#147 in Adventure
Moby Dick
- 392
- Pages
- about 7 h
- Reading time
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Our view
Melville’s novel can be read as a sea adventure, and the voyage of a whaling ship under the obsessed Captain Ahab supplies one. Its lasting force, though, comes from the darkness of that obsession and the dread that builds among the crew as the hunt carries them farther out. For readers who want a nineteenth-century classic that is tense and brooding, not comfortable.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
A literary classic that wasn't recognized for its merits until decades after its publication, Herman Melville's Moby-Dick tells the tale of a whaling ship and its crew, who are carried progressively further out to sea by the fiery Captain Ahab. Obsessed with killing the massive whale, which had previously bitten off Ahab's leg, the seasoned seafarer steers his ship to confront the creature, while the rest of the shipmates, including the young narrator, Ishmael, and the harpoon expert, Queequeg, must contend with their increasingly dire journey. The book invariably lands on any short list of the greatest American novels.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.5 across 1,426 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 91% of the weight and the score stays at 7.5 — the Adventure average of 7.8 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.9 | 191 | 13% |
| Google Books | 8.0 | 276 | 19% |
| Hardcover | 7.2 | 959 | 67% |
Frequently asked
How long is Moby Dick?
It has 392 pages — longer than 79% of the ranked books in Adventure.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Adventure — with scores between 7.2 and 7.8, closest to this book.
