20,000 Leagus Under the Sea Wikipedia pages

Deep Sea 3D
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search



 This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2009)

Deep Sea 3D
Deep Sea 3D Poster.jpg
Directed by
Howard Hall
Narrated by
Johnny Depp
Kate Winslet
Music by
Danny Elfman
Deborah Lurie
Cinematography
Howard Hall

Production
 company

IMAX Business Needs

Distributed by
Warner Bros. Films

Release dates

March 3, 2006


Running time
 40 minutes
Country
Canada
Language
English
Box office
$84,983,692[1]
Deep Sea 3D is a 3D IMAX documentary film about sea life. The documentary is directed by Howard Hall who has also directed other undersea films such as Into the Deep and Island of the Sharks. The film is narrated by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet. It also features music by Danny Elfman. The film is 40 minutes long.
The film shows various sea animals, such as jellyfish, octopus and turtles as well as coral reef life.
External links[edit]
IMAX Deep Sea 3D
Deep Sea 3D at the Internet Movie Database
Deep Sea 3D at AllMovie
Deep Sea 3D at Rotten Tomatoes
Deep Sea 3D at Box Office Mojo
References list[edit]
1.Jump up ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=deepsea3d.htm
Stub icon This article about a nature documentary film is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.




  


Categories: 2006 films
English-language films
2000s documentary films
Warner Bros. films
American documentary films
2000s 3D films
Documentary films about nature
IMAX short films
American 3D films
3D short films
Film scores by Danny Elfman
Nature documentary film stubs







Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
Deutsch
Italiano
日本語
Polski
Português
Русский
Edit links
This page was last modified on 22 July 2014, at 03:26.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Sea_3D









Deep Sea 3D
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search



 This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2009)

Deep Sea 3D
Deep Sea 3D Poster.jpg
Directed by
Howard Hall
Narrated by
Johnny Depp
Kate Winslet
Music by
Danny Elfman
Deborah Lurie
Cinematography
Howard Hall

Production
 company

IMAX Business Needs

Distributed by
Warner Bros. Films

Release dates

March 3, 2006


Running time
 40 minutes
Country
Canada
Language
English
Box office
$84,983,692[1]
Deep Sea 3D is a 3D IMAX documentary film about sea life. The documentary is directed by Howard Hall who has also directed other undersea films such as Into the Deep and Island of the Sharks. The film is narrated by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet. It also features music by Danny Elfman. The film is 40 minutes long.
The film shows various sea animals, such as jellyfish, octopus and turtles as well as coral reef life.
External links[edit]
IMAX Deep Sea 3D
Deep Sea 3D at the Internet Movie Database
Deep Sea 3D at AllMovie
Deep Sea 3D at Rotten Tomatoes
Deep Sea 3D at Box Office Mojo
References list[edit]
1.Jump up ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=deepsea3d.htm
Stub icon This article about a nature documentary film is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.




  


Categories: 2006 films
English-language films
2000s documentary films
Warner Bros. films
American documentary films
2000s 3D films
Documentary films about nature
IMAX short films
American 3D films
3D short films
Film scores by Danny Elfman
Nature documentary film stubs







Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
Deutsch
Italiano
日本語
Polski
Português
Русский
Edit links
This page was last modified on 22 July 2014, at 03:26.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Sea_3D









Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Into the Deep: America, Whaling & The World

Distributed by
Steeplechase Films
Directed by
Ric Burns
Produced by
Bonnie Lafave
 Mary Recine
 Robin Espinola
Ric Burns
Written by
Ric Burns
Narrated by
Willem Dafoe
Music by
Brian Keane
Cinematography
Buddy Squires
 Paul Goldsmith
Editing by
Li-Shin Yu
Language
English
Release date
May 10, 2010

Running time
120 minutes
Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World is a two hour documentary by Ric Burns about the history of the whaling industry in the United States.
A film chronicling the American whaling industry from its origins in New England in the 17th century, through the golden age of deep-sea whaling, up to its decline following the Civil War. Narrated by Willem Dafoe, this film binds the story of American capitalism on the rise with a case study in maritime culture. The fate of the whaleship Essex—which set sail from Nantucket in the summer of 1819—is interwoven with the story of a young Herman Melville, whose own imaginative voyage into the deep would give rise to one of the greatest works of American literature, Moby Dick.
Other voices heard in the film include Robert Sean Leonard as Herman Melville, Josh Hamilton as Owen Chase & Peleg Folger and Vincent Kartheiser as Thomas Nickerson.


Contents  [hide]
1 List of Awards and Nominations
2 Soundtrack
3 References
4 External links

List of Awards and Nominations[edit]
31st News & Documentary Emmy Awards (2010) - Outstanding Nonfiction Series (nominated) [1]
History Makers Nomination Best History Production
International Documentary Association Awards Nomination
Soundtrack[edit]
The documentary's original soundtrack, composed by Brian Keane, was released by Valley Entertainment on CD and in digital formats.[2]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Nominees for the 31st Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards". Retrieved 9 March 2011.
2.Jump up ^ "Into the Deep: America, Whaling & The World". Valley Entertainment. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
External links[edit]
PBS
Steeplechase Official Site
Mike Hale's review in The New York Times
Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World at the Internet Movie Database


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
American Experience episodes


Seasons: 1 ·  2 ·  3 ·  4 ·  5 ·  6 ·  7 ·  8 ·  9 ·  10 ·  11 ·  12 ·  13 ·  14 ·  15 ·  16 ·  17 ·  18 ·  19 ·  20 ·  21 ·  22 ·  23 ·  24 ·  25 ·  26 

Season 22
"The Civilian Conservation Corps" ·
 "Wyatt Earp" ·
 "The Bombing of Germany" ·
 "Dolley Madison" ·
 "Earth Days" ·
 "My Lai" ·
 "Roads to Memphis" ·
 "Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World"
 

Stub icon This article related to a made-for-TV documentary film is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.




  


Categories: English-language films
2010 television films
Television series by WNET
American documentary television series
Films directed by Ric Burns
Documentary television film stubs





Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages

Edit links
This page was last modified on 29 December 2014, at 16:43.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Deep:_America,_Whaling_%26_the_World









Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Into the Deep: America, Whaling & The World

Distributed by
Steeplechase Films
Directed by
Ric Burns
Produced by
Bonnie Lafave
 Mary Recine
 Robin Espinola
Ric Burns
Written by
Ric Burns
Narrated by
Willem Dafoe
Music by
Brian Keane
Cinematography
Buddy Squires
 Paul Goldsmith
Editing by
Li-Shin Yu
Language
English
Release date
May 10, 2010

Running time
120 minutes
Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World is a two hour documentary by Ric Burns about the history of the whaling industry in the United States.
A film chronicling the American whaling industry from its origins in New England in the 17th century, through the golden age of deep-sea whaling, up to its decline following the Civil War. Narrated by Willem Dafoe, this film binds the story of American capitalism on the rise with a case study in maritime culture. The fate of the whaleship Essex—which set sail from Nantucket in the summer of 1819—is interwoven with the story of a young Herman Melville, whose own imaginative voyage into the deep would give rise to one of the greatest works of American literature, Moby Dick.
Other voices heard in the film include Robert Sean Leonard as Herman Melville, Josh Hamilton as Owen Chase & Peleg Folger and Vincent Kartheiser as Thomas Nickerson.


Contents  [hide]
1 List of Awards and Nominations
2 Soundtrack
3 References
4 External links

List of Awards and Nominations[edit]
31st News & Documentary Emmy Awards (2010) - Outstanding Nonfiction Series (nominated) [1]
History Makers Nomination Best History Production
International Documentary Association Awards Nomination
Soundtrack[edit]
The documentary's original soundtrack, composed by Brian Keane, was released by Valley Entertainment on CD and in digital formats.[2]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Nominees for the 31st Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards". Retrieved 9 March 2011.
2.Jump up ^ "Into the Deep: America, Whaling & The World". Valley Entertainment. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
External links[edit]
PBS
Steeplechase Official Site
Mike Hale's review in The New York Times
Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World at the Internet Movie Database


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
American Experience episodes


Seasons: 1 ·  2 ·  3 ·  4 ·  5 ·  6 ·  7 ·  8 ·  9 ·  10 ·  11 ·  12 ·  13 ·  14 ·  15 ·  16 ·  17 ·  18 ·  19 ·  20 ·  21 ·  22 ·  23 ·  24 ·  25 ·  26 

Season 22
"The Civilian Conservation Corps" ·
 "Wyatt Earp" ·
 "The Bombing of Germany" ·
 "Dolley Madison" ·
 "Earth Days" ·
 "My Lai" ·
 "Roads to Memphis" ·
 "Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World"
 

Stub icon This article related to a made-for-TV documentary film is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.




  


Categories: English-language films
2010 television films
Television series by WNET
American documentary television series
Films directed by Ric Burns
Documentary television film stubs





Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages

Edit links
This page was last modified on 29 December 2014, at 16:43.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Deep:_America,_Whaling_%26_the_World










Oceans (TV series)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Oceans
BBCOceans.JPG
Title sequence to Oceans

Genre
Documentary
Country of origin
United Kingdom
Original language(s)
English
No. of series
1
No. of episodes
8
Production

Location(s)
Indian Ocean, Sea of Cortez, Atlantic Ocean, Red Sea, Southern Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, Arctic Ocean
Running time
60 mins
Production company(s)
BBC
Broadcast

Original channel
BBC Two
Original run
November 2008 – December 2008
External links
Website
Oceans is an eight-part series on BBC Two, which seeks to provide a better understanding of the state of the Earth's oceans today, their role in the past, present and future and their significance in global terms. Paul Rose also documents some of the scientific observations his team made as a feature for BBC News.


