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. This epic story, here presented in unabridged form, receives an equally epic reading from the outstanding American actor William Hootkins.
8 Terrors Upon Terrors Run Shouting Through His Soul
9 But Again He Leaned Over Towards the People
10 Chapter 10: A Bosom Friend
11 As I Sat There in That Now Lonely Room
12 Chapter 11: Nightgown
13 Chapter 12: Biographical
14 Chapter 13: Wheelbarrow
15 At Last, Passage Paid and Luggage Safe
- Disc 3 -
1 The Schooner Was Run Into the Wind
2 Chapter 14: Nantucket
3 Chapter 15: Chowder
4 However, a Warm Savory Steam from the Kitchen
5 Chapter 16: The Ship
6 Now When I Looked About the Quarter-Deck
7 For a Moment I Stood a Little Puzzled
8 Now, Bildad, I Am Sorry to Say
9 But One Thing Nevertheless
10 But I Had Not Proceeded Far
11 Chapter 17: The Ramadan
12 With a Prodigious Noise the Door Flew Open
13 Now As I Before Hinted, I Have No Objection
14 Chapter 18: His Mark
15 So Down We Went Into the Cabin
16 Chapter 19: The Prophet
- Disc 4 -
1 Look Here. Friend, Said I
2 Chapter 20: All Astir
3 Chapter 21: Going Aboard
4 Chapter 22: Merry Christmas
5 At Last the Anchor Was Up
6 Chapter 23: The Lee Shore
7 Chapter 24: The Advocate
8 Until the Whale Fishery Rounded Cape Horn
9 Chapter 25: Postscript
10 Chapter 26: Knights and Squires
11 With Memories Like These in Him
12 Chapter 27: Knights and Squires
13 First of All Was Queequeg
14 Chapter 28: Ahab
15 So Powerfully Did the Whole Grim Aspect
16 Chapter 29: Enter Ahab; to Him, Stubb
- Disc 5 -
1 I Was Never Served So Before
2 Chapter 30: The Pipe
3 Chapter 31: Queen Mab
4 Chapter 32: Cetology
5 Now the Various Species of Whales Need
6 Book 1 (Folio) Chapter 1: (Sperm Whale)
7 In Connection with This Appellative
8 Octavoes
9 Duodecimoes
10 Chapter 33: The Specksynder
11 Chapter 34: The Cabin-Table
12 What a Relief It Was to Choking Stubb
13 It Was a Sight to See Queequeg Seated
14 Chapter 35: The Mast-Head
15 It May Seem Unwarrantable to Couple in Any Respect
- Disc 6 -
1 In Shape, the Sleets Crows-Nest
2 Let Me Make a Clean Breast of It Here
3 Chapter 36: The Quarter-Deck
4 Receiving the Top-Maul from Starbuck
5 Hark Ye Yet Again ? the Little Lower Layer
6 Receiving the Brimming Pewter
7 Chapter 37: Sunset
8 Chapter 38: Dusk
9 Chapter 39: First Night Watch
10 Chapter 40: Midnight, Forecastle
11 They Cease Dancing and Gather in Clusters
12 Chapter 41: Moby-Dick
13 But There Were Still Other and More Vital
14 But Even Stripped of These Supernatural Surmisings
15 It Is Not Probable That This Monomania
- Disc 7 -
1 Now, in His Heart, Ahab Had Some Glimpse
2 Chapter 42: The Whiteness of the Whale
3 Bethink Thee of the Albatross
4 But There Are Other Instances
5 Or What Is There Apart from the Traditions
6 But Thou Sayest, Methinks This White-Lead Chapter
7 Chapter 43: Hark!
8 Chapter 44: The Chart
9 There Was a Circumstance Which at First Sight
10 But Granting All This
11 Chapter 45: The Affidavit
12 I Do Not Know Where I Can Find a Better Place
13 The Following Are Extracts from Chaces Narrative
14 In That Up and Down Manly Book
15 Chapter 46: Surmises
- Disc 8 -
1 Chapter 47: The Mat-Maker
2 Chapter 48: The First Lowering
3 In Obedience to a Sign from Ahab
4 Meanwhile Stubb, Betrayed on Such Far-Gazing
5 Meanwhile, All the Boats Tore on
6 Chapter 49: The Hyena
7 Chapter 50: Ahabs Boat and Crew. Fedallah
