The film without the cuts. And the book itself.
Drawn to the sea to drive off the gloom, Ishmael shares a bed with a tattooed harpooneer and gains a bosom friend.
Ishmael
A restless sailor survives by observing, connecting, and telling what Ahab tries to master.
Manhattan Waterfront
Men stuck on land crowd the city's edge, staring at water they have not yet entered.
When despair turns dangerous, the sea becomes his last defense against himself.
Read →Call Me Ishmael
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.
Ishmael introduces himself by telling us how close he comes to killing himself. He keeps the tone light, almost comic, listing the signs of his misery: growing grim about the mouth, trailing after strangers' funerals, wanting to knock people's hats off. But the joke has a real edge, since he says outright that going to sea is his "substitute for pistol and ball." Naming himself Ishmael, the outcast son sent into the wilderness, he starts the book as a man drifting to sea because staying on land might kill him.
Ishmael and Queequeg
Drawn to the sea to drive off the gloom, Ishmael shares a bed with a tattooed harpooneer and gains a bosom friend.
The Pequod
A ship built to bring home oil is turned into one man's weapon against a whale.
Captain Ahab
A maimed captain turns a whaling ship into the instrument of his war against the White Whale.
Moby-Dick
The cast, locations, objects of note, core concepts, and selected passages in the Author’s Pen - at your own pace.
The Moby-Dick World, as it plays on your phone
- Meet the people. 46 characters, each with a portrait, who they are and what they want.
- Walk the places. 33 places, each pictured, and what happens there.
- Follow the plot. The turns of the story, in order, so you always know where you are.
- Taste the original. 62 key passages in Herman Melville’s own words, each with a short reading of what it is doing.
- The complete book. Every word, in a reader made for your phone. From any passage, one tap opens the book at that very page.
Step inside Moby-Dick
Free, in your inbox in about a minute: the World and the complete book, on your phone.