Moby-Dick, or - The Whale - Herman Melville - Penguin Classics

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Asher

Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, or The Whale is presented in a Penguin Classics edition with an introduction by Andrew Delbanco and explanatory notes by Tom Quirk. The text includes biographical context for Melville’s life and literary career, publication and copyright information, Library of Congress cataloging data, and a structured contents list beginning with the opening chapters such as “Loomings.”

LanguageEnglish

CategoryStory & Novel

FormatPDF

Pages724

Reading Time18 h 35 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Suggestions for Further Reading

A Note on the Text

Moby-Dick

Chapter 1 Loomings

Chapter 2 The Carpet Bag

Chapter 3 The Spouter-Inn

Chapter 4 The Counterpane

Chapter 5 Breakfast

P E N G U I N C L A s s I C s HERMAN MELVILLE Moby-Dickor,The Whale Da0-AfnM.VuerycjashtesNacmemn eyysTabitun→SbMT■ghtM)K九e beha√06acncrnx rle o axis J reci_”mvnd Nil3O0mountingacrusdfnductiveprobingat th "ve hal noythng 加小it人fefrprcctpbt win ntead reForb th rabk0V Mehille,the "trve n lcfnatere TheWhale Philpfldarc CmbrsComponin 。 mcm' mdiville Nyorker 2019 ahee elvl 121511-623+主十als12/4359-510127265-358 1120 19 -26411/13 104-191川1 3-10号 PENGUINCLASSICSMOBY-DICK Herman Melville was born on August 1,1819,in New York City,the sonof a merchant.Only twelve when his father died bankrupt,young Her-man tried work as a bank clerk,as a cabin-boy on a trip to Liverpool,and as an elementary schoolteacher,before shipping in January 1841onthe whaler Acusbnet,bound for the Pacific.Deserting ship the followingyear in the Marquesas,he made his way to Tahiti and Honolulu,return-ing as ordinary seaman on the frigate United States to Boston,where hewas discharged in October 1844.Books based on these adventures wonhim immediate success.By 1850 he was married,had acquired a farmnear Pittsfield,Massachusetts(where he was the impetuous friend andneighbor of Nathaniel Hawthorne),and was hard at work on his master-piece Moby-Dick.But literary success soon faded;his complexity increas-ingly alienated readers.After a visit to the Holy Land in January 1857,he turned from writing prose fiction to poetry.In 1863,during the CivilWar,he moved back to New York City,where from 1866 to 1885 he wasa deputy inspector in the Custom House,and where,on September 28,1891,he died.A draft of a final prose work,Billy Budd,Sailor,was leftunfinished and uncollated;packed tidily away by his widow,it was not re-discovered and published until 1924. Andrew Delbanco was born in 1952.Educated at Harvard,he has lecturedextensively throughout the United States and abroad.He writes frequentlyon American culture for many national journals and papers,has co-directed a number of seminars for high school and college teachers at theNational Humanities Center and under the sponsorship of the NationalEndowment for the Humanities.Among his previous works are The Deatbof Satan,Required Reading,A New England Anithology,and The Puritan Or-deal,which received the 1990 Lionel Trilling Award at Columbia Univer-sity,where he is Julian Clarence Levi Professor in the Humanities.Mr.Delbanco lives in New York City with his wife and two children. Tom Quirk is professor of English at the University of Missouri-Columbia.He is the editor of the Penguin Classics editions of Mark Twain's Tales,Speeches,Essays,and Sketches,Ambrose Bierce's Tales of Soldiers and Civilians andOther Stories,The Portable Mark Twain and coeditor of The Portable AmericanRealism Reader.His books include Coming to Grips wvith Huckleberry Finn(1993),Mark Twain:A Study ofthe Short Fiction(1997),and Nothing Abstract:Investigations in the American Literary Imagination(2001). HERMAN MELVILLEMoby-Dick OR,THE WHALE Introduction byANDREW DELBANCO Notes and Explanatory Commentary byTOM QUIRK PENGUIN BOOKSPublished by the Penguin Group Penguin Group(USA)Inc.,375 Hudson Street,New York,New York 10014,U.S.A.Penguin Group(Canada),90 Eglinton Avenue East,Suite 700,Toronto,Ontario,Canada M4P 2Y3(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)Penguin Books Ltd,80 Strand,London WCZR ORL,England Penguin Ireland,25 St Stephen's Green,Dublin 2,Ireland(a division of Penguin Books Ltd)Penguin Group(Australia),250 Camberwell Road,Camberwell,Victoria 3124,Australia(a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd,11 Community Centre,Panchsheel Park,New Delhi-110017,IndiaPenguin Group(NZ),67 Apollo Drive,Rosedale,North Shore,Auckland 0745,New Zealand(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)Penguin Books (South Africa)(Pty)Ltd,24 Sturdee Avenue,Rosebank,Johannesburg 2196,South Africa Penguin Books Ltd,Registered Offices:80 Strand,London WCZR ORL,England First publishe

FAQs

Who wrote the introduction and who provided the explanatory commentary in this edition?

Andrew Delbanco wrote the introduction, and Tom Quirk provided the notes and explanatory commentary.

When was Herman Melville born and when did he die?

Melville was born on August 1, 1819, and died on September 28, 1891.

What are the early chapters of Moby-Dick listed in the contents?

The contents list early chapters including “Loomings,” “The Carpet Bag,” “The Spouter-Inn,” “The Counterpane,” and “Breakfast.”

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Asher