Moby-Dick[1] is an 1851 novel by Herman Melville. The novel describes the voyage of the whaling ship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab, who leads his crew on a hunt for the great whale Moby Dick. The book''s language is highly symbolic, and many themes run throughout the work. The narrator''s reflections, along with complex descriptions of the grueling work of whaling and the personalities of his shipmates, are woven into his presentation of a meditation on society, nature, and a believed human struggle for meaning, happiness, and salvation by some people. To literary folks, mostly in parts of the western world, Moby-Dick is often considered the epitome of American Romanticism. The novel frequently employs Shakespearean devices, including formal stage directions and extended soliloquies and asides.

The novel was first published by Richard Bentley in London on October 18, 1851 in an expurgated three-volume edition entitled The Whale, and then, in one massive volume, by New York City publisher Harper and Brothers as Moby-Dick; or, The Whale on November 14, 1851. The first line of Chapter One—"Call me Ishmael."—is one of the most famous in literature. Although the book initially received mostly negative reviews, Moby-Dick is now considered one of the greatest novels in the English language and has secured Melville''s reputation in the first rank of American writers.

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