Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Moby Dick - and I only am escaped alone to tell thee


by Herman Melville

(old comment; been reading Melville biographies last few weeks)

Everything about whale and whaling, yet much more.

So intriguing were the stories and so beautiful the prose;
so abundant were the details and so complex the structure;
and so grandeur was the scope: science, philosophy, religion, history, human psyche and temperament, all in a single book (albeit a lengthy one).

And I had a time of enjoyment, enlightenment and enrichment. Then my heart ached when it all came to one tremendous tragic end.

Simply one of the best books ever written. I believe.

Not an easy one to read*. I might add.

(* No wonder his contemporaies all missed out on this book, leaving the author die in obscurity.)

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