Moby-Dick or, The Whale
Melville wrote an obsessive, encyclopedic novel about whaling that is really about everything — God, nature, America, race, and the human compulsion to pursue the unknowable.
“Call me Ishmael.”
Why It Matters
Melville wrote an obsessive, encyclopedic novel about whaling that is really about everything — God, nature, America, race, and the human compulsion to pursue the unknowable. It failed on publication and was not recognized as a masterpiece until the 1920s. "Call me Ishmael" is the most famous opening in American fiction, and Ahab's doomed hunt is the great American myth.
The 
Take
Personal reviewThis book is so well crafted, it’s hard to believe a more impressive book could be written. Will it be my favorite book? Probably not, a little too lofty and poetic, but it’s incredible nonetheless. Packed with well researched interesting descriptions of whaling, poetic imagery to relate it to life in general, references to biblical stories, mythology, Shakespeare, science, art and more, Melville impressively takes what in reality is a collection of surface level expository chapters and with them, dives down into a deep philosophical reflection. The narrative is quite simple and overarching, but is really like 1/20th of the book.
Notable Quotes
“I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing.”
“It is not down on any map; true places never are.”