Moby-Dick

By: Herman Melville

Narrated by: Frank Muller

Length: 21 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

Its famous opening line, "Call me Ishmael", dramatic in its stark simplicity, begins an epic that is widely regarded as the greatest novel ever written by an American. Labeled variously a realistic story of whaling, a romance of unusual adventure and eccentric characters, a symbolic allegory, and a drama of heroic conflict, Moby Dick is first and foremost a great story. It has both the humor and poignancy of a simple sea ballad, as well as the depth and universality of a grand odyssey.

When Melville's father died in 1832, the young man's financial security went too. For a while he turned to school-mastering and clerking, but failed to make a sustainable income. In 1840 he signed up on the whaler, Acushnet, out of New Bedford, Massachusetts. He was just 21. A whaler's life turned out to be both arduous and dangerous, and in 1842, Melville deserted ship. Out of this experience and a wealth of printed sources, Melville crafted his masterpiece.

Public Domain (P)1987 Recorded Books, LLC.

Critic reviews

"Master narrator Frank Muller makes the most of his astonishing theatrical talents and vast experience to perform this tale of extraordinary drama. Muller uses emphasis and pauses to bring clarity to the visual depictions of life on the high seas, as seen by the doe-eyed Ishmael as he is led by the maniacal Captain Ahab. Listeners will hear the depth of emotions in Muller's voice as he paints the stark and shattering visuals of this classic story of revenge and, ultimately, survival." (AudioFile magazine)

Loved it!

If you could sum up Moby-Dick in three words, what would they be?

Quite some story!

Who was your favorite character and why?

No real favorite as each one had their own story told so well.

Which character – as performed by Frank Muller – was your favorite?

The Captain! - He really did get into the role

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Yes! Took my time driving to work and back so that I could listen longer.

Any additional comments?

If you never had the time or inclination to read the book....then to listen is a great way to do it.

Great audiobook

The iconic voice of Ishmael in Moby Dick lends itself to a great audio experience. The tales he tells come alive when there is a voice beyond the page. The narrator chosen for this reading was compelling and made the listening experience entertaining and enjoyable.

Superior Rendition

An extraordinary work of action and contemplation, adventure and spirituality, realism and poetry. Beautifully and dramatically read by Frank Muller – a finely tuned and gripping performance of a book that feels like it was meant to be read aloud.

Excellent on every point.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I have already recommended this audiobook to friends. It's the narration that does it. The book itself needs neither defense nor sales pitch, but the narration could make or break it. Frank Muller maintains an almost impossibly measured and robust pace throughout this epic. I suppose it might be possible for a narrator to do better, to more precisely personify the different characters as if in a play rather than in a book. Anton Lesser did that in his almost impossibly brilliant narration of Tristram Shandy for Audible. While Lesser's performance was dizzyingly skillful, it may have slowed the pace too much for the reading of an epic like Moby Dick. Muller perhaps could have dug deeper into more idiosyncratic portrayals of the characters (although he did pretty darned well as it is), but I suspect that might have slowed things down too much. I often speed-up my listening, using Audible's function to listen at 1.25 or 1.5 x the original narration speed when a book drags or covers information I don't need. Even with Melville's periodic expositions on the history and zoology of whaling, I never felt the need to speed it up. Muller consistently runs a champion marathoner's race. As the book unfolds, Muller's powers of patience and endurance allow the listener to more fully appreciate the staggering genius of Melville's modulation of tempo as the novel builds to its ultimate crescendo. Yes, this book slows down at times, but that's intentional. Muller keeps you moving through the fast and slow patches with ease and good measure. I eventually came to see the wisdom of the occasional detour into biology. By the time the reader/listener actually meets The Great White Whale, we've gotten to know the species inside and out, in science and in legend, and that serves to make the final battle all the more personal and intense. Another reviewer has already said this, but I'll echo it: if you can't make it through this admittedly difficult (but well-worth it) book with this narration, you simply cannot make it through this book at all.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Starbuck stood out for me, but I have to admit that was because of the association his character bears to a certain contemporary purveyor of caffeinated beverages. He's the only one who made a real attempt to call Ahab to sense, to repeatedly question the insane quest of his commander.

