Moby-Dick Moby-Dick Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship "Pequod", for revenge on Moby Dick, the white whale that on the ship's previous voyage bit off Ahab's leg at the knee. A contribution to the literature of the American Renaissance, the work's genre classifications range from late Romantic to early Symbolist. "Moby-Dick" was published to mixed reviews, was a commercial failure, and was out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891. Its reputation as
Moby-Dick with the narrator introducing himself ("I am an invisible man"). The oration by Ellison's blind preacher Barbee resembles Father Mapple's sermon in that both prepare the reader for what is to come. American songwriter Bob Dylan elaborated on the book in his Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech of 2017, citing the book as one of the three books that influenced him most. Dylan's description of the book ends with an acknowledgment: "That theme, and all that it implies, would work its way into more than a few of my songs." Moby-Dick Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is an 1851 novel by American