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Moby-Dick by Herman Melville,
with notes to help the reader

Book, Table of Contents

Front Matter and Excerpts
Chapter 1 - Loomings
Chapter 2 - The Carpet-Bag
Chapter 3 - The Spouter-Inn
Chapter 4 - The Counterpane
Chapter 5 - Breakfast
Chapter 6 - The Street
Chapter 7 - The Chapel
Chapter 8 - The Pulpit
Chapter 9 - The Sermon
Chapter 10 - A Bosom Friend
Chapter 11 - Nightgown
Chapter 12 - Biographical
Chapter 13 - Wheelbarrow
Chapter 14 - Nantucket
Chapter 15 - Chowder
Chapter 16 - The Ship
Chapter 17 - The Ramadan
Chapter 18 - His Mark
Chapter 19 - The Prophet
Chapter 20 - All Astir
Chapter 2I - Going Aboard
Chapter 22 - Merry Christmas
Chapter 23 - The Lee Shore
Chapter 24 - The Advocate
Chapter 25 - Postscript
Chapter 26 - Knights And Squires
Chapter 27 - Knights And Squires
Chapter 28 - Ahab
Chapter 29 - Enter Ahab; To Him, Stubb
Chapter 30 - The Pipe
Chapter 31 - Queen Mab
Chapter 32 - Cetology
Chapter 33 - The Specksynder
Chapter 34 - The Cabin-Table
Chapter 35 - The Mast-Head
Chapter 36 - The Quarter-Deck
Chapter 37 - Sunset
Chapter 38 - Dusk
Chapter 39 - First Night-Watch
Chapter 40 - Midnight, Forecastle
Chapter 41 - Moby Dick
Chapter 42 - The Whiteness of the Whale
Chapter 43 - Hark!
Chapter 44 - The Chart
Chapter 45 - The Affidavit
Chapter 46 - Surmises
Chapter 47 - The Mat-Maker
Chapter 48 - The First Lowering
Chapter 49 - The Hyena
Chapter 50 - Ahab's Boat and Crew. Fedallah
Chapter 51 - The Spirit-Spout
Chapter 52 - The Albatross
Chapter 53 - The Gam
Chapter 54 - The Town-Ho's Story
Chapter 55 - Of the Monstrous
Pictures of Whales
Chapter 56 - Of the Less Erroneous
Pictures of Whales, and the True Pictures of Whaling Scenes
Chapter 57 - Of Whales in Paint; in Teeth; in Wood; in Sheet-Iron; in Stone; in Mountains; in Stars
Chapter 58 - Brit
Chapter 59 - Squid
Chapter 60 - The Line
Chapter 61 - Stubb Kills A Whale
Chapter 62 - The Dart
Chapter 63 - The Crotch
Chapter 64 - Stubb's Supper
Chapter 65 - The Whale as a Dish
Chapter 66 - The Shark Massacre
Chapter 67 - Cutting In
Chapter 68 - The Blanket
Chapter 69 - The Funeral
Chapter 70 - The Sphynx
Chapter 71 - The Jeroboam's Story
Chapter 72 - The Monkey Rope
Chapter 73 - Stubb and Flask Kill a Right Whale; and Then Have a Talk Over Him
Chapter 74 - The Sperm Whale's Head—Contrasted View
Chapter 75 - The Right Whale's Head—Contrasted View
Chapter 76 - The Battering-Ram
Chapter 77 - The Great Heidelburgh Tun
Chapter 78 - Cistern and Buckets
Chapter 79 - The Prairie
Chapter 80 - The Nut
Chapter 81 - The Pequod Meets the Virgin
Chapter 82 - The Honor and Glory of Whaling
Chapter 83 - Jonah Historically Regarded
Chapter 84 - Pitchpoling
Chapter 85 - The Fountain
Chapter 86 - The Tail
Chapter 87 - The Grand Armada
Chapter 88 - Schools and Schoolmasters
Chapter 89 - Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish
Chapter 90 - Heads or Tails
Chapter 91 - The Pequod Meets
the Rose-Bud
Chapter 92 - Ambergris
Chapter 93 - The Castaway
Chapter 94 - A Squeeze of the Hand
Chapter 95 - The Cassock
Chapter 96 - The Try-Works
Chapter 97 - The Lamp
Chapter 98 - Stowing Down
and Clearing Up
Chapter 99 - The Doubloon
Chapter 100 - Leg and Arm: The Pequod, of Nantucket, Meets the Samuel Enderby, Of London
Chapter 101 - The Decanter
Chapter 102 - A Bower in the Arsacides
Chapter 103 - Measurement of the Whale's Skeleton
Chapter 104 - The Fossil Whale
Chapter 105 - Does the Whale's Magnitude
Diminish?—Will he Perish?
Chapter 106 - Ahab's Leg
Chapter 107 - The Carpenter
Chapter 108 - Ahab and the Carpenter
Chapter 109 - Ahab and Starbuck in the Cabin
Chapter 110 - Queequeg in his Coffin
Chapter 111 - The Pacific
Chapter 112 - The Blacksmith
Chapter 113 - The Forge
Chapter 114 - The Gilder
Chapter 115 - The Pequod Meets The Bachelor
Chapter 116 - The Dying Whale
Chapter 117 - The Whale Watch
Chapter 118 - The Quadrant
Chapter 119 - The Candles
Chapter 120 - The Deck Towards the End of
the First Night Watch
Chapter 121 - Midnight—The Forecastle Bulwarks
Chapter 122 - Midnight Aloft—Thunder and Lightning
Chapter 123 - The Musket
Chapter 124 - The Needle
Chapter 125 - The Log and Line
Chapter 126 - The Life-Buoy
Chapter 127 - The Deck
Chapter 128 - The Pequod Meets
the Rachel
Chapter 129 - The Cabin
Chapter 130 - The Hat
Chapter 131 - The Pequod Meets
the Delight
Chapter 132 - The Symphony
Chapter 133 - The Chase—First Day
Chapter 134 - The Chase—Second Day
Chapter 135 - The Chase—Third Day
Epilogue