Contents  [hide]
1 Species Featured
2 Episodes/Locations
3 Crew
4 Related links

Species Featured[edit]
Some of the species features in the series include: Sperm whale, Humboldt squid, Sea lion, Scallop, Hammerhead shark, Kelp, Weedy sea dragon, Maori octopus, Fur seal, Rock lobster, Lionfish, Coconut crab, Seahorses, Whale shark, Dugong, Six gill shark, Great white shark, Tuna, Walrus and Beluga whale.
Episodes/Locations[edit]
There are eight episodes in the series.
1: Sea of Cortez - First broadcast 12 November 2008
The marine experts carry out pioneering science on the 20-metre-long sperm whale.
2: Southern Ocean - First broadcast 19 November 2008
Why are parts of the Southern Ocean warming twice as fast as the rest of Earth's oceans?
3: Red Sea - First broadcast 26 November 2008
The team explores the remote and unexplored Southern Red Sea.
4: Atlantic Ocean - First broadcast 27 November 2008
The team explores a corner of the Atlantic Ocean.
5: Indian Ocean - First broadcast 3 December 2008
The team explores the tropics of the Indian Ocean and search for the elusive dugong.
6: Indian Ocean - Coastal - First broadcast 4 December 2008
The team explores the coastal waters of the Indian Ocean.
7: Mediterranean Sea - First broadcast 10 December 2008
An exploration of the profound effect that man is having on the Mediterranean Sea.
8: Arctic Ocean - First broadcast 19 December 2008
The team dive beneath the polar ice cap to explore how the ice is shrinking.
Crew[edit]
Paul Rose - Polar explorer, expedition leader
Tooni Mahto - Marine biologist, oceanographer
Lucy Blue - Marine archaeologist
Philippe Cousteau - Environmentalist, oceanographer
Related links[edit]
Oceans at BBC Programmes
BBC Two at BBC Online
  


Categories: BBC television documentaries
BBC high definition programmes
Documentary films about nature




Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages

Edit links
This page was last modified on 12 April 2013, at 18:33.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceans_(TV_series)

















Oceans (TV series)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Oceans
BBCOceans.JPG
Title sequence to Oceans

Genre
Documentary
Country of origin
United Kingdom
Original language(s)
English
No. of series
1
No. of episodes
8
Production

Location(s)
Indian Ocean, Sea of Cortez, Atlantic Ocean, Red Sea, Southern Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, Arctic Ocean
Running time
60 mins
Production company(s)
BBC
Broadcast

Original channel
BBC Two
Original run
November 2008 – December 2008
External links
Website
Oceans is an eight-part series on BBC Two, which seeks to provide a better understanding of the state of the Earth's oceans today, their role in the past, present and future and their significance in global terms. Paul Rose also documents some of the scientific observations his team made as a feature for BBC News.


Contents  [hide]
1 Species Featured
2 Episodes/Locations
3 Crew
4 Related links

Species Featured[edit]
Some of the species features in the series include: Sperm whale, Humboldt squid, Sea lion, Scallop, Hammerhead shark, Kelp, Weedy sea dragon, Maori octopus, Fur seal, Rock lobster, Lionfish, Coconut crab, Seahorses, Whale shark, Dugong, Six gill shark, Great white shark, Tuna, Walrus and Beluga whale.
Episodes/Locations[edit]
There are eight episodes in the series.
1: Sea of Cortez - First broadcast 12 November 2008
The marine experts carry out pioneering science on the 20-metre-long sperm whale.
2: Southern Ocean - First broadcast 19 November 2008
Why are parts of the Southern Ocean warming twice as fast as the rest of Earth's oceans?
3: Red Sea - First broadcast 26 November 2008
The team explores the remote and unexplored Southern Red Sea.
4: Atlantic Ocean - First broadcast 27 November 2008
The team explores a corner of the Atlantic Ocean.
5: Indian Ocean - First broadcast 3 December 2008
The team explores the tropics of the Indian Ocean and search for the elusive dugong.
6: Indian Ocean - Coastal - First broadcast 4 December 2008
The team explores the coastal waters of the Indian Ocean.
7: Mediterranean Sea - First broadcast 10 December 2008
An exploration of the profound effect that man is having on the Mediterranean Sea.
8: Arctic Ocean - First broadcast 19 December 2008
The team dive beneath the polar ice cap to explore how the ice is shrinking.
Crew[edit]
Paul Rose - Polar explorer, expedition leader
Tooni Mahto - Marine biologist, oceanographer
Lucy Blue - Marine archaeologist
Philippe Cousteau - Environmentalist, oceanographer
Related links[edit]
Oceans at BBC Programmes
BBC Two at BBC Online
  


Categories: BBC television documentaries
BBC high definition programmes
Documentary films about nature




Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages

Edit links
This page was last modified on 12 April 2013, at 18:33.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceans_(TV_series)















Pompeii: The Last Day
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

This article is about the 2003 docudrama. For other works with similar titles, see The Last Days of Pompeii (disambiguation).


 This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2010)

Pompeii: The Last Day

Genre
Docudrama
Written by
Edward Canfor-Dumas
Directed by
Peter Nicholson
Starring
Tim Pigott-Smith
Jonathan Firth
Jim Carter

Narrated by
Alisdair Simpson
F. Murray Abraham

Composer(s)
Ty Unwin
Country of origin
United Kingdom
Original language(s)
English
Production

Executive producer(s)
Michael J. Mosley
Producer(s)
Ailsa Orr
Running time
90 minutes
Distributor
BBC
Broadcast

Original channel
BBC One
Original airing
20 October 2003
Chronology

Related shows
Pyramid
Colosseum: Rome's Arena of Death

External links
Website
Pompeii: The Last Day is a 2003 dramatized documentary that tells of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius on 24 August 79 AD. This eruption covered the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in ash and pumice, killing all those trapped between the volcano and the sea. The documentary portrays the different phases of the eruption; it was directed by Peter Nicholson and written by Edward Canfor-Dumas.


Contents  [hide]
1 Production
2 Awards
3 Plot 3.1 Death throes
4 Cast
5 Depiction
6 Gallery
7 References
8 External links

Production[edit]
The film was directed and produced by the BBC in co-production with TLC.[1][citation needed]
Awards[edit]
Winner: sound supervisor Simon Farmer won the 2005 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Sound Editing for Nonfiction Programming (Single or Multi-Camera) for this production.[2][3]
Nominations: BAFTA 2004 nominations for Flaherty and RT Audience[3]
Winner: BBC Factual Audience Award[4]
Winner: RTS Education Award[4]
This was the highest rated specialist factual programme of the year with an audience of 10.3 million and a 40% share.[5]
Plot[edit]
The documentary tells the story of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius from the point of view of assorted inhabitants of Pompeii and Herculaneum whose names and occupations are known, including a local politician and his family, a fuller, his wife, and two gladiators. Historical characters include Pliny the Elder and his nephew Pliny the Younger.
It draws heavily on the eyewitness account of Pliny the Younger as well as historical research and recent discoveries in volcanology. Extensive CGI was used to recreate the effects of the eruption.[citation needed]
Death throes[edit]

Question book-new.svg
 This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2014)
Most of the people who were in Pompeii when the fourth pyroclastic surge hit died instantly or slowly suffocated to death.
The death throes of those in the family of Julius Polybius are based upon the 1975 discovery of the skeleton of a heavily pregnant girl (Julia) surrounded by her family, in the actual House of Julius Polybius. Julia's husband, Sabinus, is shown to have most likely poisoned himself and presumably was the skeleton lying near the foot of the bed Julia's body was found on, along with the bones of her fetus.
The death of Stephanus the Fuller is based upon a cast found of a man in the fetal position (the cast is locked up in an onsite warehouse for safekeeping[citation needed]).
The death of Stephanus' wife, Fortunata, is based upon the discovery of the body of a rich bejeweled lady in the gladiator barracks, alongside those of gladiators.
In Herculaneum, the death throes are much simpler, as most people were found during excavations either on the beach or inside the boat houses. Additionally, unlike Pompeii, when the pyroclastic surges hit Herculaneum, people there were instantly killed, whereas most Pompeians slowly suffocated, although some died instantly.
Cast[edit]
Rachel Atkins - Plinia
Omar Berdouni - Callistus
Emily Canfor-Dumas - Slave girl
Jim Carter - Polybius
Rebecca Clarke - Fortunata
Chrissie Cotterill - Epidia
Jonathan Firth - Stephanus
Martin Hodgson - Gaius - Pliny the Younger
Leigh Jones - Sabinus
Neji Nejah - Restitutus
Tim Pigott-Smith - Pliny the Elder
Chad Shepherd - Africanus
Katherine Whitburn - Julia
Robert Whitelock - Celadus
Inika Leigh Wright - Hedone
George Yiasoumi - Felix
Depiction[edit]
A computer-generated rendering of the eruption is inaccurate: the depictions of the Temple of Jupiter, facing the forum, and the Temple of Apollo, across the portico to the left, are inaccurate, and the depictions of the state of the porticoes around the forum are questionable, as they all appear intact during this recreation of the 79 eruption. In contrast, it is widely known that at least the Temples of Jupiter and Apollo had been destroyed 17 years before, during the 62 earthquake, and they had not been rebuilt by the time the city was finally destroyed in the 79 eruption.[citation needed]
Gallery[edit]

Portal icon BBC portal
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ BBC - Press Office located near pompeii - The Romans come to BBC ONE
2.Jump up ^ "Primetime Emmy Award Database". Emmys.com. Los Angeles: Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
3.^ Jump up to: a b Pompeii: The Last Day (2003) (TV) - Awards
4.^ Jump up to: a b Pompeii: the last day
5.Jump up ^ About Me
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pompeii: The Last Day.
Official Press Release at BBC Press Office
Official Press Pack at BBC Press Office
Pompeii: The Last Day at the Internet Movie Database
  


Categories: Pompeii in popular culture
BBC television documentaries about history
BBC television docudramas
Discovery Channel shows
Emmy Award winning programs
2003 television specials











Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
Français
Nederlands
Edit links
This page was last modified on 3 January 2015, at 14:23.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompeii:_The_Last_Day









Pompeii: The Last Day
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

This article is about the 2003 docudrama. For other works with similar titles, see The Last Days of Pompeii (disambiguation).


 This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2010)

Pompeii: The Last Day

Genre
Docudrama
Written by
Edward Canfor-Dumas
Directed by
Peter Nicholson
Starring
Tim Pigott-Smith
Jonathan Firth
Jim Carter

Narrated by
Alisdair Simpson
F. Murray Abraham

Composer(s)
Ty Unwin
Country of origin
United Kingdom
Original language(s)
English
Production

Executive producer(s)
Michael J. Mosley
Producer(s)
Ailsa Orr
Running time
90 minutes
Distributor
BBC
Broadcast

Original channel
BBC One
Original airing
20 October 2003
Chronology

Related shows
Pyramid
Colosseum: Rome's Arena of Death

External links
Website
Pompeii: The Last Day is a 2003 dramatized documentary that tells of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius on 24 August 79 AD. This eruption covered the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in ash and pumice, killing all those trapped between the volcano and the sea. The documentary portrays the different phases of the eruption; it was directed by Peter Nicholson and written by Edward Canfor-Dumas.


