How you explore Moby-Dick on Literah
The cast, the places, the objects, the plot, and the author’s own words — each one a card in a feed you scroll on your phone. One at a time, at your pace, in any order you like.
- Built for your phone. Literah is designed for mobile, so your worlds travel with you. On a laptop it shows a QR code to carry the world to your phone.
- A feed, not a wall of text. 46 characters, 33 places, 34 objects and 8 plot beats, each its own card with its own illustration.
- The author’s own words. 62 passages of Moby-Dick sit in the feed verbatim, exactly as Herman Melville wrote them, each with a short reading of what it is doing. The map is ours; the prose is always the book’s.
- The same scroll, a better world. The gesture you already give away to feeds, spent on Herman Melville instead.
The Moby-Dick feed, as it appears in your mobile
The plot of Moby-Dick
The story beat by beat, as Literah maps it.
- Ishmael and Queequeg
- The Pequod Sets Sail
- Ahab's Vow
- The Whiteness of the Whale
- The Hunt Begins
- The Gathering Signs
- Warnings Ignored
- The Chase
The author's pen in Moby-Dick
The passages themselves, Herman Melville's own words, as Literah maps it.
- Call Me Ishmaelch. 1
- Crowds of Water Gazersch. 1
- The Sea's Deep Meaningch. 1
- The Marvellous Paintingch. 3
- The Harpooneer’s Facech. 3
- The Angel Above the Stormch. 7
- The Pulpit as Prowch. 8
- Delight Against This Worldch. 9
- Drawn Toward Himch. 10
- The Nantucketer Owns the Seach. 14
- A Noble Craft Melancholych. 16
- Peleg Puts Him To Proofch. 16
- Anything About Your Soulsch. 19
- The Endlessness of Earthly Effortch. 22
- Landlessness and Highest Truthch. 23
- Starbuck's Enduring Naturech. 26
- Stubb's Careless Calmch. 27
- Flask and the Whalech. 27
- The Three Harpooneersch. 27
- Ahab Upon the Quarter Deckch. 28
The characters of Moby-Dick
Who is who, as Literah maps it.
- Ishmaelmajor
- Captain Ahabmajor
- Moby Dick, the White Whalemajor
- Queequegmajor
- Starbuckmajor
- Stubbmajor
- Pipmajor
- Fedallahmajor
- The Pequod Crewmajor
- Flasksupporting
- Tashtegosupporting
- Daggoosupporting
- Father Mapplesupporting
- Captain Pelegsupporting
- Captain Bildadsupporting
- Elijahsupporting
The locations in Moby-Dick
Where it happens, as Literah maps it.
- Manhattan Waterfrontwaterfront
- New Bedfordwhaling port
- The Spouter-Inninn
- Whaleman’s Chapelchapel
- Nantucketisland port
- The Try Potsinn
- Kokovokoisland kingdom
- The Pequodwhaling ship
- The Pequod’s Quarter-Deckship deck
- Ahab’s Cabinship cabin
- The Forecastleship crew space
- The Mast-Headlookout station
- The Pequod’s Try-Worksshipboard furnace
- The Pequod’s Forgeshipboard forge
The core concepts in Moby-Dick
What the book keeps returning to, as Literah maps it.
- The sea promises freedom and reveals helplessness
- Friendship answers isolation but cannot abolish fate
- Labor and metaphysics are inseparable
- Obsession turns the world into one enemy
- Meaning is made by readers, but not safely
- Authority becomes dangerous when private obsession captures public labor
- Whiteness is terror, blankness, sanctity, and unreadability
- Fate, prophecy, and free will tighten around action
- Survival through narration
The objects of note in Moby-Dick
The things that carry meaning, as Literah maps it.
- The Pequod
- The Doubloon
- Ahab’s Ivory Leg
- Queequeg’s Coffin / Life-Buoy
- The Harpoon Forged for Moby Dick
- The Whale-Line
- The Musket
- Ahab’s Charts
- The Quadrant
- The Compass / Needle
- Father Mapple’s Pulpit
- Pip’s Tambourine
- Try-Pots / Try-Works Tools
- Queequeg’s Harpoon
The offer
Explore Moby-Dick. And 126 more.
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This collection includes Moby-Dick, along with Treasure Island, The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, Around the World in Eighty Days, King Solomon's Mines, She and The Swiss Family Robinson.
Counts in full toward the library. See the collection · Give it as a gift
This collection includes Moby-Dick, along with Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Scarlet Letter, Little Women, The Last of the Mohicans, The Awakening, The Red Badge of Courage, The Yellow Wallpaper and Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Counts in full toward the library. See the collection · Give it as a gift
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