Moby Dick by Herman Melville (30 down 70 to go)

Moby Dick's no devil; he's a whale, a monstrous big whale aye, but a whale no more. And we're whaling men no less. We do not turn from whales, we kill em. ~ Starbuck

I cheated with the opening quotation; it is not from the book, but from the 1956 film.

This is the second time I’ve read Moby Dick, and the only thing I’ve read by Melville. The novel is from the romance period, told by the first-person narrator, Ishmael. It is an epic tale of man vs beast, set mostly aboard a 19th century whaling ship.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

 

I first read Moby Dick approximately 20 years ago. I enjoyed it more this second time, but still found it tedious in spots. If you’ve read it, you probably know all about those spots: those chapters when Melville departs from the story, to educate the reader on cetology (study of whales), shipboard life, nautical matters, or other subjects related to the story, but NOT…The Story. In my opinion, The Story suffers in the telling for those numerous and detailed reference chapters.

SPOILER ALERT: This review contains a spoiler. But seriously, is there anyone that doesn’t know how Moby Dick ends?

Moby Dick is the story of Ahab, a 19th century whaleboat captain, obsessed with hunting and killing Moby Dick, the enormous albino whale that took one of Ahab’s legs on a previous whaling voyage. The story is told by Ishmael, an otherwise insignificant sailor aboard the Pequod, who will be the only surviving member of the doomed crew.

Let me admit at the start that I am not a fan of Ahab’s quest. It is vainglorious, reckless, and selfish. I’ve heard some call it a battle of good vs evil. I beg pardon, but that’s absurd. Moby Dick is neither good nor evil, but a brute beast. He is dangerous and vicious in the face of man, his only predator, but without malice. He fights to survive, and destroys his would-be destroyers. Ahab may very well perceive evil in Moby Dick, but then – Ahab is mad.

If there is a contest of good vs evil, the evil is Ahab’s monomaniacal quest and the good is the opposition posed by the chief mate Starbuck. Though, I don't believe this is really Meliville's point.

For me, Moby Dick is a tragic allegory to illustrate the words of Solomon…Vanity, vanity, all is vanity. Ahab was vain and proud and it led to his ruin. Unfortunately, it also led to the ruin of all his crew, save one.

If I disliked how Melville described the banality of whaling life, I loved how he described his characters.

The first mate Starbuck, was a native of Nantucket, and a Quaker.

Uncommonly conscientious for a seaman, and endued with a deep natural reverence, the wild watery loneliness of his life did therefore strongly incline him to superstition; but to that sort of superstition, which in some organizations seems rather to spring, somehow, from intelligence than from ignorance….Starbuck was no crusader after perils; in him courage was not a sentiment; but a thing simply useful to him, and always at hand upon all mortally practical occasions. Besides, he thought, perhaps, that in this business of whaling, courage was one of the great staple outfits of the ship, like her beef and her bread, and not to be foolishly wasted.

I could tell you more of Starbuck. Indeed, I want to. He was my favorite, the noble, pitiable mate bound to the fate of Ahab by the laws of sailors. But now at least, you know from whence your coffee derives its name.

By contrast, Stubb the second mate was a Cape Cod man. 

A happy-go-lucky; neither craven nor valiant; taking perils as they came with an indifferent air….Good-humored, easy, and careless, he presided over his whaleboat as if the most deadly encounter were but a dinner, and his crew all invited guests.

And the third mate Flask, a native of Tisbury, in Martha’s Vineyard. 

A short, stout, ruddy young fellow, very pugnacious concerning whales, who somehow seemed to think that the great Leviathans had personally and hereditarily affronted him; and therefore it was a sort of point of honor with him, to destroy them whenever encountered.

There are three harpooners: Tashtego, Dagoo, and Queequeg an aboriginal, tattooed giant, who becomes a great friend of the narrator. Ishmael described Queequeg on first meeting: 

...his countenance yet had a something in it which was by no means disagreeable. You cannot hide the soul. Through all his unearthly tatooings, I thought I saw the traces of a simple honest heart; and in his large, deep eyes, fiery black and bold, there seemed tokens of a spirit that would dare a thousand devils. And besides all this, there was a certain lofty bearing about the Pagan, which even his uncouthness could not altogether maim. He looked like a man who had never cringed and never had had a creditor.

