Moby Dick

By: Herman Melville

Narrated by: William Hootkins

Length: 24 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

"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.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

Public Domain (P)2005 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd.

It was Ok... I guess maybe I missed something.

It was Ok... I guess maybe I missed something. The deeper meaning kind of escapes Me. Maybe the crudeness of the mind and chasing monsters that inevitably are your demise. Maybe it's sooo simple that's why I missed it.

Wow

Take your time, listen well. In Melville’s Moby Dick the author is at times humorous, poignant,contemplative and always brilliant in his beautifully written novel. The narration by William Hootkin is so perfect that you lose yourself in this whaling adventure.

Great production of a great book!

Moby Dock is one of my all-time favorite novels. So, needless to say, my expectations for this audiobook were sky-high. After all, there’s nothing worse than hearing a wonderful book performed poorly. Fortunately, my fears were unfounded. William Hootkins truly does justice to this masterpiece. Friends often look askance at me when I tell them how delightfully funny and charming Moby Dick is. Hootkins’ performance brings these aspects of Melville’s novel to life beautifully. Anyone who thinks Melville is boring need only listen to this production to be immediately disabused of that notion!

What a book!

This book as read by Hootkins gets into your unconscious and does a job on it. Who would think that a chapter on the tails of whales could be so mesmerizing? Who can forget the story of the sailor scooping oil out of the head of a whale and slipping into it as the head itself falls overboard, nearly carrying the ship sideways with it? There isn’t a moment that doesn’t make an impression. You know it’s supposed to be a great book but you also know it’s a long one with many passages about the cetaceans and the manner of catching them and—if you’re like me—you expect boredom in parts. Not a bit of it. The writer and the reader both grip you. There are moments of sheer terror and others of humor and others of lyrical splendor. I can hardly believe my luck in having found this on the ‘included’ list.

Kudos to the reader

Great job by the reader. He brought the story to life.
There were parts of this book that were poetic but there were long parts of minutiae as well. I had to speed up the book and often fell asleep with the timer on. I had only seen the film and wanted to hear the original.
I can see how Peter Benchley’s Jaws was influenced by this novel.
This is a throwback novel to a time when people took time to write and time to read.

Tremendous narration

Narrator was great and helped carry me through the detailed whaling exposé... Voice acting for the various characters was top notch and memorable.

Is this sacrilege…

… to give Melville fewer than five stars? There was much that I loved, but parts where I felt some judicious editing may not have been a bad idea.
🙉🙈🙊

Great narrator for a great classic

William Houten did a great job of narrating this classic. The slightly sarcastic tone that he brought to the narration helped make the listening a pleasure.

Joyful over-abundance of drama

the narrators performance is highly riveting so that it underscores each characters indelible mark unto the blue waves of the readers consciousnesses

A dense read, but necessary

When reading the classics I try to remember why the book is famous. This one is famous for being a great American novel, but also stream of consciousness style of writing. A maverick in it’s time. This book holds up and is worth the work.