  *   *   *

Main sources used
A note on the text


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Links to books are provided in association with Amazon.
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville is in the public domain.
Page numbers shown are from the first American edition, published in 1851.
All notes in Power Moby-Dick: The Online Annotation copyright 2008 by Margaret Guroff.
Logo illustration by Rockwell Kent copyright 2005 by the Plattsburgh State Art Museum. Used with permission.
Sidenote design adapted from Unobtrusive Sidenotes v1.2 copyright arc90. Used with permission.
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Website Extras

Full-text search at princeton.edu

Resources for readers, students, and teachers

Cultural Fallout
of the Week:



Tim Donald's carved wooden automaton depicting the end of Moby-Dick (Link makes noise)


A model for a proposed giant puppet of Moby-Dick


The Calgary Opera presents Jake Heggie's Moby-Dick opera Jan 28 thru Feb 3.


Character: Moby-Dick is "the perfect metaphor" for Friday Night Lights town.


P.J. Hogan to direct Bone comics film; one character is obsessed with Moby-Dick.

Darkstuff Productions presents a new stage version of Moby-Dick in Devon UK Apr 3 thru 19


Upcoming and Ongoing:

A film competition for one-minute movies about Moby-Dick. Entries due by Feb 15. Show with music by Patrick Shea at Pianos in Manhattan on Mar 29.

The New Bedford Whaling Museum and the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center present Moby-Dick-related events thru Feb 25

The San Diego Opera presents Jake Heggie's Moby-Dick opera Feb 18 thru 26

Mixed Magic Theatre's Moby Dick: Then and Now in Pawtucket, RI, Mar 1 thru 31

The Mammals theater company debuts all-girl Moby-Dick in Chicago, spring 2012

Youghal, Ireland, will hold its first Moby-Dick literary festival Mar 16

A "promenade performance" of Moby-Dick by Darkstuff Productions in Bristol, UK, April 3 thru 19

Pittsfield, MA, hosts Artscape celebration of Moby-Dick, summer 2012


Prior Cultural Fallout:


A series of commercials for the Audi Quattro references Moby-Dick


Jane Urquhart's Sanctuary Line contains a lighthouse keeper distracted by Moby-Dick