The story is filled with irony, foreshadow and symbolism. Such as the seemingly crazed “prophet” Elijah who warns Ishmael and Queegqueg that they will come to ruin if they join Ahab’s crew. A gold doubloon nailed to the mast and offered to the first man to spot Moby Dick, a seahawk that steals Ahab’s cap, and the nine other ships the Pequod met on her voyage. There was the miserable crew of the Delight, after a recent and fatal encounter with Moby Dick, or the desperate Rachel, searching for a lost boat carrying the captain’s son, or "...Rachel, weeping for her children, because they were not". There are other omens, I am certain, that were lost on me. Last, and certainly not least, there is the coffin that would serve as lifeboat.

Overall it was a compelling tale, albeit depressing. I enjoyed it quite a bit, when Ishmael was truly telling the tale. I could have done quite well without the reference chapters. There was no hero. Starbuck is wise and admirable, but powerless to avert disaster. Ahab? As Don Quixote made me sad for his wasted life, Ahab made me angry, for wasting not only his own, but his crew's.

Moby Dick reminds me of Frankenstein: the mad obsession of Ahab and Dr. Frankenstein leads to the ruin of both.

Quotations:

Bildad one of the Pequod’s owners, giving instruction to the crew before setting sail: 

Don’t whale it too much a’ Lord’s days, men; but don’t miss a fair chance either, that’s rejecting Heaven’s good gifts.

Ahab in a speech to the crew: 

Aye, Aye! And I’ll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition’s flames before I give him up. And this is what ye have shipped for men! To chase that white whale on both sides of land, and over all sides of earth, till he spouts black blood and rolls fin out. What say ye, men, will ye splice hands on it, now? I think ye do look brave.

Ishmael: Ahab's quenchless feud seemed mine.

Ahab: I will dismember my dismemberer.

A sea shanty, sung by Stubb during a perilous storm: 

Oh! Jolly is the gale, And a joker is the whale, A’flourishin’ his tail, Such a funny, sporty, gamy, jesty, joky, hoky-poky lad, is the Ocean, oh! The scud all a flying’, That’s his flip only foamin’; When he stirs in the spicin’, Such a funny, sporty, gamy, jesty, joky, hoky-poky lad, is the Ocean, oh! Thunder splits the ships, But he only smacks his lips, A tastin’ of this flip, Such a funny, sporty, gamy, jesty, joky, hoky-poky lad is the Ocean, oh!

Ishmael’s narrative: 

To sailors, oaths are household words; they will swear in the trance of the calm, and in the teeth of the tempest.

Starbucks contemplating mutiny: 

Is heaven a murderer when its lightning strikes a would-be murderer in his bed, tindering sheets and skin together? And would I be a murderer, then, if….

Ishmael’s narrative: 

all the individualities of the crew, this man’s valor, that man’s fear; guilt and guiltiness, all varieties were welded into oneness, and were all directed to that fatal goal which Ahab their one lord and keel did point to.

Starbuck pleading with Ahab to forsake vengeance: 

Great God! But for one single instant show thyself. cried Starbuck; never, never wilt thou capture him, old man…in Jesus’ name no more of this, that’s worse than devil’s madness. Two days chased; twice stove to splinters; thy very leg once more snatched from under thee; thy evil shadow gone…all good angels mobbing thee with warnings: what more wouldst thou have? Shall we keep chasing this murderous fish till he swamps the last man? Shall we be dragged by him to the bottom of the sea? Shall we be towed by him to the infernal world? Oh, oh,…Impiety and blasphemy to hunt him more!

Starbucks sensing the crew is doomed: 

I misdoubt me that I disobey my God in obeying him! (him being Ahab)

Dialogue and narrative before Ahab gives chase to Moby Dick a final, fatal time:

Some men die at the ebb tide; some at low water; some at the full of the flood; and I feel now like a billow that’s all one crested comb, Starbuck. I am old; shake hands with me, man. Their hands met; their eyes fastened; Starbucks’s tears the glue. Oh, my captain, my captain! Noble heart…go not…go not! See, it’s a brave man that weeps, how great the agony of the persuasion then!

