Moby Dick; or, The Whale (The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature)

526, [1] pp. 8vo. Blue full leather, gilt titles and decorations, all edges gilt, silk moire endpapers, blue ribbon marker bound in. Illustrations by Robert Shore. Melville's famous 'tale of the whale' in a gorgeously bound volume. "Herman Melville's masterpiece, one of the greatest works of imagination in literary history. Over a century and a half after its publication, Moby-Dick still stands as an indisputable literary classic. It is the story of an eerily compelling madman pursuing an unholy war against a creature as vast and dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself. But more than just a novel of adventure, more than an encyclopedia of whaling lore and legend, Moby-Dick is a haunting, mesmerizing, and important social commentary populated with several of the most unforgettable and enduring characters in literature. Never losing its cultural presence, Melville's nautical epic has inspired many films over the years, including the film adaptation of Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea, starring Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Ben Whishaw, and Brendan Gleeson, and directed by Ron Howard. Written with wonderfully redemptive humor, Moby-Dick is a profound and timeless inquiry into character, faith, and the nature of perception."