About the book
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.
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale - Herman Melville
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