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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
All stars
Most relevant
the missing link between Shakespeare to modern English literature.

the narrative is bogged with literacy's wonders and you will constantly be learning new/old words that don't fit into modern day living.

I would recommend this book for the writing and the authors use of the language but the story was average at best for me and I found the chapters describing whales and their habits long needless and boring. it was like a book within a book at times.

hope this helps the average reader.

A journey of words

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Where does Moby Dick rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Not read many so far but the performance by William Hootkins was fantastic. Passionate and brought the story to life.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

It was a strange ending. The book is very rambling, perhaps this is why I have struggled reading it myself. The ending itself when it came was brief and satisfying, like ripping off a plaster. You knew what was about to happen, you knew it would hurt but it was ultimately successful and felt good.

Have you listened to any of William Hootkins’s other performances? How does this one compare?

First time I have heard his voice, but hopefully not the last.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Ahab's madness prevented him ordering the crew to help in the quest for a lost whaleboat.

Any additional comments?

A long rambling epic brought to life brilliantly by a talented narrator

Fantastic Reading of a rambling epic

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A true classic, this book is a long read but we'll worth the time investment. The incredable detail and in-depth knowledge really helps to build an amazing experience.

Moby dick

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the story itself is a good one, but too much of the factual information is now known to be incorrect.

unfortunately outdated

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Interesting story. Well researched and written. At times delves into nitty gritty of details too much. For me the least attractive aspect of this book is the narrator. His voice is good when he only reads but he usually chose to be in theatrical personas of the characters. When he is in these personas it is all irritating loud agressive screaming and overexcited loud talk. Everybody sounds very old and insane. This bothered me a lot. It would have been nicer and easier on the ear if he didn’t waste so much of his energy in these types of exaggerated overexcited personifications.

disturbing narration at times

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