New York City and is buried there, in Woodlawn Cemetery. Several months before he died, Melville completed the novella Billy Budd, which would be published by Constable in England in 1924 as part of the first complete collection of his works.