Contents  [hide]
1 Production
2 Awards
3 Plot 3.1 Death throes
4 Cast
5 Depiction
6 Gallery
7 References
8 External links

Production[edit]
The film was directed and produced by the BBC in co-production with TLC.[1][citation needed]
Awards[edit]
Winner: sound supervisor Simon Farmer won the 2005 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Sound Editing for Nonfiction Programming (Single or Multi-Camera) for this production.[2][3]
Nominations: BAFTA 2004 nominations for Flaherty and RT Audience[3]
Winner: BBC Factual Audience Award[4]
Winner: RTS Education Award[4]
This was the highest rated specialist factual programme of the year with an audience of 10.3 million and a 40% share.[5]
Plot[edit]
The documentary tells the story of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius from the point of view of assorted inhabitants of Pompeii and Herculaneum whose names and occupations are known, including a local politician and his family, a fuller, his wife, and two gladiators. Historical characters include Pliny the Elder and his nephew Pliny the Younger.
It draws heavily on the eyewitness account of Pliny the Younger as well as historical research and recent discoveries in volcanology. Extensive CGI was used to recreate the effects of the eruption.[citation needed]
Death throes[edit]

Question book-new.svg
 This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2014)
Most of the people who were in Pompeii when the fourth pyroclastic surge hit died instantly or slowly suffocated to death.
The death throes of those in the family of Julius Polybius are based upon the 1975 discovery of the skeleton of a heavily pregnant girl (Julia) surrounded by her family, in the actual House of Julius Polybius. Julia's husband, Sabinus, is shown to have most likely poisoned himself and presumably was the skeleton lying near the foot of the bed Julia's body was found on, along with the bones of her fetus.
The death of Stephanus the Fuller is based upon a cast found of a man in the fetal position (the cast is locked up in an onsite warehouse for safekeeping[citation needed]).
The death of Stephanus' wife, Fortunata, is based upon the discovery of the body of a rich bejeweled lady in the gladiator barracks, alongside those of gladiators.
In Herculaneum, the death throes are much simpler, as most people were found during excavations either on the beach or inside the boat houses. Additionally, unlike Pompeii, when the pyroclastic surges hit Herculaneum, people there were instantly killed, whereas most Pompeians slowly suffocated, although some died instantly.
Cast[edit]
Rachel Atkins - Plinia
Omar Berdouni - Callistus
Emily Canfor-Dumas - Slave girl
Jim Carter - Polybius
Rebecca Clarke - Fortunata
Chrissie Cotterill - Epidia
Jonathan Firth - Stephanus
Martin Hodgson - Gaius - Pliny the Younger
Leigh Jones - Sabinus
Neji Nejah - Restitutus
Tim Pigott-Smith - Pliny the Elder
Chad Shepherd - Africanus
Katherine Whitburn - Julia
Robert Whitelock - Celadus
Inika Leigh Wright - Hedone
George Yiasoumi - Felix
Depiction[edit]
A computer-generated rendering of the eruption is inaccurate: the depictions of the Temple of Jupiter, facing the forum, and the Temple of Apollo, across the portico to the left, are inaccurate, and the depictions of the state of the porticoes around the forum are questionable, as they all appear intact during this recreation of the 79 eruption. In contrast, it is widely known that at least the Temples of Jupiter and Apollo had been destroyed 17 years before, during the 62 earthquake, and they had not been rebuilt by the time the city was finally destroyed in the 79 eruption.[citation needed]
Gallery[edit]

Portal icon BBC portal
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ BBC - Press Office located near pompeii - The Romans come to BBC ONE
2.Jump up ^ "Primetime Emmy Award Database". Emmys.com. Los Angeles: Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
3.^ Jump up to: a b Pompeii: The Last Day (2003) (TV) - Awards
4.^ Jump up to: a b Pompeii: the last day
5.Jump up ^ About Me
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pompeii: The Last Day.
Official Press Release at BBC Press Office
Official Press Pack at BBC Press Office
Pompeii: The Last Day at the Internet Movie Database
  


Categories: Pompeii in popular culture
BBC television documentaries about history
BBC television docudramas
Discovery Channel shows
Emmy Award winning programs
2003 television specials











Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
Français
Nederlands
Edit links
This page was last modified on 3 January 2015, at 14:23.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompeii:_The_Last_Day








The Old Man and the Sea
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see The Old Man and the Sea (disambiguation).
The Old Man and the Sea
Original book cover
Author
Ernest Hemingway
Country
United States, Cuba
Language
English, Spanish
Genre
Novel[1]
Publisher
Charles Scribner's Sons

Publication date
 1952
Media type
Print (hardcover and paperback)
Pages
127
ISBN
0-684-80122-1
The Old Man and the Sea is a novel[1] written by the American author Ernest Hemingway in 1951 in Cuba, and published in 1952. It was the last major work of fiction to be produced by Hemingway and published in his lifetime. One of his most famous works, it centers upon Santiago, an aging fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream.[2] The Old Man and the Sea was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953 and was cited by the Nobel Committee as contributing to the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Hemingway in 1954.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot summary
2 Background and publication
3 Literary significance and criticism
4 Legacy
5 References 5.1 Sources
6 Further reading
7 External links

Plot summary[edit]
The Old Man and the Sea is the story of a battle between an old, experienced fisherman, Santiago, and a large marlin. The novel starts by telling the reader that Santiago has gone 84 days without catching a fish, considered "salao", the worst form of unluckiness. He is so unlucky that his young apprentice, Manolin, has been forbidden by his parents to sail with him and been told to, instead, fish with successful fishermen. The boy visits Santiago's shack each night, hauling his fishing gear, preparing food, talking about American baseball and his favorite player Joe DiMaggio. Santiago tells Manolin that on the next day, he will venture far out into the Gulf Stream, north of Cuba in the Straits of Florida to fish, confident that his unlucky streak is near its end.
On the eighty-fifth day of his unlucky streak, Santiago takes his skiff into the Gulf Stream, sets his lines and, by noon, has his bait taken by a big fish that he is sure is a marlin. Unable to pull in the great marlin, Santiago is instead pulled by the marlin. Two days and nights pass with Santiago holding the line. Though wounded by the struggle and in pain, Santiago expresses a compassionate appreciation for his adversary, often referring to him as a brother. He also determines that because of the fish's great dignity, no one shall eat the marlin.
On the third day, the fish begins to circle the skiff. Santiago, worn out and almost delirious, uses all the strength to pull the fish onto its side and stab the marlin with a harpoon. Santiago straps the marlin to the side of his skiff and heads home, thinking about the high price the fish will bring him at the market and how many people he will feed.
On his return, sharks are attracted to the marlin's blood. Santiago kills a great mako shark with his harpoon, but he loses the weapon. He makes a new harpoon by strapping his knife to the end of an oar to help ward off the next line of sharks; five sharks are slain and many others are driven away. But the sharks keep coming, and by nightfall the sharks have almost devoured the marlin's entire carcass, leaving a skeleton consisting mostly of its backbone, its tail and its head. Finally reaching the shore before dawn on the next day, Santiago struggles to his shack, carrying the heavy mast on his shoulder. Once home, he slumps onto his bed and falls into a deep sleep.
A group of fishermen gather the next day around the boat where the fish's skeleton is still attached. One of the fishermen measures it to be 18 feet (5.5 m) from nose to tail. Tourists at the nearby café mistakenly take it for a shark. Manolin, worried about the old man, cries upon finding him safe asleep. The boy brings him newspapers and coffee. When the old man wakes, they promise to fish together once again. Upon his return to sleep, Santiago dreams of his youth—of lions on an African beach.
Background and publication[edit]



No good book has ever been written that has in it symbols arrived at beforehand and stuck in. ... I tried to make a real old man, a real boy, a real sea and a real fish and real sharks. But if I made them good and true enough they would mean many things.
Ernest Hemingway in 1954[3]
Written in 1951, and published in 1952, The Old Man and the Sea is Hemingway's final full-length work published during his lifetime. The book, dedicated to Hemingway's literary editor Maxwell Perkins,[4] was featured in Life magazine on September 1, 1952, and five million copies of the magazine were sold in two days.[5]
The Old Man and the Sea became a Book of the Month Club selection, and made Hemingway a celebrity.[6] Published in book form on September 1, 1952, the first edition print run was 50,000 copies.[7] The illustrated edition featured black and white pictures by Charles Tunnicliffe and Raymond Sheppard.[8]
In May 1953, the novel received the Pulitzer Prize[8] and was specifically cited when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.[9][10] The success of The Old Man and the Sea made Hemingway an international celebrity.[6] The Old Man and the Sea is commonly taught and continues to earn foreign royalties.[11]
Literary significance and criticism[edit]
The Old Man and the Sea served to reinvigorate Hemingway's literary reputation and prompted a reexamination of his entire body of work. The novel was initially received with much popularity; it restored many readers' confidence in Hemingway's capability as an author. Its publisher, Scribner's, on an early dust jacket, called the novel a "new classic," and many critics favorably compared it with such works as William Faulkner's The Bear and Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.



 Ernest Hemingway and Henry ("Mike") Strater with the remaining 500 lbs of an estimated 1000 lb marlin that was half-eaten by sharks before it could be landed in the Bahamas in 1935. See Pilar for details of this episode.
"Eyes the Same Color of the Sea: Santiago's Expatriation from Spain and Ethnic Otherness in Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea" focuses on the old man's national identity. Using baseball references, the article points out that Santiago was at least 22 years old when he moved from Spain to Cuba: "Born in Spain’s Canary Islands, Santiago moved to Cuba as a young man; this circumstance has a significant impact on his social condition." Santiago was old enough to have a Spanish identity when he immigrated, and the article examined how being a foreigner (and from a country that colonized Cuba) would influence his life on the island. Because Santiago was too poor to move back to Spain—many Spaniards moved to Cuba and then back to Spain at that time—he adopted Cuban culture like religious ceremonies, Cuban Spanish, and fishing in skiffs in order to acculturate in the new country.[12]
Hemingway wanted to use the story of the old man, Santiago, to show the honor in struggle and to draw biblical parallels to life in his modern world. Possibly based on the character of Gregorio Fuentes, Hemingway at first planned to use Santiago's story, which became The Old Man and the Sea, as part of an intimacy between mother and son. Relationships in the book relate to the Bible, which he referred to as "The Sea Book". Some aspects of it did appear in the posthumously published Islands in the Stream. Hemingway mentions the real life experience of an old fisherman almost identical to that of Santiago and his marlin in On the Blue Water: A Gulf Stream Letter (Esquire, April 1936).[13][14]
Gregorio Fuentes, who many critics believe was an inspiration for Santiago, was a blue-eyed man born on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. After going to sea at age ten on ships that called in African ports, he migrated permanently to Cuba when he was 22. After 82 years in Cuba, Fuentes attempted to reclaim his Spanish citizenship in 2001.[15]
Joseph Waldmeir's essay "Confiteor Hominem: Ernest Hemingway's Religion of Man" is a favorable critical reading of the novel—and one which has defined analytical considerations since. Perhaps the most memorable claim is Waldmeir's answer to the question—What is the book's message?

