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Herman Melville's Moby Dick a pinnacle of American romanticism

Herman Melville's Moby-Dick a pinnacle of American romanticism

By NDTV Correspondent | Updated: 18 October 2012 18:58 IST

Herman Melville is the subject of Thursday's Google doodle, marking the 161st anniversary of the popular novel Moby-Dick.

The plot of Moby-Dick (which is also known as The Whale) revolves around the escapades of sailor Ishmael, who sets off on a voyage on the "whaleship" Pequod. Captain Ahab is the captain of this ship and the purpose of his journey is to find Moby-Dick, so he can extract revenge.

Moby-Dick is a ferocious, enigmatic white sperm whale that had destroyed Ahab's boat and bit off his leg during a previous voyage. Among Ahab's crew is Ishmael, a young man undergoing a gruelling rite of passage and pursuing a different salvation. As the Pequod circles the globe like a latter-day Noah's Ark, so Moby Dick ranges and digresses through space and time, through mythologies, religions and philosophies.

Herman Melville was born on August 1, 1819 in New York City. Melville went to the Albany Academy, where he studied the classics. But his schooling was quite discontinuous. He also tried his hands at various jobs but nothing seemed to catch his fancy. However, things changed for this great novelist in 1841, when he set sail on the whaling ship Acushnet. Melville stayed at the Marquesas Islands with his friend Richard Tobias Greene, who provided him with the much needed information for his future novels.

Melville's first work as an author was Typee that was published in 1846. He also wrote a sequel to it, Omoo, that was published in 1847. Both these novels are based on his own adventures while Melville was in Polynesia and Tahiti.

Herman Melville was already an accomplished writer when he wrote down Moby Dick. His earlier works had earned him quite a bit of fame and Melville was confident that Moby-Dick would be his most sought after book. However, he was in for a shock as critics gave thumbs down to this book on its release. The book got its due share of appreciation only a year after Melville's death and got another boost after the First World War ended. In his 1921 study The American Novel, Carl Van Doren called Moby-Dick "a pinnacle of American romanticism."

To reach out to the current generation, the audio recording of Moby-Dick novel was released recently. Celebrities such as David Cameron, Stephen Fry and Sir David Attenborough have recorded a chapter for this audio version.

The doodle today illustrates a scene from the novel. It shows Captain Ahab, along with the Pequod crew, getting ready to attack Moby-Dick with a harpoon.

Best Google doodles of 2012

For more Google doodles, visit this page.

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