Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship Pequod, for revenge on Moby Dick, the giant white sperm whale that on the ... Read more

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship Pequod, for revenge on Moby Dick, the giant white sperm whale that on the ship's previous voyage bit off Ahab's leg at the knee. A contribution to the literature of the American Renaissance, the work's genre classifications range from late Romantic to early Symbolist. Moby-Dick was published to mixed reviews, was a commercial failure, and was out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891. Its reputation as a "Great American Novel" was established only in the 20th century, after the centennial of its author's birth. William Faulkner said he wished he had written the book himself, and D. H. Lawrence called it "one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world" and "the greatest book of the sea ever written". Its opening sentence, "Call me Ishmael", is among world literature's most famous. The novel was first adapted for screen in a 1956 film of the same name directed by John Huston with a screenplay by Huston and Ray Bradbury. The 1956 adaptation starred Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, and Leo Genn. The novel was also adapted into a 2011 Canadian-German television miniseries produced by Tele München Gruppe, with Gate Film, In association with RTH/ORF. Starring William Hurt as Captain Ahab, it was directed by Mike Barker with a screenplay by Nigel Williams and in 2010's Asylum film adaptation of the same name directed by Trey Stokes. In 2015 the adventure-drama film "In the Heart of the Sea" directed and produced by Ron Howard and written by Charles Leavitt was made based on Nathaniel Philbrick's non-fiction book of the same name about the sinking of the American whaling ship Essex in 1820, an event that inspired the novel Moby-Dick.  Less