The answer assumes a third level on which The Old Man and the Sea must be read—as a sort of allegorical commentary on all his previous work, by means of which it may be established that the religious overtones of The Old Man and the Sea are not peculiar to that book among Hemingway's works, and that Hemingway has finally taken the decisive step in elevating what might be called his philosophy of Manhood to the level of a religion.[16]
Waldmeir considered the function of the novel's Christian imagery, made most evident through Hemingway's obvious reference to the crucifixion of Christ following Santiago's sighting of the sharks that reads:

′Ay,′ he said aloud. There is no translation for this word and perhaps it is just a noise such as a man might make, involuntarily, feeling the nail go through his hands and into the wood.[17]
One of the most outspoken critics of The Old Man and the Sea is Robert P. Weeks. His 1962 piece "Fakery in The Old Man and the Sea" presents his claim that the novel is a weak and unexpected divergence from the typical, realistic Hemingway (referring to the rest of Hemingway's body of work as "earlier glories").[18] In juxtaposing this novel against Hemingway's previous works, Weeks contends:

The difference, however, in the effectiveness with which Hemingway employs this characteristic device in his best work and in The Old Man and the Sea is illuminating. The work of fiction in which Hemingway devoted the most attention to natural objects, The Old Man and the Sea, is pieced out with an extraordinary quantity of fakery, extraordinary because one would expect to find no inexactness, no romanticizing of natural objects in a writer who loathed W.H. Hudson, could not read Thoreau, deplored Melville's rhetoric in Moby Dick, and who was himself criticized by other writers, notably Faulkner, for his devotion to the facts and his unwillingness to 'invent.'[18]
Some critics suggest Hemingway wrote The Old Man and the Sea in reaction against the overtly negative criticism he received for Across the River and into the Trees.[19]
Legacy[edit]
In 1954, Hemingway donated his Nobel prize gold medal in thanks to the Cuban image of Our Lady of Charity. The Swedish medal was stolen in 1986, but was returned later upon the threat of Raul Castro.[20]
The Old Man and the Sea has been adapted for the screen three times: a 1958 film starring Spencer Tracy, a 1990 miniseries starring Anthony Quinn, and a 1999 animated short film.
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b Life (Time Inc) 33 (8). 25 August 1952. ISSN 0024-3019. "Hemingway's work is a 27,000-word novel called The Old Man and the Sea." |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
2.Jump up ^ "The Nobel Prize in Literature 1954". The Nobel Foundation. Retrieved January 31, 2005.
3.Jump up ^ "Books: An American Storyteller". TIME. December 13, 1954. Retrieved February 1, 2011.
4.Jump up ^ Perkins, Maxwell (2004). Bruccoli, Matthew J.; Baughman, Judith, eds. The sons of Maxwell Perkins: letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, and their editor. University of South Carolina Press. p. xxvii. ISBN 1-57003-548-2.
5.Jump up ^ "A Hemingway timeline Any man's life, told truly, is a novel". The Kansas City Star (KansasCity.com). June 27, 1999. Retrieved 2009-08-29.
6.^ Jump up to: a b Desnoyers, p. 13
7.Jump up ^ Oliver 1999, p. 247
8.^ Jump up to: a b Meyers 1985, p. 489
9.Jump up ^ "Heroes:Life with Papa". TIME. November 8, 1954. Retrieved 2009-12-12.
10.Jump up ^ "The Nobel Prize in Literature 1954". Nobelprize.org. Retrieved October 4, 2009.
11.Jump up ^ Meyers 1985, p. 485
12.Jump up ^ Herlihy, Jeffrey (2009). "Eyes the same color as the Sea: Santiago's Expatriation from Spain and Ethnic Otherness in Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea". The Hemingway Review. XXVIII (2): 2544. doi:10.1353/hem.0.0030.
13.Jump up ^ Old Man and the Sea. Introduction: The Ripening of a Masterpiece. Simon and Schuster. Retrieved September 29, 2012.
14.Jump up ^ Hemingway, Ernest (edited by William White) (1967). By-Line: Ernest Hemingway. Selected articles and dispatches of four decades. New York: Scribner's.
15.Jump up ^ "El pescador que inspiró a Hemingway ‘El viejo y el mar’ recupera la nacionalidad española". Retrieved June 7, 2013.
16.Jump up ^ *Joseph Waldmeir (1957). "Confiteor Hominem: Ernest Hemingway's Religion of Man". Papers of the Michigan Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters XLII: 349–356.
17.Jump up ^ Hemingway, Ernest (0000). The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Check date values in: |date= (help) hardcover: ISBN 0-684-83049-3, paperback: ISBN 0-684-80122-1
18.^ Jump up to: a b Robert P. Weeks, Robert P. (1962). "Fakery in The Old Man and the Sea". College English XXIV (3): 188–192. doi:10.2307/373283. JSTOR 373283.
19.Jump up ^ Meyers 1985, p. 440
20.Jump up ^ "Huffington Post". The Huffington Post. March 27, 2012. Retrieved October 7, 2014.
Sources[edit]
##Baker, Carlos (1972). Hemingway: The Writer as Artist (4th ed.). Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-01305-5.
##Desnoyers, Megan Floyd. "Ernest Hemingway: A Storyteller's Legacy". John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Online Resources. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Retrieved December 9, 2011.
##Meyers, Jeffrey (1985). Hemingway: A Biography. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-42126-4.
##Mellow, James R. (1992). Hemingway: A Life Without Consequences. New York: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-37777-3.
##Oliver, Charles M. (1999). Ernest Hemingway A to Z: The Essential Reference to the Life and Work. New York: Checkmark. ISBN 0-8160-3467-2.
Further reading[edit]
##Young, Philip (1952). Ernest Hemingway. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston. ISBN 0-8166-0191-7.
##Jobes, Katharine T., ed. (1968). Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Old Man and the Sea. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-633917-4.
External links[edit]
##Hemingway Archives, John F. Kennedy Library
##The Old Man and the Sea—slideshow by Life magazine
##Rare, Unseen: Hemingway in Cuba—slideshow by Life magazine
##"Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure: Cuba". PBS. Retrieved January 21, 2006.

Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Winston Churchill
 1953 Nobel Prize in Literature
 1954 Succeeded by
Halldór Laxness
 1955


[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1951–1975)


































[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Ernest Hemingway
































































































































































Commons page
Wikibooks page
Wikiquote page
Wikisource page




[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea












  


Categories: 1952 novels
American novels adapted into films
20th-century American novels
Books by Ernest Hemingway
Charles Scribner's Sons books
Novels about animals
Novels by Ernest Hemingway
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction-winning works
Novels set in the Caribbean
Fish in popular culture







Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
العربية
অসমীয়া
Azərbaycanca
বাংলা
Български
Bosanski
Català
Čeština
Cymraeg
Dansk
Deutsch
Eesti
Ελληνικά
Español
Esperanto
Euskara
فارسی
Français
Galego
한국어
Հայերեն
Hrvatski
Bahasa Indonesia
Italiano
עברית
ქართული
Latviešu
Lietuvių
Magyar
Македонски
മലയാളം
მარგალური
Bahasa Melayu
Nederlands
नेपाली
日本語
Norsk bokmål
ਪੰਜਾਬੀ
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Shqip
Slovenčina
Slovenščina
کوردی
Српски / srpski
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Basa Sunda
Suomi
Svenska
தமிழ்
ไทย
Türkçe
Українська
اردو
Tiếng Việt
Winaray
粵語
中文
Edit links
This page was last modified on 28 January 2015, at 10:23.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Man_and_the_Sea
















The Old Man and the Sea
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see The Old Man and the Sea (disambiguation).
The Old Man and the Sea
Original book cover
Author
Ernest Hemingway
Country
United States, Cuba
Language
English, Spanish
Genre
Novel[1]
Publisher
Charles Scribner's Sons

Publication date
 1952
Media type
Print (hardcover and paperback)
Pages
127
ISBN
0-684-80122-1
The Old Man and the Sea is a novel[1] written by the American author Ernest Hemingway in 1951 in Cuba, and published in 1952. It was the last major work of fiction to be produced by Hemingway and published in his lifetime. One of his most famous works, it centers upon Santiago, an aging fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream.[2] The Old Man and the Sea was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953 and was cited by the Nobel Committee as contributing to the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Hemingway in 1954.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot summary
2 Background and publication
3 Literary significance and criticism
4 Legacy
5 References 5.1 Sources
6 Further reading
7 External links

Plot summary[edit]
The Old Man and the Sea is the story of a battle between an old, experienced fisherman, Santiago, and a large marlin. The novel starts by telling the reader that Santiago has gone 84 days without catching a fish, considered "salao", the worst form of unluckiness. He is so unlucky that his young apprentice, Manolin, has been forbidden by his parents to sail with him and been told to, instead, fish with successful fishermen. The boy visits Santiago's shack each night, hauling his fishing gear, preparing food, talking about American baseball and his favorite player Joe DiMaggio. Santiago tells Manolin that on the next day, he will venture far out into the Gulf Stream, north of Cuba in the Straits of Florida to fish, confident that his unlucky streak is near its end.
On the eighty-fifth day of his unlucky streak, Santiago takes his skiff into the Gulf Stream, sets his lines and, by noon, has his bait taken by a big fish that he is sure is a marlin. Unable to pull in the great marlin, Santiago is instead pulled by the marlin. Two days and nights pass with Santiago holding the line. Though wounded by the struggle and in pain, Santiago expresses a compassionate appreciation for his adversary, often referring to him as a brother. He also determines that because of the fish's great dignity, no one shall eat the marlin.
On the third day, the fish begins to circle the skiff. Santiago, worn out and almost delirious, uses all the strength to pull the fish onto its side and stab the marlin with a harpoon. Santiago straps the marlin to the side of his skiff and heads home, thinking about the high price the fish will bring him at the market and how many people he will feed.
On his return, sharks are attracted to the marlin's blood. Santiago kills a great mako shark with his harpoon, but he loses the weapon. He makes a new harpoon by strapping his knife to the end of an oar to help ward off the next line of sharks; five sharks are slain and many others are driven away. But the sharks keep coming, and by nightfall the sharks have almost devoured the marlin's entire carcass, leaving a skeleton consisting mostly of its backbone, its tail and its head. Finally reaching the shore before dawn on the next day, Santiago struggles to his shack, carrying the heavy mast on his shoulder. Once home, he slumps onto his bed and falls into a deep sleep.
A group of fishermen gather the next day around the boat where the fish's skeleton is still attached. One of the fishermen measures it to be 18 feet (5.5 m) from nose to tail. Tourists at the nearby café mistakenly take it for a shark. Manolin, worried about the old man, cries upon finding him safe asleep. The boy brings him newspapers and coffee. When the old man wakes, they promise to fish together once again. Upon his return to sleep, Santiago dreams of his youth—of lions on an African beach.
Background and publication[edit]



