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Moby Dick

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Moby Dick

By: Herman Melville
Narrated by: William Hootkins
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About this listen

 "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.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

Public Domain (P)2005 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd. United States World Literature
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Easily the most frustrating book I’ve ever read. Just as Melville starts reeling you into the story (pun intended) he goes off on a tangent for literal hours about the anatomy of a whale or some similarly dull topic. Painful to complete. Well narrated though.

Frustrating

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The voice acting in this audiobook was absolutely phenomenal. The narrator gave life to what otherwise would have been a bit of a slog. I loved it.

Incredible voice acting

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Melville is so keen to brandish his knowledge of cetology that the story oftentimes stalls, and his clunky use of figures of rhetoric becomes tiresome.

If his research had been edited down so that it complemented the moral and thematic lines of story, then the whole tome would have been less scholarly and more literary.

If you're willing to be battered by facts, epizeuxis and alliteration, then welcome to Moby Dick.

The narration is excellent, and you'll comfortably zip through this at 2.5 speed

Excellent narration

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I owe it to the narrator’s incredible voice acting that I finished. I’m glad I read this book, as I’ve been wanting to give it a try for a long time, but there’s no denying that it’s a slog in places. I think if I were ever to read it again I’d look for an abridged version.

Excellent audiobook

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If you have struggled with reading Moby Duck before, then this is the audiobook for you. The narrator has exactly the right tone for Ishmael and makes the long essays on whaling esoterica at least bearable. He also captures all the characters’ voices brilliantly. There’s no denying that it is still a slog in some places, or indeed for whole hours of listening, but he makes it comprehensible and that is no small thing.

Best narration imaginable

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I really feel I should hate this book. 24 hours of Wikipedia like stuff about whales mixed with very very funny and odd scenes.
Having waited for the whaling scenes that I watched in the animated version of this as a kid and they did make me cry then. You wait all book for it to come. Just insane all of it.
But the reasons is so sensational, Melville seems like such a lovely mind, and the language so wonderfully paced and the ending so oddly beautiful I cannot piss on it.

Do like it. Yes. A lot. Because now I have read a book nobody has read but everyone knows about. Like Ulysses. That gives me bragging rights and that is very important.

Do I recommend anyone to read this book. I don’t. But if you are insane you will enjoy it.

Such a bizarre book

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great performance but a lot of nonsense explaining happens telling the story, story could have been 6hr short with none of nonsense

long..

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Incredible voice acting and storytelling in this novel it made me happy it made me smile good job everyone

Best voice acting I’ve ever heard

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Moby Dick is an incredible adventure about vengeance, camaraderie, and whales.

While some will find its frequent, lengthy digressions into cetology and whaling distracting, I found them engrossing and endearing. Importantly, they complement the story: you learn alongside Ishmael and become a part of the crew, with the intrigue and tension of the central narrative enhanced by these ‘distractions’ from it.

Its setting is excellent: the Pequod is not only a vessel in pursuit of the white whale, but is a microcosm of society more broadly, while that pursuit on the vast, open ocean mirrors humanity’s search for meaning.

Moby Dick is rich in symbolism and imagery, and offers incredible versatility: from biblical allegory, to rousing passages on Jacksonian democracy, to Shakespearean drama.

A wonderful voyage.

A Masterful Voyage

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I’d heard so much about this book and thought I knew the tale, but of course I didn’t know and enjoyed every minute. Beautifully written, perfectly read.

More than I’d hope for.

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