Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

Published in 1851

Categories: AdventureClassics for Adults

The white whale rising out of the sea and biting a whaleboat in two, a ship in the distance
Illustration: A. Burnham Shute (1892)

Ishmael, a restless young man with no money in his purse, signs on to the whaler Pequod out of Nantucket. Only at sea does Captain Ahab come up on deck, a leg of whale-bone where his own leg was, and nail a gold coin to the mast for the man who first sights the white whale that took it. Herman Melville's 1851 novel follows the hunt around the world, and tells everything about whales along the way.

Choose a chapter

1 Chapter 1: Loomings About 10 min 2 Chapter 2: The Carpet-Bag About 5 min 3 Chapter 3: The Spouter-Inn About 25 min 4 Chapter 4: The Counterpane About 5 min 5 Chapter 5: Breakfast About 5 min 6 Chapter 6: The Street About 5 min 7 Chapter 7: The Chapel About 5 min 8 Chapter 8: The Pulpit About 5 min 9 Chapter 9: The Sermon About 15 min 10 Chapter 10: A Bosom Friend About 5 min 11 Chapter 11: Nightgown About 5 min 12 Chapter 12: Biographical About 5 min 13 Chapter 13: Wheelbarrow About 5 min 14 Chapter 14: Nantucket About 5 min 15 Chapter 15: Chowder About 5 min 16 Chapter 16: The Ship About 25 min 17 Chapter 17: The Ramadan About 10 min 18 Chapter 18: His Mark About 5 min 19 Chapter 19: The Prophet About 5 min 20 Chapter 20: All Astir About 5 min 21 Chapter 21: Going Aboard About 5 min 22 Chapter 22: Merry Christmas About 5 min 23 Chapter 23: The Lee Shore About 5 min 24 Chapter 24: The Advocate About 5 min 25 Chapter 25: Postscript About 5 min 26 Chapter 26: Knights and Squires About 5 min 27 Chapter 27: Knights and Squires About 5 min 28 Chapter 28: Ahab About 5 min 29 Chapter 29: Enter Ahab; to Him, Stubb About 5 min 30 Chapter 30: The Pipe About 5 min 31 Chapter 31: Queen Mab About 5 min 32 Chapter 32: Cetology About 20 min 33 Chapter 33: The Specksnyder About 5 min 34 Chapter 34: The Cabin-Table About 10 min 35 Chapter 35: The Mast-Head About 10 min 36 Chapter 36: The Quarter-Deck About 10 min 37 Chapter 37: Sunset About 5 min 38 Chapter 38: Dusk About 5 min 39 Chapter 39: First Night-Watch About 5 min 40 Chapter 40: Midnight, Forecastle About 5 min 41 Chapter 41: Moby Dick About 15 min 42 Chapter 42: The Whiteness of the Whale About 15 min 43 Chapter 43: Hark! About 5 min 44 Chapter 44: The Chart About 10 min 45 Chapter 45: The Affidavit About 15 min 46 Chapter 46: Surmises About 5 min 47 Chapter 47: The Mat-Maker About 5 min 48 Chapter 48: The First Lowering About 15 min 49 Chapter 49: The Hyena About 5 min 50 Chapter 50: Ahab’s Boat and Crew. Fedallah About 5 min 51 Chapter 51: The Spirit-Spout About 5 min 52 Chapter 52: The Albatross About 5 min 53 Chapter 53: The Gam About 5 min 54 Chapter 54: The Town-Ho’s Story About 35 min 55 Chapter 55: Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales About 10 min 56 Chapter 56: Of the Less Erroneous Pictures of Whales, and the True Pictures of Whaling Scenes About 5 min 57 Chapter 57: Of Whales in Paint; in Teeth; in Wood; in Sheet-Iron; in Stone; in Mountains; in Stars About 5 min 58 Chapter 58: Brit About 5 min 59 Chapter 59: Squid About 5 min 60 Chapter 60: The Line About 5 min 61 Chapter 61: Stubb Kills a Whale About 10 min 62 Chapter 62: The Dart About 5 min 63 Chapter 63: The Crotch About 5 min 64 Chapter 64: Stubb’s Supper About 15 min 65 Chapter 65: The Whale as a Dish About 5 min 