8 Chapter 51: The Spirit-Spout
9 But, at Last, When Turning to the Eastward
10 Chapter 52: The Albatross
11 Chapter 53: The Gam
12 But Look at the Godly, Honest, Unostentatious
13 Chapter 54: The Town-Hos Story
- Disc 9 -
1 Lakeman! Buffalo!
2 It Was Not More Than a Day or Two
3 Quitting the Pump at Last
4 Ere the Cry Could Go Aft
5 I Left Off, Gentlemen, Where the Lakeman
6 At Sunrise the Captain Went Forward
7 At Sunrise He Summoned All Hands
8 During the Night, Radney Had An Unseamanlike Way
9 In Good Time, the Town-Ho Reached Her Port
10 Chapter 55: Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales
11 In Old Harriss Collection of Voyages
12 As for the Sign-Painters Whales Seen in the Streets
13 Chapter 56: Of the Less Erroneous Pictures
14 Who Garnery the Painter Is, or Was, I Know Not
15 Chapter 57: Of Whales in Paint; in Teeth; in Wood
- Disc 10 -
1 At Some Old Gable-Roofed Country Houses
2 Chapter 58: Brit
3 Chapter 59: Squid
4 Chapter 60: The Line
5 Before Lowering the Boat for the Chase
6 Chapter 61: Stubb Kills a Whale
7 Start Her, Start Her, My Men!
8 Chapter 62: The Dart
9 Chapter 63: The Crotch
10 Chapter 64: Stubbs Supper
11 If Moody Ahab Was Now All Quiescence
12 But, As Yet, Stubb Heeded Not the Mumblings
13 Upon This, Fleece, Holding Both Hands Over the Fishy Mob
14 Chapter 65: The Whale As a Dish
15 Chapter 66: The Shark Massacre
- Disc 11 -
1 Chapter 67: Cutting in
2 Chapter 68: The Blanket
3 A Word or Two More Concerning This Matter
4 Chapter 69: The Funeral
5 Chapter 70: The Sphynx
6 Chapter 71: The Jeroboams Story
7 He Had Been Originally Nurtured
8 It Seemed That the Jeroboam Had Not Long Left Home
9 Chapter 72: The Monkey-Rope
10 I Have Hinted That I Would Often
11 Chapter 73: Stubb and Flask Kill a Right Whale
12 While the Two Headsmen Were Engaged
13 The Boats Were Then Hailed
14 Chapter 74: The Sperm Whales Head ? Contrasted View
15 But the Ear of the Whale Is Full As Curious As the Eye
16 Chapter 75: The Right Whales Head ? Contrasted View
- Disc 12 -
1 A Great Pity, Now
2 Chapter 76: The Battering-Ram
3 Chapter 77: The Great Heidelburgh Tun
4 Chapter 78: Cistern and Buckets
5 Almost in the Same Instant
6 Chapter 79: The Prairie
7 Chapter 80: The Nut
8 Chapter 81: The Pequod Meets the Virgin
9 With One Intent All the Combined Rival Boats
10 Seeing Now That But a Very Few Moments More
11 Stand By, Men; He Stirs, Cried Starbuck
12 Soon, While the Crews Were Awaiting the Arrival
13 Chapter 82: The Honour and Glory of Whaling
14 Whether to Admit Hercules Among Us or Not
- Disc 13 -
1 Chapter 83: Jonah Historically Regarded
2 Chapter 84: Pitchpoling
3 Chapter 85: The Fountain
4 It Has Been Said That the Whale Only Breathes
5 Nor Is It at All Prudent for the Hunter
6 Chapter 86: The Tail
7 Five Great Motions Are Peculiar to It
8 Fifth: As in the Ordinary Floating Posture
9 Chapter 87: The Grand Armada
10 Now, As Many Sperm Whales Had Been Captured
11 But Thoughts Like These Troubled Very Few
12 All Whaleboats Carry Certain Curious Contrivances
13 But Far Beneath This Wondrous World
14 Meanwhile, As We Thus Lay Entranced
15 Chapter 88: Schools and Schoolmasters
16 But Supposing the Invader of Domestic Bliss
- Disc 14 -
1 The Forty-Barrel-Bull Schools
2 Chapter 89: Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish
3 These Pleadings and the Counter Pleadings
4 Chapter 90: Heads or Tails
