r/mobydick

English is my second language and I'm afraid that I might have some difficulties reading the whale I have read a few lines from the first chapter and I had to Google the definition of some words and phrases

I have heard that Moby dick is a difficult book and that it expects you to know things

I know that it might be difficult but I don't know how difficult it could be I enjoy learning so I suppose the process of looking up the definition of a thing or 2 between lines would be quite enjoyable after all that's why I decided to read a classic I wanted to improve my English and maybe acquire some knowledge

And yeah now I know who Cato is I think this could be a fun read but still feel like it would kinda bit tedious

Sorry if this Post is hard to read I'm dead tired and I can't think straight :(

reading some more of the “classic“ books lately (Sherlock Holme, 20,000 leagues under the sea, etc.) lately and I realized I havent read moby dick ever but i am slightly intimidated by the 650ish pages, as someone who enjoys more nautical sorts of stories, do you all think it would be a good book or should I read another book?

My first read of Moby-Dick was 50 years ago as a High School senior. Then it was a requirement. Now a choice. I remembered very little of the books details, however remember struggling. I admit in spite of all my life experience I still struggle.

I am pages away from the chase and then I hit "The Musket". Don't know why. I was Starbuck. I was holding the death-tube. The words embedded in my brain. Don't know what that says about me!

That same year in HS we read Crime and Punishment. I was Raskolnikov at times.

I say it was the genius of the author not any inherent brilliance on my part.

I am not a literary scholar at all. I enjoy a good yarn and recently want more from my reading. I have certainly found it.

Wondering what others feel about this chapter.

Hershel Parker's wife wrote on his Facebook page that he died on June 19, 2026 at the age of 90. I haven't seen an obituary posted yet but I'll keep my eyes open.

Parker, of course, was co-editor of the Norton Critical Edition of Moby-Dick, the general editor of all the Northwestern-Newberry editions of Melville's complete works, the author of the seminal two-volume biography of Melville (and a companion memoir of writing the biography), a blog he kept for more than a decade, and countless other articles and contributions to Melville studies.

I had a few very limited email exchanges with Parker in the last few years, asking him questions related to my own blog and was grateful to get even a quick response pointing me in one direction or another.

So pour one out for Hershel Parker, poor devil of a Sub-Sub!

> So fare thee well, poor devil of a Sub-Sub, whose commentator I am. Thou belongest to that hopeless, sallow tribe which no wine of this world will ever warm; and for whom even Pale Sherry would be too rosy-strong; but with whom one sometimes loves to sit, and feel poor-devilish, too; and grow convivial upon tears; and say to them bluntly, with full eyes and empty glasses, and in not altogether unpleasant sadness—Give it up, Sub-Subs! For by how much the more pains ye take to please the world, by so much the more shall ye for ever go thankless! Would that I could clear out Hampton Court and the Tuileries for ye! But gulp down your tears and hie aloft to the royal-mast with your hearts; for your friends who have gone before are clearing out the seven-storied heavens, and making refugees of long-pampered Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael, against your coming. Here ye strike but splintered hearts together—there, ye shall strike unsplinterable glasses!

It's been a while since I read Moby Dick. Any details Melville mentioned that I forgot?

Also, I've been wondering: is Ahab his first or last name? (I did not read it very closely).