No good book has ever been written that has in it symbols arrived at beforehand and stuck in. ... I tried to make a real old man, a real boy, a real sea and a real fish and real sharks. But if I made them good and true enough they would mean many things.
Ernest Hemingway in 1954[3]
Written in 1951, and published in 1952, The Old Man and the Sea is Hemingway's final full-length work published during his lifetime. The book, dedicated to Hemingway's literary editor Maxwell Perkins,[4] was featured in Life magazine on September 1, 1952, and five million copies of the magazine were sold in two days.[5]
The Old Man and the Sea became a Book of the Month Club selection, and made Hemingway a celebrity.[6] Published in book form on September 1, 1952, the first edition print run was 50,000 copies.[7] The illustrated edition featured black and white pictures by Charles Tunnicliffe and Raymond Sheppard.[8]
In May 1953, the novel received the Pulitzer Prize[8] and was specifically cited when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.[9][10] The success of The Old Man and the Sea made Hemingway an international celebrity.[6] The Old Man and the Sea is commonly taught and continues to earn foreign royalties.[11]
Literary significance and criticism[edit]
The Old Man and the Sea served to reinvigorate Hemingway's literary reputation and prompted a reexamination of his entire body of work. The novel was initially received with much popularity; it restored many readers' confidence in Hemingway's capability as an author. Its publisher, Scribner's, on an early dust jacket, called the novel a "new classic," and many critics favorably compared it with such works as William Faulkner's The Bear and Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.



 Ernest Hemingway and Henry ("Mike") Strater with the remaining 500 lbs of an estimated 1000 lb marlin that was half-eaten by sharks before it could be landed in the Bahamas in 1935. See Pilar for details of this episode.
"Eyes the Same Color of the Sea: Santiago's Expatriation from Spain and Ethnic Otherness in Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea" focuses on the old man's national identity. Using baseball references, the article points out that Santiago was at least 22 years old when he moved from Spain to Cuba: "Born in Spain’s Canary Islands, Santiago moved to Cuba as a young man; this circumstance has a significant impact on his social condition." Santiago was old enough to have a Spanish identity when he immigrated, and the article examined how being a foreigner (and from a country that colonized Cuba) would influence his life on the island. Because Santiago was too poor to move back to Spain—many Spaniards moved to Cuba and then back to Spain at that time—he adopted Cuban culture like religious ceremonies, Cuban Spanish, and fishing in skiffs in order to acculturate in the new country.[12]
Hemingway wanted to use the story of the old man, Santiago, to show the honor in struggle and to draw biblical parallels to life in his modern world. Possibly based on the character of Gregorio Fuentes, Hemingway at first planned to use Santiago's story, which became The Old Man and the Sea, as part of an intimacy between mother and son. Relationships in the book relate to the Bible, which he referred to as "The Sea Book". Some aspects of it did appear in the posthumously published Islands in the Stream. Hemingway mentions the real life experience of an old fisherman almost identical to that of Santiago and his marlin in On the Blue Water: A Gulf Stream Letter (Esquire, April 1936).[13][14]
Gregorio Fuentes, who many critics believe was an inspiration for Santiago, was a blue-eyed man born on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. After going to sea at age ten on ships that called in African ports, he migrated permanently to Cuba when he was 22. After 82 years in Cuba, Fuentes attempted to reclaim his Spanish citizenship in 2001.[15]
Joseph Waldmeir's essay "Confiteor Hominem: Ernest Hemingway's Religion of Man" is a favorable critical reading of the novel—and one which has defined analytical considerations since. Perhaps the most memorable claim is Waldmeir's answer to the question—What is the book's message?

The answer assumes a third level on which The Old Man and the Sea must be read—as a sort of allegorical commentary on all his previous work, by means of which it may be established that the religious overtones of The Old Man and the Sea are not peculiar to that book among Hemingway's works, and that Hemingway has finally taken the decisive step in elevating what might be called his philosophy of Manhood to the level of a religion.[16]
Waldmeir considered the function of the novel's Christian imagery, made most evident through Hemingway's obvious reference to the crucifixion of Christ following Santiago's sighting of the sharks that reads:

′Ay,′ he said aloud. There is no translation for this word and perhaps it is just a noise such as a man might make, involuntarily, feeling the nail go through his hands and into the wood.[17]
One of the most outspoken critics of The Old Man and the Sea is Robert P. Weeks. His 1962 piece "Fakery in The Old Man and the Sea" presents his claim that the novel is a weak and unexpected divergence from the typical, realistic Hemingway (referring to the rest of Hemingway's body of work as "earlier glories").[18] In juxtaposing this novel against Hemingway's previous works, Weeks contends:

The difference, however, in the effectiveness with which Hemingway employs this characteristic device in his best work and in The Old Man and the Sea is illuminating. The work of fiction in which Hemingway devoted the most attention to natural objects, The Old Man and the Sea, is pieced out with an extraordinary quantity of fakery, extraordinary because one would expect to find no inexactness, no romanticizing of natural objects in a writer who loathed W.H. Hudson, could not read Thoreau, deplored Melville's rhetoric in Moby Dick, and who was himself criticized by other writers, notably Faulkner, for his devotion to the facts and his unwillingness to 'invent.'[18]
Some critics suggest Hemingway wrote The Old Man and the Sea in reaction against the overtly negative criticism he received for Across the River and into the Trees.[19]
Legacy[edit]
In 1954, Hemingway donated his Nobel prize gold medal in thanks to the Cuban image of Our Lady of Charity. The Swedish medal was stolen in 1986, but was returned later upon the threat of Raul Castro.[20]
The Old Man and the Sea has been adapted for the screen three times: a 1958 film starring Spencer Tracy, a 1990 miniseries starring Anthony Quinn, and a 1999 animated short film.
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b Life (Time Inc) 33 (8). 25 August 1952. ISSN 0024-3019. "Hemingway's work is a 27,000-word novel called The Old Man and the Sea." |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
2.Jump up ^ "The Nobel Prize in Literature 1954". The Nobel Foundation. Retrieved January 31, 2005.
3.Jump up ^ "Books: An American Storyteller". TIME. December 13, 1954. Retrieved February 1, 2011.
4.Jump up ^ Perkins, Maxwell (2004). Bruccoli, Matthew J.; Baughman, Judith, eds. The sons of Maxwell Perkins: letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, and their editor. University of South Carolina Press. p. xxvii. ISBN 1-57003-548-2.
5.Jump up ^ "A Hemingway timeline Any man's life, told truly, is a novel". The Kansas City Star (KansasCity.com). June 27, 1999. Retrieved 2009-08-29.
6.^ Jump up to: a b Desnoyers, p. 13
7.Jump up ^ Oliver 1999, p. 247
8.^ Jump up to: a b Meyers 1985, p. 489
9.Jump up ^ "Heroes:Life with Papa". TIME. November 8, 1954. Retrieved 2009-12-12.
10.Jump up ^ "The Nobel Prize in Literature 1954". Nobelprize.org. Retrieved October 4, 2009.
11.Jump up ^ Meyers 1985, p. 485
12.Jump up ^ Herlihy, Jeffrey (2009). "Eyes the same color as the Sea: Santiago's Expatriation from Spain and Ethnic Otherness in Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea". The Hemingway Review. XXVIII (2): 2544. doi:10.1353/hem.0.0030.
13.Jump up ^ Old Man and the Sea. Introduction: The Ripening of a Masterpiece. Simon and Schuster. Retrieved September 29, 2012.
14.Jump up ^ Hemingway, Ernest (edited by William White) (1967). By-Line: Ernest Hemingway. Selected articles and dispatches of four decades. New York: Scribner's.
15.Jump up ^ "El pescador que inspiró a Hemingway ‘El viejo y el mar’ recupera la nacionalidad española". Retrieved June 7, 2013.
16.Jump up ^ *Joseph Waldmeir (1957). "Confiteor Hominem: Ernest Hemingway's Religion of Man". Papers of the Michigan Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters XLII: 349–356.
17.Jump up ^ Hemingway, Ernest (0000). The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Check date values in: |date= (help) hardcover: ISBN 0-684-83049-3, paperback: ISBN 0-684-80122-1
18.^ Jump up to: a b Robert P. Weeks, Robert P. (1962). "Fakery in The Old Man and the Sea". College English XXIV (3): 188–192. doi:10.2307/373283. JSTOR 373283.
19.Jump up ^ Meyers 1985, p. 440
20.Jump up ^ "Huffington Post". The Huffington Post. March 27, 2012. Retrieved October 7, 2014.
Sources[edit]
##Baker, Carlos (1972). Hemingway: The Writer as Artist (4th ed.). Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-01305-5.
##Desnoyers, Megan Floyd. "Ernest Hemingway: A Storyteller's Legacy". John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Online Resources. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Retrieved December 9, 2011.
##Meyers, Jeffrey (1985). Hemingway: A Biography. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-42126-4.
##Mellow, James R. (1992). Hemingway: A Life Without Consequences. New York: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-37777-3.
##Oliver, Charles M. (1999). Ernest Hemingway A to Z: The Essential Reference to the Life and Work. New York: Checkmark. ISBN 0-8160-3467-2.
Further reading[edit]
##Young, Philip (1952). Ernest Hemingway. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston. ISBN 0-8166-0191-7.
##Jobes, Katharine T., ed. (1968). Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Old Man and the Sea. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-633917-4.
External links[edit]
##Hemingway Archives, John F. Kennedy Library
##The Old Man and the Sea—slideshow by Life magazine
##Rare, Unseen: Hemingway in Cuba—slideshow by Life magazine
##"Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure: Cuba". PBS. Retrieved January 21, 2006.

Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Winston Churchill
 1953 Nobel Prize in Literature
 1954 Succeeded by
Halldór Laxness
 1955


[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1951–1975)


































[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Ernest Hemingway
































































































































































Commons page
Wikibooks page
Wikiquote page
Wikisource page




[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea












  


Categories: 1952 novels
American novels adapted into films
20th-century American novels
Books by Ernest Hemingway
Charles Scribner's Sons books
Novels about animals
Novels by Ernest Hemingway
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction-winning works
Novels set in the Caribbean
Fish in popular culture







Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
العربية
অসমীয়া
Azərbaycanca
বাংলা
Български
Bosanski
Català
Čeština
Cymraeg
Dansk
Deutsch
Eesti
Ελληνικά
Español
Esperanto
Euskara
فارسی
Français
Galego
한국어
Հայերեն
Hrvatski
Bahasa Indonesia
Italiano
עברית
ქართული
Latviešu
Lietuvių
Magyar
Македонски
മലയാളം
მარგალური
Bahasa Melayu
Nederlands
नेपाली
日本語
Norsk bokmål
ਪੰਜਾਬੀ
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Shqip
Slovenčina
Slovenščina
کوردی
Српски / srpski
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Basa Sunda
Suomi
Svenska
தமிழ்
ไทย
Türkçe
Українська
اردو
Tiếng Việt
Winaray
粵語
中文
Edit links
This page was last modified on 28 January 2015, at 10:23.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Man_and_the_Sea














Moby-Dick
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Changes must be reviewed before being displayed on this page.show/hide details



Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see Moby-Dick (disambiguation).
Page protected with pending changes level 1
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
Moby-Dick FE title page.jpg
Title page, first American edition of Moby-Dick

Author
Herman Melville
Country
United States
Language
English
Genre
Novel Adventure fiction, Epic, Sea story
Publisher
Richard Bentley (Britain)
Harper & Brothers (U.S.)

Publication date
 October 18, 1851 (Britain)
 November 14, 1851 (U.S.)
Media type
Hardback
Pages
927 (British first edition, 3 vols.)
 635 (U.S. first edition)

Dewey Decimal
 813.3
Preceded by
White-Jacket
Followed by
Pierre: or, The Ambiguities
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (1851) is a novel by Herman Melville considered an outstanding work of Romanticism and the American Renaissance. Ishmael narrates the monomaniacal quest of Ahab, captain of the whaler Pequod, for revenge on Moby Dick, a white whale which on a previous voyage destroyed Ahab's ship and severed his leg at the knee. Although the novel was a commercial failure and out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891, its reputation as a Great American Novel grew during the twentieth century. D. H. Lawrence called it "one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world," and "the greatest book of the sea ever written."[1] "Call me Ishmael" is one of world literature's most famous opening sentences.
The product of a year and a half of writing, the book is dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne, "in token of my admiration for his genius," and draws on Melville's experience at sea, on his reading in whaling literature, and on literary inspirations such as Shakespeare and the Bible. The detailed and realistic descriptions of whale hunting and of extracting whale oil, as well as life aboard ship among a culturally diverse crew, are mixed with exploration of class and social status, good and evil, and the existence of God. In addition to narrative prose, Melville uses styles and literary devices ranging from songs, poetry and catalogs to Shakespearean stage directions, soliloquies and asides.
There were slight but important differences between the texts of the London edition, which appeared first, and the New York edition. The London publisher cut or changed sensitive passages and Melville made changes as well, including a last-minute change in the title. The work first appeared as The Whale in London in October 1851 and then under its definitive title Moby-Dick in New York in November. The whale, however, appears in both the London and New York editions as "Moby Dick," with no hyphen.[2] The British edition was not reprinted during the author's life, while the American edition was reprinted three times, the last time in 1871. Only 3,200 copies were sold during the author's life.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Structure
3 Themes
4 Style
5 Background 5.1 Autobiographical elements
5.2 Melville's sources
5.3 Composition
6 Publication history 6.1 Melville's revisions and British editorial revisions
6.2 British censorship and missing "Epilogue"
6.3 Last-minute change of title
6.4 Sales and earnings
7 Reception 7.1 Contemporary
7.2 Later reception
8 Adaptations
9 Editions
10 Footnotes
11 References
12 External links

Plot[edit]
See also: List of Moby-Dick characters



 Voyage of the Pequod (illustrated by Everett Henry).
Ishmael explains his need to go to sea and travels from Manhattan Island to New Bedford. The inn is crowded and he must share a bed with the tattooed Polynesian, Queequeg, a harpooneer whose father was king of the (imaginary) island of Rokovoko. The next morning Ishmael and Queequeg attend Father Mapple's sermon on Jonah, then head for Nantucket. Ishmael signs up with the Quaker ship-owners Bildad and Peleg for a voyage on their whaler Pequod. Peleg describes Captain Ahab: "He's a grand, ungodly, god-like man" who nevertheless "has his humanities" (Ch. 16, "The Ship"). They hire Queequeg the following morning. A man named Elijah prophesies a dire fate should Ishmael and Queequeg join Ahab. While provisions are loaded, shadowy figures board the ship. On a cold Christmas Day, the Pequod leaves the harbor.
Chapters discourse on cetology (the zoological classification and natural history of the whale), and describe the crew-members. The chief mate is 30-year-old Starbuck, a Nantucket Quaker with a realist mentality, whose harpooneer is Queequeg; second mate is Stubb, from Cape Cod, happy-go-lucky and cheerful, whose harpooneer is Tashtego, a proud, pure-blooded Indian from Gay Head, Martha's Vineyard; the third mate is Flask, from Martha's Vineyard, short, stout, whose harpooneer is Daggoo, a tall African, now a resident of Nantucket.
When Ahab finally appears on the quarter-deck, he announces he is out for revenge on the white whale which took one leg from the knee down and left him with a prosthesis fashioned from a whale's jawbone. Ahab will give the first man to sight Moby Dick a doubloon, a gold coin, which he hammers to the mast. Starbuck objects that he has not come for vengeance but for profit. Ahab's purpose exercises a mysterious spell on Ishmael: "Ahab's quenchless feud seemed mine" (Ch. 41, "Moby Dick"). Instead of rounding Cape Horn, Ahab heads for the equatorial Pacific Ocean via southern Africa. One afternoon, as Ishmael and Queequeg are weaving a mat — "its warp seemed necessity, his hand free will, and Queequeg's sword chance" (Ch. 47, "The Mat-Maker") —, Tashtego sights a sperm whale. Immediately five hidden figures appear who Ahab has brought as his own boat crew. Their leader, Fedallah, a Parsee, is Ahab's harpooneer. The pursuit is unsuccessful.



 Moby Dick
Southeast of the Cape of Good Hope, the Pequod makes the first of nine sea-encounters, or "gams", with other ships: Ahab hails the Goney (Albatross) to ask whether they have seen the White Whale but the trumpet through which her captain tries to speak falls into the sea before he can answer. Ishmael explains that because of Ahab's absorption with Moby Dick, he sails on without the customary "gam", which defines as a "social meeting of two (or more) Whale-ships", in which the two captains remain on one ship and the chief mates on the other. (Ch. 53, "The Gam"). In the second gam off the Cape of Good Hope, with the Town-Ho, a Nantucket whaler, the concealed story of a "judgment of God" (Ch. 54, "The Town-Ho's Story") is revealed, but only to the crew: a defiant sailor who struck an oppressive officer is flogged, and when that officer led the chase for Moby Dick he fell from the boat and was killed by the whale.
Chapters 55-60 discuss pictures of whales, brit (microscopic sea creatures on which whales feed), squid and — after four boats lowered in vain because Daggoo mistook a squid for the white whale — whale-lines. The next day, in the Indian Ocean, Stubb kills a sperm whale, and that night Fleece, the Pequod '​s black cook, prepares him a rare whale steak. Fleece delivers a sermon to the sharks who fight each other to feast on the whale's carcass, tied to the ship, saying that their nature is to be voracious but they must overcome it. (Ch. 64, "Stubb's Supper") The whale is prepared, beheaded, and barrels of oil are tried out. Standing at the head of the whale, Ahab begs it to speak of the depths of the sea. The Pequod next encounters the Jeroboam, which not only lost its chief mate to Moby Dick, but is now plagued by an epidemic.
The whale carcass still lies in the water. Queequeg mounts it, tied to Ishmael's belt by a monkey-rope as if they were Siamese twins. Stubb and Flask kill a right whale whose head is fastened to a yardarm opposite the sperm whale's head. Ishmael compares the two heads in a philosophical way: the right whale is Lockean, stoic, and the sperm whale as Kantean, platonic. Tashtego cuts into the head of the sperm-whale and retrieves buckets of oil. He falls into the head, and the head falls off the yardarm into the sea. Queequeg dives after him and frees his mate with his sword.
The Pequod next gams with the Jungfrau from Bremen. Both ships sight whales simultaneously, with the Pequod winning the contest. The three harpooneers dart their harpoons, and Flask delivers the mortal strike with a lance. The carcass sinks, and Queequeg barely manages to escape. The Pequod '​s next gam is with the French whaler Bouton de Rose, whose crew is ignorant of the ambergris in the head of the diseased whale in their possession. Stubb talks them out of it, but Ahab orders him away. Days later a harpooned whale throws Pip, a little Negro cabin-boy from Alabama, out of his whale-boat. The whale must be cut loose, because the line has Pip so entangled in it. Furious, Stubb orders Pip to stay in the whaleboat, but Pip later jumps again, and is left alone in the immense sea and has gone insane by the time he is picked up.
Cooled sperm oil congeals and must be squeezed back into liquid state; blubber is boiled in the try-pots on deck; the warm oil is decanted into casks, and then stowed in the ship. After the operation, the decks are scrubbed. The coin hammered to the main-mast shows three Andes summits, one with a flame, one with a tower, and one a crowing cock. Ahab stops to look at the doubloon and interprets the coin as signs of his firmness, volcanic energy, and victory; Starbuck takes the high peaks as evidence of the Trinity; Stubb focuses on the zodiacal arch over the mountains; and Flask sees nothing of any symbolic value at all. The Manxman mutters in front of the mast, and Pip declines the verb "look."



