In Herman Melvilles 'Moby Dick' wird die epische Reise des jungen Matrosen Ishmael erzählt, der sich dem charismatischen und mysteriösen Kapitän Ahab anschließt, um die Jagd nach dem berüchtigten weißen Wal, Moby Dick, anzuführen. Das Buch, das im 19. Jahrhundert verfasst wurde, ist ein Meisterwerk des amerikanischen Romantizismus und bietet ein tiefgreifendes Porträt menschlicher Besessenheit und den unausweichlichen Konflikt zwischen Mensch und Natur. Melvilles eindringlicher literarischer Stil und die epische Erzählung machen 'Moby Dick' zu einem zeitlosen Klassiker der Weltliteratur.
Über den Autor Herman Melville
Herman Melville (1819-91) became in his late twenties a highly successful author of exotic novels based on his experiences as a sailor - writing in quick succession Typee, Omoo, Redburn and White-Jacket. However, his masterpiece Moby-Dick was met with incomprehension and the other later works which are now the basis of his reputation, such as Bartleby, the Scrivener and The Confidence-Man, were failures. Melville stopped writing fiction and the rest of his long life was spent first as a lecturer and then, for nineteen years, as a customs official in New York City. He was also the author of the immensely long poem Clarel, which was similarly dismissed. At the end of his life he wrote Billy Budd, Sailor which was published posthumously in 1924.