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"God
hunt us all, if we do not
hunt
Moby Dick to his death."
The following books will introduce you to Captain Ahab, who
said these ominous words in Melville's Moby Dick.
To order a book, or for more information, visit Amazon.com,
or return home to browse other
characters.
- Melville, Herman. Moby
Dick (Tony Tanner, Ed. and Intro.). Oxford University
Press, 1988.
- Whales, seafaring lore, and an obsessed captain
create a compelling American classic. (Melville
even makes blubber interesting.)
- Bloom, Harold (Ed.). Ahab
(Major Literary Characters). Chelsea House, 1991.
- In Melville's vast encyclopedic tale that scours
every corner of the whaling life, the characters
are each astonishingly memorable in their
individuality, yet Captain Ahab stands detached
from them all in power and complexity. Bloom
collects critical extracts on this "ungodly,
god-like man" from W. H. Auden, Marius
Bewley, Denis Donoghue, Joyce Carol Oates, and
others. Bloom's own introduction is particularly
incisive, displaying his usual talent for
piercing to the heart of a character's influence.
- Bloom, Harold (Ed.). Herman
Melville's Moby Dick (Modern Critical
Interpretations). Chelsea House, 1986.
- More collected criticism, here for the work as a
whole.
- Bloom, Harold (Ed.). Herman
Melville (Modern Critical Views). Chelsea House,
1989.
- For those who would like to see how Ahab and the
whale fit into Melville's literary career.
- Higgins, Brian and Parker, Herschel (Eds.). Critical
Essays on Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. G. K. Hall,
1992.
- Many early reviews of the novel, along with a
large selection of essays, including those by
Carl Van Doren, D. H. Lawrence, Van Wyck Brooks,
Virginia Woolf (who compares it with Wuthering
Heights), and Charles Olsen (who compares
Ahab to Lear).
- Friedman, Maurice. "The Modern Job: On Melville,
Dostoievsky, and Kafka." Judaism 12(4)
(1963):437-455.
- This author is certainly not alone in noticing
the parallels between Ahab and Job as challengers to God's
authority. (Melville was, of course, highly aware
of the biblical correspondences he was setting up
with Job and Jonah.)
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