 Queequeg
The Pequod next gams with the Samuel Enderby of London, captained by Boomer, a down-to-earth fellow who lost his right arm to Moby Dick. Nevertheless, he carries no ill will toward the whale, which he regards not as malicious but as awkward. Ahab puts an end to the gam by rushing back to his ship. The narrator now discusses the subjects of 1) whalers supply; 2) a glen in Tranque in the Arsacides islands full of carved whale bones, fossil whales, whale skeleton measurements; 3) the chance that the magnitude of the whale will diminish and that the leviathan might perish.
Leaving the Samuel Enderby, Ahab wrenches his ivory leg and orders the carpenter to fashion him another. Starbuck informs Ahab of oil leakage in the hold. Reluctantly, Ahab orders the harpooneers to inspect the casks. Queequeg, sweating all day below decks, develops a chill and soon is almost mortally feverish. The carpenter makes a coffin for Queequeg, who fears an ordinary burial at sea. Queequeg tries it for size, with Pip sobbing and beating his tambourine, standing by and calling himself a coward while he praises Queequeg for his gameness. Yet Queequeg suddenly rallies, briefly convalesces, and leaps up, back in good health. Henceforth he uses his coffin for a spare sea-chest, which is later caulked and pitched to replace the Pequod's lifebuoy.
The Pequod sails northeast toward Formosa and into the Pacific Ocean. Ahab with one nostril smells the musk from the Bashee isles and with the other the salt of the waters where Moby Dick swims. Ahab goes to Perth, the blacksmith, with bag of race-horse shoe-nail stubs to be forged into the shank of a special harpoon, and with his razors for Perth to melt and fashion into a harpoon barb. Ahab tempers the barb in blood from Queequeg, Tashtego, and Daggoo.
The Pequod gams next with the Bachelor, a Nantucket ship heading home full of sperm oil. Every now and then the Pequod lowers for whales with success. On one of those nights in the whaleboat, Fedallah prophesies that neither hearse nor coffin can be Ahab's, that before he dies Ahab must see two hearses — one not made by mortal hands and the other made of American wood—that Fedallah will precede his captain in death, and finally that only hemp can kill Ahab.
As the Pequod approaches the Equator, Ahab scolds his quadrant for telling him only where he is and not where he will be. He dashes it to the deck. That evening an impressive typhoon attacks the ship. Lightning strikes the mast, setting the doubloon and Ahab's harpoon aglow. Ahab delivers a speech on the spirit of fire, seeing the lightning as a portent of Moby Dick. Starbuck sees the lightning as a warning, and feels tempted to shoot the sleeping Ahab with a musket. Next morning when he finds that the lightning disoriented the compass, Ahab makes a new one out of a lance, a maul, and a sailmaker's needle. He orders the log be heaved, but the weathered line snaps, leaving the ship with no way to fix its location.
The Pequod is now heading southeast toward Moby Dick. A man falls overboard from the mast. The life-buoy is thrown, but both sink. Now Queequeg proposes that his superfluous coffin be used as a new life-buoy. Starbuck orders the carpenter take care it is lidded and caulked. Next morning the ship meets in another truncated gam with the Rachel, commanded by Captain Gardener from Nantucket. The Rachel is seeking survivors from one of her whaleboats which had gone after Moby Dick. Among the missing is Gardiner's young son. Ahab refuses to join the search. Twenty four hours a day Ahab now stands and walks the deck, while Fedallah shadows him. Suddenly a sea hawk grabs Ahab's slouched hat and flies off with it. Next the Pequod, in a ninth and final gam, meets the Delight, badly damaged and with five of her crew left dead by Moby Dick. Her captain shouts that the harpoon which can kill the white whale has yet to be forged, but Ahab flourishes his special lance and once more orders the ship forward. Ahab shares a moment of contemplation with Starbuck. Ahab speaks about his wife and child, calls himself a fool for spending forty years on whaling, and claims he can see his own child in Starbuck's eye. Starbuck tries to persuade Ahab to return to Nantucket to meet both their families, but Ahab simply crosses the deck and stands near Fedallah.
On the first day of the chase, Ahab smells the whale, climbs the mast, and sights Moby Dick. He claims the doubloon for himself, and orders all boats to lower except for Starbuck's. The whale bites Ahab's boat in two, tosses the captain out of it, and scatters the crew. On the second day of the chase, Ahab leaves Starbuck in charge of the Pequod. Moby Dick smashes the three boats that seek him into splinters and tangles their lines. Ahab is rescued, but his ivory leg and Fedallah are lost. Starbuck begs Ahab to desist, but Ahab vows to slay the white whale, even if he would have to dive through the globe itself in order to get his revenge.



 Moby Dick
On the third day of the chase, Ahab sights Moby Dick at noon, and sharks appear as well. Ahab lowers his boat for a final time, leaving Starbuck again on board. Moby Dick breaches and destroys two boats. Fedallah's corpse, still entangled in the fouled lines, is lashed to the whale's back, and so Moby Dick turns out to be the hearse Fedallah prophesied. "Possessed by all the fallen angels" (Ch. 135), Ahab plants his harpoon in the whale's flank. Moby Dick smites the whaleboat, tossing its men into the sea. Only Ishmael survives. The whale now fatally attacks the Pequod. Ahab then realizes that the destroyed ship is the hearse made of American wood in Fedallah's prophesy. The whale returns to Ahab, who stabs at him again. The line loops around Ahab's neck, and as the stricken whale swims away, the captain is drawn with him out of sight. Queequeg's coffin comes to the surface, the only thing to escape the vortex when Pequod sank. For an entire day Ishmael floats on it, and then the Rachel, still looking for its lost seamen, rescues him.
Structure[edit]
In the words of scholars John Bryant and Haskell S. Springer, "Moby-Dick is a classic because it defies classification."[3] It is “both drama and meditation: it is a tragedy and comedy, a stage play and a prose poem," they say, and add that it is "essay, myth, and encyclopedia.”[4] The structure is accordingly complex, comprising both narrative and non-narrative elements. Melville's skillful handling of chapters in Moby-Dick, says Warner Berthoff, is a measure of his "manner of mastery as a writer,"[5]
Lawrence Buell observes that the “narrative architecture” is an “idiosyncratic variant of the bi-polar observer/hero narrative...,” that is, the novel is structured around the two main characters, Ahab and Ishmael, who are intertwined and contrasted with each other, with Ishmael the observer and narrator.[6] As the story of Ishmael, remarks Robert Milder, it is a "narrative of education."[7]
The narrative opens with one of the most well-known sentences in Western literature, “Call me Ishmael,” seeming to signal that Ishmael will be the central actor, and he is soon joined by Queequeg. But after the Pequod sets sail, the story of these two shipmates is “upstaged,” says Buell, by Ahab’s monomaniacal quest.[8] Bryant and Springer go on to show how the book is structured around the two consciousnesses of Ahab and Ishmael, with Ahab as a force of linearity and Ishmael a force of digression.[9] While both have an angry sense of being orphaned, they try to come to terms with this hole in their beings in different ways: Ahab with violence, Ishmael with meditation. And while the plot in Moby-Dick may be driven by Ahab's anger, Ishmael's desire to get a hold of the "ungraspable" accounts for the novel's lyricism.[10] Buell sees a double quest in the book: Ahab's is to hunt Moby Dick, Ishamel's is "to understand what to make of both whale and hunt."[6]
The arrangement of the non-narrative chapters, Buell explains, is structured around three patterns: First, the nine meetings of the Pequod with ships that have encountered Moby Dick. Each has been more and more severely damaged, foreshadowing the Pequod's own fate. Second, the increasingly impressive encounters with whales. In the early encounters, the whaleboats hardly make contact; later there are false alarms and routine chases; finally, the massive assembling of whales at the edges of the China Sea in "The grand armada." A typhoon near Japan sets the stage for Ahab's confrontation with Moby Dick. The third pattern is the cetological documentation, so lavish that it can be divided into two subpatterns. These chapters start with the ancient history of whaling and a bibliographical classification of whales, getting closer with second-hand stories of the evil of whales in general and of Moby Dick in particular, a chronologically ordered commentary on pictures of whales. The climax to this section is chapter 57, "Of whales in paint etc.," which begins with the humble (a beggar in London) and ends with the sublime (the constellation Cetus). The next chapter ("Brit") and thus the other half of this pattern begins with the book's first description of live whales, and next the anatomy of the sperm whale is studied, more or less from front to rear and from outer to inner parts, all the way down to the skeleton. Two concluding chapters set forth the whale's evolution as a species and claim its eternal nature.[8]
One of the most distinctive features of the book is the variety of genres. Bezanson mentions sermons, dreams, travel account, autobiography, Elizabethan plays, epic poetry.[11] He calls Ishmael's explanatory footnotes to establish the documentary genre "a Nabokovian touch."[12] Some scholars have tried to identify a single basic genre. Charles Olson saw the Elizabethan play as a likely model, but when he tried to divide the book into acts he found that the chapters resisted this arrangement.[13] F.O. Matthiessen joined in this enterprise, only to admit that some two hundred central pages delay the forward movement of the drama.[14] Northrop Frye found the book to be the best illustration of the "romance-anatomy," but Bezanson cautions us not to forget that the book's "deepest anxieties" stem not from whales but from the Bible and Shakespeare. [clarification needed] Newton Arvin tried to link the book to the heroic poem or epic, but found that the book does not fit into epic form.[14]
Themes[edit]
Chief among Melville's themes is the difficulty of seeing and understanding, which makes deep reality hard to discover and truth hard to pin down. Ahab explains that, like all things, the evil whale wears a disguise: "All visible objects, man, are but pasteboard masks" — and Ahab is determined to "strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside, except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall" (Ch. 36, "The Quarter-Deck"). This theme pervades the novel, perhaps never so emphatically as in "The Doubloon" (Ch. 99), where each crewmember perceives the coin in a way shaped by his own personality. Later, the American edition has Ahab "discover no sign" (Ch. 133) of the whale when he is staring into the deep. In fact, Moby Dick is then swimming up at him. In the British edition, Melville changed the word "discover" to "perceive." And with good reason, for "discovery" means finding what is already there, but "perceiving," or better still, perception is "a matter of shaping what exists by the way in which we see it."[15] The point is not that Ahab would discover the whale as an object, but that he would perceive it as a symbol of his making.[15]
Race is an example of this search for truth beneath surface differences. All races are represented among the crew members of the Pequod. Although Ishmael initially is afraid of Queequeg as a tattooed cannibal, he soon decides "Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.[16] While it may be rare for a mid-nineteenth century American book to feature black characters in a non-slavery context, slavery is frequently mentioned. The theme of race is primarily carried by Pip, the diminutive black cabin boy.[17] When Pip has almost drowned, Ahab, genuinely touched by Pip's suffering, questions him gently, Pip "can only parrot the language of an advertisement for the return of a fugitive slave: 'Pip! Reward for Pip!'"[18]
Yet Melville does not offer easy solutions. Ishmael and Queequeg's sensual friendship initiates a kind of racial harmony that is shattered when the crew's dancing erupts into racial conflict in "Midnight, Forecastle" (Ch. 40).[9] Fifty chapters later, Pip suffers mental disintegration after he is reminded that as a slave he would be worth less money than a whale. Commodified and brutalized, "Pip becomes the ship's conscience."[19] His views of property are another example of wrestling with moral choice. In Chapter 89, Ishamel expounds the concept of the fast-fish and the loose-fish, which gives right of ownership to those who take possession of an abandoned fish or ship, and observes that the British Empire took possession of native American lands in colonial times in just the way that whalers take possession of an unclaimed whale.
Style[edit]
"Above all," say the scholars Bryant and Springer, Moby-Dick is language: "nautical, biblical, Homeric, Shakespearean, Miltonic, cetological, alliterative, fanciful, colloquial, archaic and unceasingly allusive." Melville can stretch grammar, quote a range of well-known or obscure sources, or swing from calm prose to high rhetoric, technical exposition, seaman's slang, mystic speculation, or wild prophetic archaism.[4] The superabundant vocabulary of the work can be broken down into strategies used individually and in combination. First, the original modification of words as "Leviathanism"[20] and the exaggerated repetition of modified words, as in the series "pitiable," "pity," "pitied" and "piteous" (Ch. 81, "The Pequod Meets the Virgin"),[21] Second, the use of existing words in new ways, as when the whale "heaps" and "tasks."[20] Third, words lifted from specialized fields, as "fossiliferous."[20] Fourth, the use of unusual adjective-noun combinations, as in "concentrating brow" and "immaculate manliness" (Ch. 26, "Knights and Squires").[22] Fifth, using the participial modifier to emphasize and to reinforce the already established expectations of the reader, as the words "preluding" and "foreshadowing" ("so still and subdued and yet somehow preluding was all the scene...," "In this foreshadowing interval...").[21]
Background[edit]
Autobiographical elements[edit]
Moby-Dick is based on Melville's actual experience on a whaler. On December 30, 1840, he signed on as a green hand for the maiden voyage of the Acushnet, planned to last for 52 months. Its owner, Melvin O. Bradford resembled Bildad, who signed on Ishmael, in that he was a Quaker: on several instances when he signed documents, he erased the word "swear" and replaced it with "affirm."[23] Its captain was Valentine Pease, Jr., who was 43 years old at the start of the voyage.[24] Although 26 men signed up as crew members, two did not show up for the ship's departure and were replaced by one new crew member. Five of the crew were foreigners, four of them Portuguese. The Scottish carpenter was one of the two who did not show for the ship's departure. There were three black men in the crew, two seaman and the cook. Fleece, the cook of the Pequod, was also black, and therefore probably modeled on this Philadelphia-born William Maiden, who was 38 years old when he signed for the Acushnet.[25]
Only eleven of the 26 original crew members completed the voyage. The others either deserted or were regularly discharged.[26] The First Officer, Frederic Raymond, left the ship after a "fight" with the captain.[27] A first mate, actually called Edward C. Starbuck, was on an earlier voyage with Captain Pease, in the early 1830s, and was discharged at Tahiti under mysterious circumstances.[28] The second mate on the Acushnet' was John Hall, English-born but a naturalized American.[29] He is identified as Stubb in an annotation in the book's copy of crew member Henry Hubbard, who, like Melville, had joined the voyage as a green hand. Hubbard also identified the model for Pip: John Backus, a little black man added to the crew during the voyage.[30] Hubbard's annotation appears in the chapter "The Castaway" and reveals that Pip's falling into the water was authentic; Hubbard was with him in the same boat when the incident occurred.
Ahab seems to have had no model in real life, though his death may have been based on an actual event. On May 18, 1843, Melville was aboard The Star, which sailed for Honolulu. Aboard were two sailors from the Nantucket who could have told him that they had seen their second mate "taken out of a whaleboat by a foul line and drowned."[31] The model for the Whaleman's Chapel of chapter 7 is the Seamen's Bethel on Johnny Cake Hill. Melville attended a service there shortly before he shipped out on the Acushnet, and he heard a sermon by the chaplain, 63-year-old Reverend Enoch Mudge, who is at least in part the model for Father Mapple. Even the topic of Jonah and the Whale may be authentic, for Mudge was a contributor to Sailor's Magazine, which printed in December 1840 the ninth of a series of sermons on Jonah.[32]
Melville's sources[edit]



