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)

Impeccably written and read accordingly!

This is a captivating story that grips more tightly as the story continues. Although winding is the tale, in itself Melville is entertaining. The manner which Herman Melville puts you on the ocean in the Pequod with Ahab, but takes you along entertaining notions of jocularity with his apt descriptions is comical while at the turn of a phrase becomes maniacal shows his true genius. I have listened to this book repeatedly because of its entertaining value, but also its true picture of man’s depravity so outlined by Ahab’s desire to thwart God. Ahab is not only the Captain of his ship, but strives to be the Captain of his life in all outcomes, as he sees his own imminent failure.

great story, recording has some issues

the recording sounds like it was damaged at some point. deep bass after narrator stop talking and skipping happens several times

Great story low quality editing.

At multiple points in the story the audio cuts out or repeats sentences interrupting the flow and degrading the experience.

more than a simple revenge story

Any additional comments?

Moby Dick is a many faceted novel. It has long sections which serve solely to educate the reader about the taxonomy and anatomy of whales and reads like a naturalist’s field book for an audience which would have no other means to visualize these enormous creatures. There are historical and economic essays on the role of whaling in society. Essays on vessels, equipment and crew with long passages about the life and duties of the whaler. Exacting strategies of landing a whale and method of processing its bulk, along with yields, storage and maintenance. But intertwined with all of the exposition, Herman Melville has incorporated a philosophical, introspective, adventure story with some surprising social commentary for a book published in 1851.

In the tenth chapter we have the marriage of Queequeg and Ishmael, both male characters. Some passages are merely suggestive, such as their union in the Innkeepers wedding bed, and some of the more genial bed play. Some are more overt.

“He seemed to take to me quite as naturally and unbiddenly as I to him; and when our smoke was over, he pressed his forehead against mine, clasped me round the waist, and said that henceforth we were married…”

After which Queequeg divides his belongings and gives half to Ishmael. And again,

"How it is I know not; but there is no place like a bed for confidential disclosures between friends. Man and wife, they say, there open the very bottom of their souls to each other; and some old couples often lie and chat over old times till nearly morning. Thus, then, in our hearts’ honeymoon, lay I and Queequeg – a cosy, loving pair."

Melville also interjects some surprisingly subversive religious opinions. When trying to convince the Quaker owners of the Pequod to allow Queequeg on board, Ishmael argues:

"I mean, sir, the same ancient Catholic Church to which you and I, and Captain Peleg there, and Queequeg here, and all of us, and every mother's son and soul of us belong; the great and everlasting First Congregation of this whole worshipping world; we all belong to that; only some of us cherish some queer crotchets no ways touching the grand belief; in THAT we all join hands."

Or this curious portion of their wedding where Ishmael considers his participation in idol worship.

“I was a good Christian; born and bred in the bosom of the infallible Presbyterian Church. How then could I unite with this wild idolator in worshipping his piece of wood? But what is worship? thought I… to do the will of God--THAT is worship. And what is the will of God?--to do to my fellow man what I would have my fellow man to do to me--THAT is the will of God. Now, Queequeg is my fellow man. And what do I wish that this Queequeg would do to me? Why, unite with me in my particular Presbyterian form of worship. Consequently, I must then unite with him in his; ergo, I must turn idolator. So I kindled the shavings; helped prop up the innocent little idol; offered him burnt biscuit with Queequeg; salamed before him twice or thrice; kissed his nose; and that done, we undressed and went to bed, at peace with our own consciences and all the world”.

Finally, and perhaps my favorite rumination concludes several reflections on man’s violence to one another.

"Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure. Consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks. Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began. Consider all this; and then turn to this green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself?"

Herman Melville’s work is full of complex and beautiful prose, and so much more than the simply revenge story I assumed it to be. Moby Dick is an accurate depiction of the knowledge of the natural sciences - and a window into social and religious consciousness of the 1850s.

I'm just not THAT interested in whaling!

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No. I don't have any friends that would be interested in whaling.

Any additional comments?

I guess I haven't learned my lesson. Some "classic" books are very slooooow moving and filled with excessive detail.

I want to read it again!

So well written read! The performance was exquisite! Thank you!! I can't wait to find more performed by him!

Performance was great

Frank Muller was superb. I am so grateful to have him read me this long, tedious tale. He breathed life into an otherwise deadly dull story.

Muller's Voices Animate the Tableau

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

Wow, what a mind Muller has to keep track of all these character voices for a 24 hour yarn. Always wanted to read this story to understand other literature, but kept getting drowned in the Quaker style and vocabulary. But much smoother sailing for me than for Ahab with Muller as narrator.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Moby-Dick?

This book like so many classics is as much about the vivid imagery as it is the plot. I will be returning to the descriptions of the feminine air and the masculine sea.

Which scene was your favorite?

Action scenes are aplenty, including fascinating mishap while Quiqeg is withdrawing sperm from from a captured whale. I have heard many critics disdain Melville's charactures of indigenous people. But I think in a longer text of 130+ chapters Melville more than adequately implies the sophistication of his characters and shows that the empirialistic and prejudicial aspects of characture stem from the language and culture barriers that divide his characters and thus all people. Melville amply honors the subjegated people described as primitive in this story and adequately has Ishmael contritely acknowledge the simplicity of his description is due to the inadequacy of his understanding and the injustice of his society. Thus, in the many ridiculous and heroic scenes of Polynesian Quiqeg, an African and a Native American, I think Melville paints a valiant and, at the time radical, tribute to all non-white diaspora.

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

Many laughs as Ishmael time and time again tumbles a word free of its prefixes and suffixes to digress into clever double and triple meanings.

Any additional comments?

Be prepared to investigate every cell and membrane of the leviathan whale, with additional distractions and foreshadowing by every wisp of wind, crack of wood or tuft of moss on the peripheral view of Ishmael. It is little wonder if Melville was fired from the busy whaling ships. His talent in Moby Dick is to stare hypnotically into the suds of the surf crashing on deck as time on the open sea either stops completely becalmed or careens into apocalypse.
A quite enjoyable aspect is the vast incorporation of references to landmarks on every continent and throughout the varied regions of the United States. The references are more than passport stamp passings, but similes and metaphors that will intrigue the untraveled and treat the well traveled to a new light on familiar sights. This and Ishmael's survival to tell the tale must be what makes Moby Dick the standard for the ultimate travel journal.

One life is not enough....

One life is simply not enough to savour this lyrical epic from Melville: Unless, you have a master narrator like Frank Muller to spice it up ever so immeasurably.

Better than any of the movies

I’ve seen a movie or two based off this book and this is better. There is no romance and setting the whole thing up to revolve around romance. There is no greed or quests for gold or any of the other trash they put in the movies. It’s about one man who wasn’t content with what he had, so he went looking for more and more. Each time got him in more and more trouble. In the end we need to look at what is around us before we run off to find what we’ve already had.