Lower away! cried Ahab.

Film Rendition: I watched the 1956 version with Gregory Peck as Ahab. This is a pretty good rendition. For time, it cut a great deal out, but still portrayed most of the salient scenes. The 2015 film, In the Heart of the Sea, based on the true story of the whaling ship Essex, Melville's inspiration for Moby Dick, was interesting, but a bit disappointing. 

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Recap of novels 11 - 20

  Average rating 3.5 Stars out of 5

11.  ★★★★        Invisible Man

12.  ★★½           The Sun Also Rises

13.  ★★½           To the Lighthouse

14.  ★★★           As I Lay Dying

15   ★★★½        Brave New World
16.  ★★★★★     The Lord of the Rings
17.  ★★★½        Slaughterhouse Five

18.  ★★★★★     To Kill a Mockingbird

19.  ★★★            A Clockwork Orange

20.  ★★★            Heart of Darkness

 

 

Favorite: The Lord of the Rings

Least Favorite: To the Lighthouse

Best Hero/Heroine: Scout Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird

Worst Villain: Sauron from The Lord of the Rings

(btw…I can’t decide if this category should be Worst Villain, or Best Villain)

Most interesting/Complex character: The invisible man from Invisible Man

Best Quotation: Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird: I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.

Best film adaptation: Tie: To Kill a Mockingbird and The Lord of the Rings

Worst film adaptation: Invisible Man (only because it hasn’t been made into a film, and none of the others were bad)

Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell (29 down 71 to go)

This code was simple. Reverence for the Confederacy, honor to the veterans, loyalty to old forms, pride in poverty, open hands to friends and undying hatred to Yankees.

This is the first time I’ve read Gone With the Wind or Margaret Mitchell. It is a postmodern, epic novel told in third-person narrative. The setting is Georgia, during and after the American Civil war.

 

My rating: 4 1/2 of 5 stars

 

 

 

Although this was the first time I've read Gone With the Wind, it is hardly possible to be unfamiliar with the story. I wish I could have read it without the preconceptions formed from watching the epic film. Preconceptions notwithstanding, the book is a masterpiece, breathtaking, heartbreaking, and thoroughly captivating.

 

I don't intend to constantly compare the book and film, as this review is about the book, but I must begin with one stark difference between book and film. According to the very first line of the book:

Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful...

 

But of course, the actress who so indelibly portrayed her, Vivien Leigh was.

 

The first line continues...

...but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm...

 

And many were caught.

 

Apart from this one point, the movie is quite faithful. However, the book evoked different feelings regarding the main character. In the film, I never liked Scarlett. I felt sorry for her at times and disgusted at others, but I certainly never found her admirable or heroic. In the novel, she was both.

 

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I have some international readers, and it is just possible that some are not familiar with the story. It is the story of Scarlett O'Hara, a vain and spoiled southern belle, the daughter of a rich plantation owner. The plantation, known as Tara is in Georgia and the story begins just before the start of America's Civil War. It recounts the slow destruction of the South and the southern way of life.

 

SPOILER ALERT: This review contains a spoiler.

 

Scarlett is a coquette and all the boys vie for her attention. She adores attention and she adores Ashley Wilkes, the son of another wealthy plantation owner. Scarlett is distressed to learn that Ashley will announce his engagement to plain but sweet Melanie Hamilton. Scarlett is sure she can dissuade Ashley, and she manages to get him alone at a party for that very purpose. Ashley is resolute, and rejects her, but unbeknown to either of them, they are not quite alone. The entire discourse, ending with Scarlett throwing a vase at Ashley, is witnessed by Rhett Butler, who was lying quietly and unnoticed on a couch. He makes himself known after Ashley leaves, and Scarlett is humiliated that her forward and unladylike display was witnessed by this stranger. Rhett is....well, it would take many pages to describe what Rhett is. He is a scoundrel by most accounts, and no gentleman. He is pragmatic, quick witted and sly, and he sets his sights on Scarlett. She finds him handsome and exciting, but also unnerving, as she cannot manipulate him for he is never beguiled by her feminine charms.

