Moby-Dick; or, the Whale (The Arion Press edition as designed by Andrew Hoyem with illustrations by Barry Moser)

This Trade Edition Of Moby-dick Is A Reduced Version Of The Arion Press Moby-dick, Which Was Published In 1979 In A Limited Edition Of 250 Copies And Has Been Hailed As A Modern Masterpiece Of Bookmaking. It Was Hand Set Under The Supervision Of One Of America's Finest Book Designers And Printers. The Initial Letters That Begin Each Chapter Were Designed Especially For This Book And Christened Leviathan. The Illustrations, Of Places, Creatures, Objects Or Tools, And Processes Connected With Nineteenth-century Whaling, Are Original Boxwood Engravings By Massachusetts Artist Barry Moser. The Text Of Moby-dick Used In This Edition Is Based On That Used In The Critical Edition Of Melville's Works Published By The Northwestern University Press And The Newberry Library. This Reduced Version Is Smaller In Size Than The Arion Edition And The California Deluxe Edition, But It Includes All Of The Original Pages And Illustrations. It Is Printed In Black Only Throughout, And It Is Not Slipcased. Foreword / Nathaniel Philbrick -- Loomings -- The Carpet Bag -- The Spouter-inn -- The Counterpane -- Breakfast -- The Street -- The Chapel -- The Pulpit -- The Sermon -- A Bosom Friend -- Nightgown -- Biographical -- Wheelbarrow -- Nantucket -- Chowder -- The Ship -- The Ramadan -- His Mark -- The Prophet -- All Astir -- Going Aboard -- Merry Christmas -- The Lee Shore -- The Advocate -- Knights And Squires -- Knights And Squires -- Ahab -- Enter Ahab; To Him, Stubb -- The Pipe -- Queen Mab -- Cetology -- The Specksynder -- The Cabin Table -- The Mast-head -- The Quarter-deck -- Ahab And All -- Sunset -- Dusk -- First Night-watch -- Forecastle -- Midnight -- Moby Dick -- The Whiteness Of The Whale -- Hark! -- The Chart -- The Affidavit -- Surmises -- The Mat-maker -- The First Lowering -- The Hyena -- Ahab's Boat And Crew -- Fedallah -- The Spirit-spout -- The Pequod Meets The Albatross -- The Gam -- The Town Ho's Story -- Monstrous Pictures Of Whales -- Less Erroneous Pictures Of Whales -- Of Whales In Paint, In Teeth, Andc. -- Brit -- Squid -- The Line -- Stubb Kills A Whale -- The Dart -- The Crotch -- Stubb's Supper -- The Whale As A Dish -- The Shark Massacre -- Cutting In -- The Blanket -- The Funeral -- The Sphynx -- The Pequod Meets The Jeroboam -- Her Story -- The Monkey-rope -- Stubb And Flask Kill A Right Whale -- The Sperm Whale's Head -- The Right Whale's Head -- The Battering-ram -- The Great Heidelburgh Tun -- Cistern And Buckets -- The Prairie -- The Nut. The Pequod Meets The Virgin -- The Honor And Glory Of Whaling -- Jonah Historically Regarded -- Pitchpoling -- The Fountain -- The Tail -- The Grand Armada -- Schools And Schoolmasters -- Fast Fish And Loose Fish -- Heads Or Tails -- The Pequod Meets The Rose Bud -- Ambergris -- The Castaway -- A Squeeze Of The Hand -- The Cassock -- The Try-works -- The Lamp -- Stowing Down And Clearing Up -- The Doubloon -- The Pequod Meets The Samuel Enderby Of London -- The Decanter -- A Bower In The Arsacides -- Measurement Of The Whale's Skeleton -- The Fossil Whale -- Does The Whale Diminish? -- Ahab's Leg -- The Carpenter -- The Deck -- Ahab And The Carpenter -- The Cabin -- Ahab And Starbuck -- Queequeg In His Coffin -- The Pacific -- The Blacksmith -- The Forge -- The Gilder -- The Pequod Meets The Bachelor -- The Dying Whale -- The Whale-watch -- The Quadrant -- The Candles -- The Deck -- Midnight, On The Forecastle -- Midnight, Aloft -- The Musket -- The Needle -- The Log And Line -- The Life-buoy -- Ahab And The Carpenter -- The Pequod Meets The Rachel -- The Cabin -- Ahab And Pip -- The Hat -- The Pequod Meets The Delight -- The Symphony -- The Chase -- First Day -- The Chase -- Second Day -- The Chase -- Third Day. Herman Melville. Reprint. Originally Published: San Francisco : Arion Press, 1979. "Command the murderous chalices! Drink ye harpooners! Drink and swear, ye men that man the deathful whaleboat's bow -- Death to Moby Dick!" So Captain Ahab binds his crew to fulfil his obsession -- the destruction of the great white whale. Under his lordly but maniacal command the Pequod's commercial mission is perverted to one of vengeance. To Ahab, the monster that destroyed his body is not a creature, but the symbol of "some unknown but still reasoning thing." Uncowed by natural disasters, ill omens, even death, Ahab urges his ship towards "the undeliverable, nameless perils of the whale." Key letters from Melville to Nathaniel Hawthorne are printed at the end of this volume. - Back cover. The adventures of the wandering sailor Ishmael and his voyage on the whaleship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab. Ishmael soon learns that Ahab seeks one specific whale, Moby Dick, a white sperm whale of tremendous size and ferocity. Comparatively few whaleships know of Moby Dick, and fewer yet have encountered him. In a previous encounter, the whale destroyed Ahab's boat and bit off his leg. Ahab intends to take revenge