Moby-Dick (1851)

Cleaning out my Drafts folder, I found a 3 months-old reply to the following question.  The e-mail thread is long dead, but the reply seems postable.

Now, how does anyone feel about Moby-Dick?

I think "Call me Ishmael" is one of the more overrated opening lines of a novel.  It has a certain simplicity and oomph the first time you read it, but it gets tiresome with repetition.  The opening of Pride and Prejudice, OTOH, makes me happy every time.  I have a stupid grin on my face right now from thinking about it.

IIRC, roughly half the novel is basically a technical instruction manual on whaling, as best as Melville could research at the time, which is fascinating from historical perspective but is a questionable addition to a novel.  Still, I read it all, so mission accomplished, I guess?  

There's that fascinating bit at the beginning where Melville spends pages and pages writing about how Ishmael makes an incredible fuss when he finds out he'll be sharing a bed with a harpooneer.  

No man prefers to sleep two in a bed. In fact, you would a good deal rather not sleep with your own brother. I don't know how it is, but people like to be private when they are sleeping. And when it comes to sleeping with an unknown stranger, in a strange inn, in a strange town, and that stranger a harpooneer, then your objections indefinitely multiply.

Oh, Ishmael, you naive homophobe!

Personally, I think China Mieville's The Scar features a better story of a hunted leviathan, but Moby-Dick was worth a read, if only to provide some perspective on The Scar.