 

And news arrives that the South, to be known as the Confederacy, has seceded from union with the United States, and war is declared. All the brave young men rush to join the Army. Before Ashley leaves, he and Melanie are wed and Scarlett marries Melanie's brother out of spite. The rest of the story is the slow destruction and misery of the South, Scarlett's continual pining for Ashley while he's away in the war, and Rhett's continual pursuit of Scarlett. Rhett has many flaws and does not behave according to strict southern code. He is not accepted in good society, and he doesn't care. He has a deep sincere respect for Melanie...who has a heart of gold.

 

Scarlett despises Melanie out of jealousy, but strict upbringing forces her to behave courteously, especially since "Melly" is now her sister-in-law. Melly is oblivious to Scarlett's contempt and her infatuation with Ashley. Melly loves Scarlett, and defends her viciously to any detractors.

 

If you know American history, you know the South had the early victories in the Civil War. Scarlett and her friends are barely touched by it. But the tide turns at Gettysburg, and the Yankees begin pushing south. Still, the Georgians believe they have little to fear. The righteousness of their sacred cause, and the superiority of southern gentlemen would turn the tide again, and victory was certain. If Virginia was the seat of the Confederacy, Georgia was the heart of Dixie. In spite of their confidence, the tide does not turn again, and General Sherman drives his sword viciously into the heart of Dixie.

 

Scarlett and Melanie are living in Atlanta when the Yankees are coming, but they cannot evacuate because Melanie, is small, weak, and nine months pregnant. As Atlanta is falling around them, Scarlett stays with Melanie and helps deliver the baby. Rhett helps them begin their escape, but when he has them only partially safe, he leaves to join the army. Scarlett without food or rest for nearly two days leads the rest of the dangerous escape from Atlanta. She manages to see them all to Tara, but all is not well at home. The privations and hardships of the war have taken Scarlett's beloved mother, and left her father a broken and confused old man. The crops and livestock have been plundered by the Yankee army and winter is coming. Everyone looks to Scarlett for leadership.

 

Scarlett O'Hara, who 

had never raised her hand even to pick up her discarded stocking from the floor or to tie the laces of her slippers...Scarlett, whose little headaches and tempers had been coddled and catered to all her life.

 

Was now mistress of Tara, responsible for her father, two sisters, Melanie and child, and a hand full of slaves. It was a terrible burden; she was only 19. My heart ached for her and I was filled with admiration.

 

I won't retell the entire tale. Things get worse, and then much worse, and then much much worse...and then slowly, very slowly better. Scarlett outlives two husbands she does not love, and eventually marries Rhett, whom she does not love. They are alike, and both enjoy luxury and comfort. Rhett suggests they marry for fun, and Scarlett accepts. It is a tumultuous marriage. At times they are happy, but most of the time they make each other miserable.

 

But I'll stop with the tale, and tell you what I think. Scarlett and Melanie...are THE SOUTH.

 

Melanie was the South that was, that will never be again. She was all that was good about the South: Gentle as a rule, fierce when need be; genteel as a rule, sensible when need be.

 

Scarlett was the South that was nearly destroyed, that would rise again drastically and permanently changed. Scarlett was mercilessly beaten down; she never gave up, never despaired. She survived, never the same again...like the South.

 

Melanie, if you did not know, and cannot guess...does not survive. In the end, Scarlett realizes how much she loves Melly and what a true and great friend she always was. She realized that 

the sword which had flashed between her and the world was sheathed forever.

 

I think to some extent, Rhett and Ashley are the South as well, but their representations are a bit more indistinct. Ashley was fine and elegant...and impotent. Rhett was coarse and common...and strong. Whatever it's worth.