Which scene was your favorite?

Chapter 42 is probably my favorite. I was listening to it while at the gym. When it was over, I felt like giving a standing ovation, but I refrained out of respect for my fellow gym-goers. When Melville delves into the symbolism of what The Great White Whale means, he does the analysis for the analyzer. It's a breathtaking chapter, but I don't think it could carry the meaning and power that it does without the reader first having reached it via the previous 41 chapters.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

I'm not sure that I'll ever try to watch a film adaptation of this novel. Movies tend to reduce a novel to little more than plot and character. This novel masters those things, but transcends them. Perhaps, though, were I to indulge in Ahab-worthy hubris and attempt to make a movie out of this book, the tag line might be, "Is Fate the hunter, or the hunted?", or "Do you hunt your fate, or does it hunt you?"

Any additional comments?

I listen to many Audible books, but most of my listening is for the purposes of my work. This was one of my first listens, in a very long time, for the purpose of pure enjoyment. I also read a lot "with my eyes", as it were, and the vast majority of that reading is also dominated by work. But my original love was of novels. This listen was a long-overdue reminder of why I loved reading in the first place. To read, or even to listen to, a book written with a pure love, respect, and mastery of language and storytelling, is a deep, deep joy. But to experience a book like this, that grapples with and helps us to understand the most crucial puzzles of human existence —that is a blessing. If I hadn't been able to listen while at the gym, or doing dishes or laundry, or driving to a far-away job, I don't think I would have read this book until retirement. I am so grateful that the technology exists to have allowed me to experience this now, even while I continue to be overwhelmed by the responsibilities of my work.

This may be inapplicable to an Audible review, but this book makes me want to watch the original "Jaws" movie again. I think that the writers of that movie were heavily influenced by _Moby_Dick_.

It was okay

Most, if not everyone, knows something about Moby Dick. It's pretty famous; it has been parodied, or referenced in so many different media. I think because of this, I was expecting a huge spectacle of a story, and at first, that was the case. "The old crazy man chasing the giant white whale." The passion and madness Captain Ahab gives off is the exact kind of craze I was looking for, it was great. My whole listen I could imagine seeing the crazy old man in a movie. The description given by the main character does, at times, paints a picture of many experiences he observes during this tale. Only thing though, he becomes lost in the narration he's given, not truly letting us connect to him directly. The voice actor that's narrating the book did a superb job capturing the different personalities; differentiating between all the characters. However, where this book loses points for me is the middle section of the story really drags. There is a lot of description in a poetic old way of talk "shalleth, of thee, art thou," that's used in such a big robust way, that the descriptions become either hard to follow, unnecessary, or a just plain complex way to say something simple. With this though, it's still a story worth visiting. Check it out!

Long. Detailed. Extremely well performed.

This is a good story, full of details, with an excellent performance by the narrator.

It's about a big fish

The book is wordy in places, but two of the things Melville does extremely well are his use of alliteration and his ability to convey action through dialogue.

Yes, it's about a whale hunt and how dangerous they are, and maybe it's all the chapters he diverts from the main story to talk about whales, but somewhere along the way I began to root for the whale. That's the true genius of the story, he gives us likeable protagonists and, by the end of the book, still has you actively hoping they'll lose.

Spectacular

Worth every penny. I enjoy listening to this book regularly. Great performance by the narrator Frank Muller and Melville’s writing is amazingly insightful and intelligent. It’s fascinating to me how much knowledge one person could have so long ago. Enjoy

Basically perfect

I rolled my eyes when I heard a friend was reading this. I was so wrong.

The book is stupid good. Funny, insightful, creative, touching and suspenseful. There’s a lot of description, but all of it serves a purpose in explaining the story.

It reminded me there is true talent and things to admire in the world, despite all the ugliness and idiocy of our times.

Too much filler!

Is there anything you would change about this book?

It started with about 3 hours of first person narrative, then 16 hours of needless lecturing by a third person omniscient but ending with 3 hours of a decent story. Those 16 hours could be skipped and the reader would almost certainly view the ending the same as after reading the entire novel.

Would you ever listen to anything by Herman Melville again?

His writing does have a pleasant poetic feel to it, so I would if it was half as long