5 In a Word the Whale Was Seized and Sold
6 Chapter 91: The Pequod Meets the Rosebud
7 Now in Order to Hold Direct Communication
8 By This Time Their Destined Victim Appeared
9 Chapter 92: Ambergris
10 Chapter 93: The Castaway
11 So Soon As He Recovered Himself
12 Chapter 94: The Squeeze of the Hand
13 Now, While Discoursing of Sperm
14 Chapter 95: The Cassock
15 Chapter 96: The Try-Works
16 So Seemed It to Me, As I Stood at Her Helm
- Disc 15 -
1 Chapter 97: The Lamp
2 Chapter 98: Stowing Down and Clearing Up
3 Chapter 99: The Doubloon
4 No Fairy Fingers Can Have Pressed the Gold
5 I See Nothing Here, But a Round Thing Made of Gold
6 Chapter 100: Leg and Arm
7 It Was the First Time in My Life
8 Yes, I May As Well, Said the Surgeon Coolly
9 Chapter 101: The Decanter
10 But Why Was It, Think Ye, That the Samuel Enderby
11 Chapter 102: A Bower in the Arsacides
12 Now, When with Royal Tranquo I Visited
13 Chapter 103: Measurement of the Whales Skeleton
14 Chapter 104: The Fossil Whale
- Disc 16 -
1 Detached Broken Fossils
2 Chapter 105: Does the Whales Magnitude Diminish?
3 But You Must Look at This Matter in Every Light
4 Chapter 106: Ahabs Leg
5 Chapter 107: The Carpenter
6 Chapter 108: Ahab and the Carpenter
7 Look Ye, Carpenter, I Dare Say Thou Callest
8 Chapter 109: Ahab and Starbuck in the Cabin
9 Chapter 110: Queequeg in His Coffin
10 Not a Man of the Crew Gave Him Up
11 But Ere This Was Done, Pip, Who Had Been
12 Chapter 111: The Pacific
13 Chapter 112: The Blacksmith
- Disc 17 -
1 Chapter 113: The Forge
2 This Done, Perth Was About to Begin Welding
3 Chapter 114: The Gilder
4 Chapter 115: The Pequod Meets the Bachelor
5 Chapter 116: The Dying Whale
6 Chapter 117: The Whale Watch
7 Chapter 118: The Quadrant
8 Chapter 119: The Candles
9 Now, As the Lightning Rod to a Spire on Shore
10 Oh! Thou Clear Spirit of Clear Fire
11 Chapter 120: The Deck Towards the End of the First Night Watch
12 Chapter 121: Midnight ? the Forecastle Bulwarks
13 Chapter 122: Midnight Aloft ? Thunder and Lightning
14 Chapter 123: The Musket
15 He Would Have Shot Me Once
16 Chapter 124: The Needle
17 Meanwhile, Whatever Were His Own Secret Thoughts
- Disc 18 -
1 Chapter 125: The Log and Line
2 I Crush the Quadrant, the Thunder Turns the Needles
3 Chapter 126: The Life-Buoy
4 The Lost Life-Buoy Was Now to Be Replaced
5 Chapter 127: The Deck
6 Chapter 128: The Pequod Meets the Rachel
7 Now, As It Shortly Turned Out
8 Chapter 129: The Cabin
9 Chapter 130: The Hat
10 But When Three or Four Days Had Slided By
11 Chapter 131: The Pequod Meets the Delight
12 Chapter 132: The Symphony
13 Oh Starbuck! It Is a Mild, Mild Wind
14 Oh, My Captain! My Captain!
15 Chapter 133: The Chase ? First Day
- Disc 19 -
1 A Gentle Joyousness
2 And Now, While Both Elastic Gunwales Were Springing
3 It Is Often the Case That When a Boat Is Stove
4 Chapter 134: The Chase ? Second Day
5 The Rigging Lived
6 While the Two Crews Were Yet Circling in the Waters
7 The Old Mans Hinted Thought Was True
8 Chapter 135: The Chase ? Third Day
9 A Whole Hour Now Passed
10 Yet the Voice Spake True
11 The Harpoon Dropped from His Hand
12 Almost Simultaneously, with a Mighty Volition
13 Diving Beneath the Settling Ship
14 Epilogue
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. This epic story, here presented in unabridged form, receives an equally epic reading from the outstanding American actor William Hootkins.