Andrew Seguin's celestial cyanotypes based on Moby-Dick


Ink and watercolor Moby-Dick character portraits by Etsy artist Livie Lightyear


Poet Sherry Robbins's or, the Whale, a feminist reimagining of Moby-Dick


Railsea, a young adult sci-fi novel by China Miéville based on Moby-Dick


Ahab's Dream, a watercolor painting by Richard Gabriele


Leonard Baskin's Ahab art print


A scrimshaw watchface bearing a scene from Moby-Dick


A typographical animation of Moby-Dick by Batista Raphael


A painting of Ahab and Moby Dick by Tyler Jacobson


A calendar illustration by Thies Schwarz


A Toyota van in Oregon painted with Moby Dick and whaling implements


Vintage fabric that features Moby Dick, the Pequod, and the Spouter Inn


The Holy Moby Dick Research Foundation, dedicated to "showing the book's divine origins to unbelievers"


Moby Dick 2, an arcade action video game


A knitting pattern for a hat inspired by Chapter 130


Moby Dick Diving Center in Rab, Croatia


A seafood restaurant in Saipan, North Mariana Islands


Moby-Nick, a Moby-Dick themed take on Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol


Jennie Ottinger's painting Ahab and His Harpoon


"Attainable Felicity," Julia Glass's short story set at a Moby-Dick marathon


A sushi restaurant named after Moby Dick in Wheaton, MD


Gideon Defoe's book Pirates! In an Adventure with Moby Dick


A bar named after Moby Dick overlooking Greeland Dock, London


Recipe for Pequod Sour, a cocktail using whiskey, lemon juice, sugar, and mint


Jon Methven's model of alternate Moby-Dick ending


Moby Dick's Souvenir Shop, a restaurant in Port Aransas, TX


A panel comic by Dave Pockett


Revelers in Moby Dick costumes at a Granta/Housing Works party


A Moby Dick hoodie by Miles to Go Clothing


Melville, Haunted, a play-within-a-tour of the house where Moby-Dick was written


Designer Jeff Staple's Moby Dick T-shirt


A Moby Dick bow tie


Americana band The Felice Brothers' song "Ahab"


Slideshow of covers from Bill Pettit's Moby-Dick book collection


Lynne Ramsay to direct sci-fi film of Moby-Dick in space


Spike Jonze and Olympia Le Tan's stop-action short with Moby Dick cameo


Arneice Hart's wood-look Moby-Dick book cover


Blogger Derek Woods's Moby-Dick tattoo sleeve

Recipe for the Moby Dick, a cocktail using rum, Galliano, and Triple Sec

The Building Stage's audience-onstage version of Moby-Dick


Ohio artist Matt Kish's book Moby-Dick in Pictures: One Drawing for Every Page


Brooklyn musician Patrick Shea's five-volume one-song-per-chapter Moby-Dick album


In the Heart of the Sea author Nathaniel Philbrick's book, Why Read Moby-Dick?


In the film Warrior, Nick Nolte's character is obsessed with Moby-Dick.


Painter Leroy Neiman's Moby Dick Assaulting the Pequod


Hailey Leithauser's poem, "Pip, Mid-Sea"

Moby-Dick in the "chopsticks" writing style, a la "Dick and Jane"


1929 Brough Superior SS100 motorcycle, known as "Moby Dick"


A New Yorker cartoon by Mick Stevens


Film projections for Polaris: Voyage for Orchestra based on Rockwell Kent's Moby-Dick illustrations


Illustration of a "bro hug" from Queequeg by Livie Lightyear


Michele Carlet's works on paper inspired by Moby-Dick


A tripartite exhibit on Melville's friendship with Hawthorne


A Moby-Dick Facebook game by designer David Fox


A one-of-a-kind applique armchair made by NASCAR driver Shawna Robinson


A minimalist book cover for Moby-Dick


Artist Monroe Hodder's abstract oil painting


A Gucci coin purse


An art poster by ClassicPix.com

In development: a film of Ray Bradbury's Leviathan, a.k.a. Moby-Dick in space


Futurama's "Möbius Dick" episode


Andrea Dentoni's kitchen counter


Artist Peter Jodaitis's works on paper


Aravena Eduardo's painting


A Korean stage musical of Moby-Dick

Raygun's Wordpress theme

Blog Southern Fried Science's yearlong series on Moby-Dick from the perspective of modern marine scientists


Jeff Smith's Bone comics 20th edition box set to include original drawing of Fone Bone reading Moby-Dick


A bookmark collection for Felix Jud bookshops in Germany


John Demeroy's winning public artwork in Iowa City, Iowa


Maine painter David Larson's Moby-Dick series


A six-cent envelope from 1970

A cumulative timer iPhone app inspired by an attempt to read Moby-Dick


A Lego mural at the Sydney Aquarium

More>>