Alison Larkin Presents: Moby Dick and Two Poems by Herman Melville

By: Herman Melville

Narrated by: Jonathan Epstein

Length: 25 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Melville’s epic tale of one man versus a great white whale will delight Melville devotees as well as those who have yet to sail on this adventure in this mesmerizing new recording read by Jonathan Epstein.

The mountain whose whale-like shape first gave Melville the idea of writing Moby Dick rests in the Berkshire Hills, Massachusetts, a short drive away from The Alison Larkin Presents recording studio. “I’d been longing to produce Moby Dick ever since I moved to Westeern Massachusetts,” says producer Alison Larkin, “but I wanted to wait to find the perfect actor first. Then, I found Jonathan Epstein.”

At the end of the recording, Larkin interviews Jonathan Epstein and recording engineer Galen Wade about the experience recording the great novel.

Jonathan Epstein is an acclaimed actor who has performed on and off Broadway, in London’s West End, and with the world-renowned Shakespeare & Company. Epstein is the two-time recipient of Boston’s coveted Elliot Norton Award.

Public Domain (P)2021 Alison Larkin Presents

Shakespearean actors should read us all classics

I loved this story and the reading of it. I sometimes, like to do a combination of listening and reading a book. This is a great candidate for that because the chapters are so short. When I was reading vs listening, I heard Johnathan Epstein's voice in my head. I'm so thankful for this production and look forward to more Alison Larkin productions.

Amazing performance

Hypnotic. Epstein and Melville are genius. Loved this title. Highly recommend. Gets Melville’s humor spot on.

Outstanding Performance by Mr. Epstein!

In this thoughtful and impassioned performance you will experience Moby Dick as a play. Jonathan Epstein masterfully gives unique vocal accent and distinction to each character. The beauty and intricacy of the language is expressed in every chapter and I savored each one. This performance allows one to experience the epic Moby Dick in a very human and moving way. It is not too dramatic to say that this is a life-altering book.

Now I know where Kahn gets his lines from

...to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee. I'll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I give him up. Amazing!

Magnificent!

Having at 18 pained my way through the assignment of reading what I then took to be a much too long book laboriously detailing more than anyone could ever want to know about whales and whaling I was made curious at age 85 to see what could could have made this damned leviathan of a book one of the best audio interpretations of the year. What was there that even one of our best Shakespearean actors could make worth listening to for 24 hours.
Suffice it to say that at the end I joined the audio engineer who admitted in an Afterword interview to have broken down in tears and sobbing on the night before recording this great interpreter’s reading of the last chapter. No kidding.

Absolutely outstanding

I listened to this superb audiobook on a long car journey between Georgia and Boston and back again. What an experience! I have come to expect outstanding quality from Alison Larkin Presents productions and this exceeded even my high expectations.

The infamous story has been brought to life by a narrator at the top of his game. Jonathan Epstein's performance has you entranced from the very beginning. My teenage daughter loved it every bit as much as I did.

I found the interview at the end between the producer Alison Larkin and the narrator and the engineer so very interesting. They recorded it during the pandemic and the story about Epstein driving up to Melville territory to record this was fascinating. It was also very interesting to hear from a recording engineer how deeply he was affected by the experience. If I could give this one more than five stars, I surely would.

Masterful

Jonathan Epstein does an absolutely brilliant job with this book. His accents and dialects are spot on, but most importantly, he clearly understands what Melville was writing and why. The greatness of Melville's work comes through in how engaging the narration is. Melville is tackling the most deep and mysterious themes of human nature. In order to do this, he writes a story that includes keen, scientific observations of the details of the world and of life. Melville's way of dancing back and forth from the action of the story to scientific descriptions of whaling and then back to musing on human nature needs a Shakespearean actor to bring out the breadth of the subject. This production has found that narrator who reads the American Shakespeare in a hugely engaging way. I could not have loved this production more

A long read, or listen, with a lot to digest!

"All the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick." - Ishmael, Chapter 41.

About a month ago I have set sail on the vast pages of Herman Melville's Moby Dick or The Whale and I have met the white whale and survived!!!! Now don't ask me to have a huge discussion on it because I so didn't grasp much, but I finished this huge piece of literature that is one of the great classics of Western literature and that is one hell of an achievement hahahaha.

Three valuable lessons I took from it is one must be careful so they don't obsess over things, listen to your friends when they try to tell you that you have gone bat shit crazy, and find yourself a good pagan friend because they are awesome and will have your back hahahaha. Herman Melville's book Moby Dick is definitely a challenge to get through and is definitely a book that needs ro be dissected and read a little slower so one can understand the vast depths of Herman's prose and symbolism. Having a broader understanding of the world, religion, and cultural history also helps to understand this colossus of a book as Herman loves to pull from so many areas of life to convey the message of the book, which is a lot in itself. After reading this book I actually watched a few videos on different interpretations and reviews of the book, and I also read quite a few articles and even CliffsNotes on the book just so I can further understand this classic.

Moby Dick has many, many, themes to it and is full of many different symbolisms. I have read many different thoughts on the book, and some I disagree with or just don't understand how they came to those conclusions. What I personally took from the book is that it is about obsession and revenge, what is good and evil, life and death and rebirth, humanity, nature versus nurture, religious tolerance, friendship, and even racism and racial tolerance which would have been very surprising in 19th century writing and which kind of made this book a trailblazer in its time.

Some also say this book also was about gay marriage which I personally didn't feel it was. Ishmael and Queequeg were close friends, this is true, and I think people read the words "marriage", when Queequeg liked Ishmael in the beginning of the book, as a romantic union, but personally taking who he was and where Queequeg came from I feel he was saying him and Ismael were close friends, inseparable, and I feel it was more of a "marriage" between two elements, Pagan and Christianity and how these two were cohabitating. And the reason I say this is I feel the whole book is about opposites and contrasting beliefs, but is also about tolerance between these differences along with working and living together. The ship itself, The Pequod, is also said to be a microcosm of the world itself as it is a small space where men of different religions, ethnicities, skin color, and personalities all cohabitate together and must work together in order to survive. Their success and own survival depends on the trust and the working together of the crew, and a huge part of this is shown in the friendship of Ishmael and Queequeg, who were my favorite two characters.

All in all Moby Dick was definitely a challenging endeavor for sure. As it was written in 1851 the writing is a challenge, the book is huge, and the story is interrupted quite a bit about whale lore, whaling history, and sailing knowledge. This is why I gave the book three stars. It definitely wasn't a book I usually read, I did struggle to finish it and almost wanted to give up on this voyage and set sail for land half way through, but Herman Melville definitely knows how to write beautifully, poetically, and also with humor and that's what I did enjoy.

"To the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee." - Captain Ahab, Chapter 135.

Fantastic Delivery! Story a bit overhyped

Jonathan Epstein has set the bar when it comes to a true 5 star performance. I may have to adjust prior reviews accordingly. The dialects and delivery of complex subject material is absolutely fantastic. Beautifully done. As for story this is my first time reading/listening to Moby Dick and perhaps my expectations were a bit high. There is no doubt Melville is a Master of the pen. His language and prose is delightful and metaphors definitely hit. However, the story to details ratio was really off. At times the level of detail seemed completely unnecessary and more of a flex by the author to demonstrate his knowledge of the sea, whales, and industry. The hook could be half as long and I would still feel it to be just as rich.