Melville Herman - Moby Dick or the White Whale

Moby Dick or the White Whale – Melville Herman, 1962, Moscow, State Publishing House “Geographical Literature”, 2nd edition, dust jacket, hard cloth cover, pp.: 840, with numerous b/w illustrations by Rockwell Kent, format: 133 x 201 mm, weight: 868 g, circulation: 50,000 copies. Condition: close to excellent. The book covers were replaced in the bookbinding workshop, as they were badly damaged.

The epic about the dangerous hunt for the giant White Whale, Moby Dick, is a widely known work by the American writer, sailor and traveler Herman Melville. The brave captain of the whaling ship Ahab, who lost his leg in a fight with the White Whale, searches for Moby Dick across all the seas.

The duel between Ahab and his crew with Moby Dick appears in the novel as a battle of human reason and will with hostile destructive forces.

Of all possible types of cognitive consciousness, Melville gives preference to contemplative consciousness. Its bearer in the novel is Ishmael, to whom the author again entrusts the narration in the final part. For him, Moby Dick is the personification of the world, the cosmos, the universe. The strength, energy, power and even the whiteness of the Whale give rise to horror in Ishmael's consciousness with their aimlessness, meaninglessness and indifference. There is neither good nor evil, neither beauty nor ugliness in them. In Ishmael's universe there is no rational higher power: it is uncontrollable and devoid of purpose. There is neither God nor providential laws in it. There is nothing here except uncertainty, immensity and heartless emptiness. The universe is indifferent to man. Therefore, people have nothing to hope for in higher powers. Their destinies depend only on themselves.

This edition was sold on local online second-hand bookstores for 20,278 tenge.