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Moby Dick

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Moby Dick

By: Herman Melville
Narrated by: Anthony Heald
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Summary

One of the great works of American literature, Moby-Dick is the epic tale of one man’s fight against a force of nature.

The outcast youth Ishmael, succumbing to wanderlust during a dreary New England autumn, signs up for passage aboard a whaling ship. The Pequod sails under the command of the one-legged Captain Ahab, who has set himself on a maniacal quest to capture the cunning white whale that robbed him of his leg: Moby-Dick.

Capturing life on the sea with robust realism, Melville details the adventures of the colorful crew aboard the ship as Ahab pursues his crusade of revenge, heedless of all cost. This masterfully symbolic drama of the conflict between man and his fate has a special intensity that listeners will not soon forget.

(P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Action & Adventure Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Sea Adventures Adventure

Critic Reviews

“The greatest of American novels.”

(Atlantic Monthly)

“Even tenth-grade-me could have appreciated the book as read in Anthony Heald’s sardonic, Silence of the Lambs intonation. Generally speaking, witty books seem to have the most to gain in audio form…particularly when read by great voice artists.”

(BookRiot (audio review))

“Narrator Anthony Heald not only creates vivid characterizations—Captain Ahab’s gruff mania, Starbuck’s doubtful sensitivity, the prophet Elijah’s visionary shakiness—he also dramatizes the many moods of the Pequod crew and the mercurial ocean itself. Heald’s voice has the range of a piano, and he uses it like a virtuoso…Heald’s voice bristles dryly with humor or sinks with dread—a range necessary to tell this complex story.”

(AudioFile)

“An epic, rewarding, sea-worthy journey awaits you in one of literature’s classic tales.”

(Amazon.com)

“A work tantalizingly subversive, and yet somehow if not affirming at least forgiving of the blind destructiveness of human nature and of nature itself.”

(Elizabeth Hardwick, American literary critic)

“Responsive to the shaping forces of his age as only men of passionate imagination are, even Melville can hardly have been fully aware of how symbolical an American hero he had fashioned in Ahab.”

(F. O. Matthiessen, literary critic)
All stars
Most relevant
Very pretty writing style. At times it got too detailed for my brain to stay focused on the story.

packed

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It has some good parts but it is very hard work to get into, the performance was good just the writing makes it difficult

Hard Work

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I haven’t been able to face getting back into Moby Dick since I was at school, so the Audible book felt like the most accessible. And I wasn’t disappointed. The tale itself is at its best a swashbuckling tale of camaraderie, mateSHIP and obsession and at its worst a sailor’s detailed manual of every single detail you could ever need to know about boats, whales and sailing knots. When it’s not getting bogged down by itself the story is a joy, and although Anthony Heald only appears to have one other accent as his disposal for characters, I grew to love him and his narrative styling over the course of the rather epic run-time. Would recommend if you love complete and utter immersion in the language.

“There she blows!”

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Having this book read to you is excellent. I have tried reading this book in novel form several times and given up. But it is just excellent having it read to you. Most enjoyable. Give it a go !

Brilliant classic

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Hermin Melville's story rightfully holds its place in the pantheon of classic 19th century literature. Whilst I spent the whole time feeling sorry for the whales, the book is an entertaining and balanced exploration of the whaling world as it existed in the 1840s-50s. The character studies and internal subjective thought perceptions of the various persons itself is wonderfully captured and presented. And the narration of this edition is simply masterful.

A true classic and an absorbing tale

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