66 Chapter 66: The Shark Massacre About 5 min 67 Chapter 67: Cutting In About 5 min 68 Chapter 68: The Blanket About 5 min 69 Chapter 69: The Funeral About 5 min 70 Chapter 70: The Sphynx About 5 min 71 Chapter 71: The Jeroboam’s Story About 10 min 72 Chapter 72: The Monkey-Rope About 5 min 73 Chapter 73: Stubb and Flask kill a Right Whale; and Then Have a Talk over Him About 10 min 74 Chapter 74: The Sperm Whale’s Head—Contrasted View About 5 min 75 Chapter 75: The Right Whale’s Head—Contrasted View About 5 min 76 Chapter 76: The Battering-Ram About 5 min 77 Chapter 77: The Great Heidelburgh Tun About 5 min 78 Chapter 78: Cistern and Buckets About 5 min 79 Chapter 79: The Prairie About 5 min 80 Chapter 80: The Nut About 5 min 81 Chapter 81: The Pequod Meets The Virgin About 20 min 82 Chapter 82: The Honor and Glory of Whaling About 5 min 83 Chapter 83: Jonah Historically Regarded About 5 min 84 Chapter 84: Pitchpoling About 5 min 85 Chapter 85: The Fountain About 10 min 86 Chapter 86: The Tail About 10 min 87 Chapter 87: The Grand Armada About 20 min 88 Chapter 88: Schools and Schoolmasters About 5 min 89 Chapter 89: Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish About 5 min 90 Chapter 90: Heads or Tails About 5 min 91 Chapter 91: The Pequod Meets The Rose-Bud About 10 min 92 Chapter 92: Ambergris About 5 min 93 Chapter 93: The Castaway About 5 min 94 Chapter 94: A Squeeze of the Hand About 5 min 95 Chapter 95: The Cassock About 5 min 96 Chapter 96: The Try-Works About 10 min 97 Chapter 97: The Lamp About 5 min 98 Chapter 98: Stowing Down and Clearing Up About 5 min 99 Chapter 99: The Doubloon About 10 min 100 Chapter 100: Leg and Arm About 10 min 101 Chapter 101: The Decanter About 10 min 102 Chapter 102: A Bower in the Arsacides About 5 min 103 Chapter 103: Measurement of The Whale’s Skeleton About 5 min 104 Chapter 104: The Fossil Whale About 5 min 105 Chapter 105: Does the Whale’s Magnitude Diminish?—Will He Perish? About 5 min 106 Chapter 106: Ahab’s Leg About 5 min 107 Chapter 107: The Carpenter About 5 min 108 Chapter 108: Ahab and the Carpenter About 5 min 109 Chapter 109: Ahab and Starbuck in the Cabin About 5 min 110 Chapter 110: Queequeg in His Coffin About 10 min 111 Chapter 111: The Pacific About 5 min 112 Chapter 112: The Blacksmith About 5 min 113 Chapter 113: The Forge About 5 min 114 Chapter 114: The Gilder About 5 min 115 Chapter 115: The Pequod Meets The Bachelor About 5 min 116 Chapter 116: The Dying Whale About 5 min 117 Chapter 117: The Whale Watch About 5 min 118 Chapter 118: The Quadrant About 5 min 119 Chapter 119: The Candles About 10 min 120 Chapter 120: The Deck Towards the End of the First Night Watch About 5 min 121 Chapter 121: Midnight.—The Forecastle Bulwarks About 5 min 122 Chapter 122: Midnight Aloft.—Thunder and Lightning About 5 min 123 Chapter 123: The Musket About 5 min 124 Chapter 124: The Needle About 5 min 125 Chapter 125: The Log and Line About 5 min 126 Chapter 126: The Life-Buoy About 5 min 127 Chapter 127: The Deck About 5 min 128 Chapter 128: The Pequod Meets The Rachel About 5 min 129 Chapter 129: The Cabin About 5 min 130 Chapter 130: The Hat About 5 min 131 Chapter 131: The Pequod Meets The Delight About 5 min 132 Chapter 132: The Symphony About 5 min 133 Chapter 133: The Chase—First Day About 15 min 134 Chapter 134: The Chase—Second Day About 15 min 135 Chapter 135: The Chase.—Third Day About 20 min 136 Chapter 136: Epilogue About 5 min