Moby-Dick; or, the Whale: Selections

by Herman Melville

Overview

When Melville completed Moby-Dick, he wrote to Nathaniel Hawthorne that “I have written a wicked book, and feel spotless as a lamb.” While it took the world some time to appreciate the magnitude of Melville’s achievement, Moby-Dick is now widely considered one of the greatest works of American literature. It is, however, long, and students in semester-long courses will often not have a chance to read the novel in its entirety. The Broadview Moby-Dick: A Selection offers a robust sampling of chapters, chosen to give students a thorough initiation into the novel’s plot, as well as into the full range of its themes and stylistic experimentation. This edition also includes substantial, clear, and helpful annotations to help students successfully navigate Melville’s language and range of references.

This volume is one of a number of editions that have been drawn from the pages of the acclaimed Broadview Anthology of American Literature. The series is designed to make selections from the anthology available in a format convenient for use in a wide variety of contexts; each edition features an introduction and exaplanatory footnotes, and is designed to meet the needs of today’s students.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781554816323
Publisher:	Broadview Press
Publication date:	07/19/2023
Pages:	222
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.42(d)

About the Author

Herman Melville was born in August 1, 1819, in New York City, the son of a merchant. Only twelve when his father died bankrupt, young Herman tried work as a bank clerk, as a cabin-boy on a trip to Liverpool, and as an elementary schoolteacher, before shipping in January 1841 on the whaler Acushnet, bound for the Pacific. Deserting ship the following year in the Marquesas, he made his way to Tahiti and Honolulu, returning as ordinary seaman on the frigate United States to Boston, where he was discharged in October 1844. Books based on these adventures won him immediate success. By 1850 he was married, had acquired a farm near Pittsfield, Massachussetts (where he was the impetuous friend and neighbor of Nathaniel Hawthorne), and was hard at work on his masterpiece Moby-Dick.

Literary success soon faded; his complexity increasingly alienated readers. After a visit to the Holy Land in January 1857, he turned from writing prose fiction to poetry. In 1863, during the Civil War, he moved back to New York City, where from 1866-1885 he was a deputy inspector in the Custom House, and where, in 1891, he died. A draft of a final prose work, Billy Budd, Sailor, was left unfinished and uncollated, packed tidily away by his widow, where it remained until its rediscovery and publication in 1924.

Date of Birth:

August 1, 1819

Date of Death:

September 28, 1891

Place of Birth:

New York, New York

Place of Death:

New York, New York

Education:

Attended the Albany Academy in Albany, New York, until age 15

Table of Contents

Introduction

• Herman Melville
• Moby-Dick; or, the Whale

from Moby-Dick; or, the Whale

• Chapter 1. Loomings
• Chapter 3. The Spouter-Inn
• Chapter 4. The Counterpane
• Chapter 10. A Bosom Friend
• Chapter 11. Nightgown
• Chapter 12. Biographical
• Chapter 23. The Lee Shore
• Chapter 24. The Advocate
• Chapter 25. Postcript
• Chapter 26. Knights and Squires
• Chapter 28. Ahab
• Chapter 32. Cetology
• Chapter 36. The Quarter-Deck
• Chapter 38. Dusk
• Chapter 41. Moby Dick
• Chapter 42. The Whiteness of the Whale
• Chapter 48. The First Lowering
• Chapter 49. The Hyena
• Chapter 64. Stubb’s Supper
• Chapter 68. The Blanket
• Chapter 87. The Grand Armada
• Chapter 89. Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish
• Chapter 93. The Castaway
• Chapter 94. A Squeeze of the Hand
• Chapter 95. The Cassock
• Chapter 99. The Doubloon
• Chapter 102. A Bower in the Arsacides
• Chapter 128. The Pequod Meets the Rachel
• Chapter 132. The Symphony
• Chapter 135. The Chase.—Third Day
• Epilogue

In Context

• Nineteenth-Century Images of Whales and Whaling
• The Story of the Essex
• Selection of Melville’s Letters to Hawthorne, 1851

Editorial Reviews

Comments on The Broadview Anthology of American Literature

“The expansion, diversification, and revitalization of the texts and terms of American literary history in recent years is made marvelously accessible in the … new Broadview Anthology of American Literature.” — Hester Blum, Penn State University

“The Broadview Anthology of American Literature is, quite simply, a breakthrough. … Meticulously researched and expertly assembled, this anthology should be the new gold standard for scholars and teachers alike.” — Michael D’Alessandro, Duke University

“So much thought has been put into every aspect of the Broadview Anthology of American Literature, from the selection of texts to their organization to their presentation on the page; it will be a gift to classrooms for years to come.” — Lara Langer Cohen, Swarthmore College

“The multiplicity of early American locations, languages, and genres is here on wondrous display.” — Jordan Alexander Stein, Fordham University

“Above all, this is a volume for the 21st century. … Its capaciousness and ample resource materials make for a text that is always evolving and meeting its readers in new ways.” — Russ Castronovo, University of Wisconsin-Madison

“a rich collection that reflects the diversity of American literatures…. [and] that never forgets its most important audience: students. There is a wealth of material here that will help them imagine and reimagine what American literature could be.” — Michael C. Cohen, UCLA

“The Broadview Anthology of American Literature is an instructor’s dream for introducing students to the diversity and complexity of American literature.” — Venetria K. Patton, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

“I am eager to teach with this anthology! It aligns with cutting-edge research through its selections, its introductions, and explanatory notes, and the texts are supplemented with primary documents that encourage teachers and students to think critically and dynamically.” — Koritha Mitchell, The Ohio State University

From the Publisher