 

Mitchell paints such a charming and glorious picture of the antebellum South, it is easy to forget a few things: like the evil of slavery. For this, there was judgment. That way of life had to die, it deserved to die. It is also easy to forget that the vast majority of southerners never owned slaves, but all of the south would be judged. I think Mitchell is no apologist for slavery, but I believe she loved the South and lamented the beauty that was lost. She reminded me, a Yankee by birth, that there was something gracious and beautiful in the old South, that regrettably, though perhaps necessarily, perished in the reckoning.

 

Quotations:

Narrative about Scarlett: 

all women, including her two sisters, were natural enemies in pursuit of the same prey...man.

 

Scarlett's thoughts of her mother: 

When Ellen intervened with Heaven, Scarlett felt certain that Heaven heard.

 

Scarlett's thoughts: 

A pretty dress and a clear complexion are weapons to vanquish fate.

 

Women knew that a land where men were contented, uncontradicted and safe in possession of unpunctured vanity was likely to be a very pleasant place for women to live.

 

Ashley: 

We should have paid heed to cynics like Butler who knew, instead of statesmen who felt...and talked.

 

Rhett: 

If I am nicer to Mrs. Wilkes, it is because she deserves it. She is one of the very few kind, sincere, and unselfish persons I have ever known. But perhaps you have failed to note these qualities. And moreover, for all her youth, she is one of the few great ladies I have ever been privileged to know.

 

Scarlett's thoughts: 

It had been her experience that the liar was the hottest to defend his veracity, the coward his courage, the ill-bred his gentlemanliness, and the cad his honor. But not Rhett. He admitted everything and laughed and dared her to say more.

 

Rhett upon his decision to join the Army: 

I am annoyed at myself to find that so much quixoticism still lingers in me. But our fair Southland needs every brave man.

 

Narrative regarding Scarlett and the flight from Atlanta: 

She was seeing things with new eyes for, somewhere along the long road to Tara, she had left her girlhood behind her. She was no longer plastic clay, yielding imprint to each new experience. The clay had hardened some time in this indeterminate day which had lasted a thousand years. Tonight was the last time she would ever be ministered to as a child. She was a woman now and youth was gone.

 

Scarlett: 

As God is my witness, as God is my witness, the Yankees aren't going to lick me. I'm going to live through this, and when it's over, I'm never going to be hungry again. No nor any of my folks. If I have to steal or kill...as God is my witness, I'm never going to be hungry again.

 

Ashley: 

Scarlett, before the war, life was beautiful. There was a glamor to it, a perfection and a completeness and a symmetry to it like Grecian art. Maybe it wasn't so to everyone. I know that now. But to me, living at Twelve Oaks, there was a real beauty to living. I belonged in that life. I was a part of it. And now it is gone and I am out of place in this new life, and I am afraid.

 

Scarlett's thoughts about Ashley and Melly: 

Melly and he were always talking such foolishness, poetry and books and dreams and moonrays and star dust.

 

Scarlett appealing to Ashley to run away with her: 

There's nothing to keep us here.

Ashley: Nothing, he said quietly, nothing except honor.

 

Narrative about Scarlett: 

In the grayness of the parlor she fought a quick decisive battle with the three most binding ties of her soul...the memory of Ellen, the teachings of her religion and her love for Ashley.

 

Tommy (minor character): 

It's a poor person and a poor nation that sits down and cries because life isn't precisely what they expected it to be.

 

Narrative about Scarlett: 

Sometimes she thought that all the people she had ever known were strangers except Rhett.

 

Scarlett's thoughts: 

What earthly good was a sacrifice if no one knew about it?

 

Rhett: 

Take my handkerchief, Scarlett. Never, at any crisis of your life, have I known you to have a handkerchief.

 

Scarlett to Rhett: 

But I love you.

Rhett: That's your misfortune.

 

Scarlett after Rhett leaves her: 

I'll think of it all tomorrow, at Tara. I can stand it then. Tomorrow, I'll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day.

 

Film Rendition: The 1939 film starring Vivien Leigh as Scarlett, Clark Gable as Rhett, and Olivia de Havilland as Melanie, won 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and Best Actress for Leigh. It was nominated for three more. And like the book, it is a masterpiece. The casting is perfect....oh, maybe they should have found a way to make Vivien Leigh less beautiful, but otherwise perfect.

 

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