 Melville's copy of The History of the Sperm Whale, 1839
In addition to his own experience on the whaling ship Acushnet, two actual events served as the genesis for Melville's tale. One was the sinking of the Nantucket ship Essex in 1820, after it was rammed by an enraged sperm whale 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from the western coast of South America. First mate Owen Chase, one of eight survivors, recorded the events in his 1821 Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex.[33]
The other event was the alleged killing in the late 1830s of the albino sperm whale Mocha Dick, in the waters off the Chilean island of Mocha. Mocha Dick was rumored to have twenty or so harpoons in his back from other whalers, and appeared to attack ships with premeditated ferocity. One of his battles with a whaler served as subject for an article by explorer Jeremiah N. Reynolds in the May 1839 issue of The Knickerbocker or New-York Monthly Magazine.[34] Melville was familiar with the article, which described:

This renowned monster, who had come off victorious in a hundred fights with his pursuers, was an old bull whale, of prodigious size and strength. From the effect of age, or more probably from a freak of nature... a singular consequence had resulted – he was white as wool![34]
Significantly, Reynolds writes a first-person narration that serves as a frame for the story of a whaling captain he meets. The captain resembles Ahab and suggests a similar symbolism and single-minded motivation in hunting this whale, in that when his crew first encounters Mocha Dick and cowers from him, the captain rallies them:

As he drew near, with his long curved back looming occasionally above the surface of the billows, we perceived that it was white as the surf around him; and the men stared aghast at each other, as they uttered, in a suppressed tone, the terrible name of MOCHA DICK!
"Mocha Dick or the d----l [devil],' said I, 'this boat never sheers off from any thing that wears the shape of a whale."[34]
Mocha Dick had over 100 encounters with whalers in the decades between 1810 and the 1830s. He was described as being gigantic and covered in barnacles. Although he was the most famous, Mocha Dick was not the only white whale in the sea, nor the only whale to attack hunters.[35]
While an accidental collision with a sperm whale at night accounted for sinking of the Union in 1807,[36] it was not until August 1851 that the whaler Ann Alexander, while hunting in the Pacific off the Galapagos Islands, became the second vessel since the Essex to be attacked, holed and sunk by a whale. Melville remarked:

Ye Gods! What a commentator is this Ann Alexander whale. What he has to say is short & pithy & very much to the point. I wonder if my evil art has raised this monster.[37]
While Melville had already drawn on his different sailing experiences in his previous novels, such as Mardi, he had never focused specifically on whaling. The eighteen months he spent as an ordinary seaman aboard the whaler Acushnet in 1841–42, and one incident in particular, now served as inspiration. It was during a mid-ocean "gam" (rendezvous at sea between ships) that he met Chase's son William, who lent him his father's book. Melville later wrote:

I questioned him concerning his father's adventure; . . . he went to his chest & handed me a complete copy . . . of the Narrative [of the Essex catastrophe]. This was the first printed account of it I had ever seen. The reading of this wondrous story on the landless sea, and so close to the very latitude of the shipwreck, had a surprising effect upon me.[38]
The book was out of print, and rare. Melville let his interest in the book be known to his father-in-law, Lemuel Shaw, whose friend in Nantucket procured an imperfect but clean copy which Shaw gave to Melville in April 1851. Melville read this copy avidly, made copious notes in it, and had it bound, keeping it in his library for the rest of his life. [39]



 Herman Melville
Moby-Dick contains large sections—most of them narrated by Ishmael—that seemingly have nothing to do with the plot but describe aspects of the whaling business. Although there had been a successful earlier novel about Nantucket whalers, Miriam Coffin or The Whale-Fisherman (1835) by Joseph C. Hart,[40] which is credited with influencing elements of Melville's work, most accounts of whaling tended to be sensational tales of bloody mutiny, and Melville believed that no book up to that time had portrayed the whaling industry in as fascinating or immediate a way as he had experienced it. Early Romantics also proposed that fiction was the exemplary way to describe and record history, so Melville wanted to craft something educational and definitive.
Composition[edit]
The earliest surviving mention of the composition of what became Moby-Dick[41][42] is the final paragraph of the letter Melville wrote to Richard Henry Dana, Jr. on May 1, 1850:

About the "whaling voyage"--I am half way in the work, & am very glad that your suggestion so jumps with mine. It will be a strange sort of book, tho', I fear; blubber is blubber you know; tho' you may get oil out of it, the poetry runs as hard as sap from a frozen maple tree;--& to cook the thing up, one must needs throw in a little fancy, which from the nature of the thing, must be ungainly as the gambols of the whales themselves. Yet I mean to give the truth of the thing, spite of this.[43]
Some scholars have concluded that Melville composed Moby-Dick in two or even three stages. Reasoning from a series of inconsistencies and structural developments in the final version they hypothesize that the work he mentioned to Dana was, in the words of Lawrence Buell, a "relatively straightforward" whaling adventure, but that reading Shakespeare and his encounters with Hawthorne inspired him to rewrite it as "an epic of cosmic encyclopedic proportions."[44] Bezanson objects that the letter contains too many ambiguities to assume "that Dana's 'suggestion' would obviously be that Melville do for whaling what he had done for life on a man-of-war in White-Jacket."[41] In addition, Dana had experienced how incomparable Melville was in dramatic story telling when he met him in Boston, so perhaps "his 'suggestion' was that Melville do a book that captured that gift."[41] And the long sentence in the middle of the above quotation simply acknowledges that Melville is struggling with the problem, not of choosing between fact and fancy but of how to interrelate them. The most positive statements are that it will be a strange sort of a book and that Melville means to give the truth of the thing, but what thing exactly is not clear.[41]
Melville may have found the plot before writing or developed it after the writing process was underway. Considering his elaborate use of sources, "it is safe to say" that they helped him shape the narrative, its plot included.[45] Scholars John Bryant and Haskell Springer cite the development of the character Ishmael as another factor which prolonged Melville's process of composition and which can be deduced from the structure of the final version of the book. Ishmael in the early chapters is simply the narrator, just as the narrators in Melville's earlier sea adventures had been, but in later chapters becomes a mystical stage manager who is central to the tragedy.[46]
Less than two months after mentioning the project to Dana, Melville reported in a letter of June 27 to Richard Bentley, his English publisher:

My Dear Sir,--In the latter part of the coming autumn I shall have ready a new work; and I write you now to propose its publication in England.The book is a romance of adventure, founded upon certain wild legends in the Southern Sperm Whale Fisheries, and illustrated by the author's own personal experience, of two years & more, as a harpooneer.[47]
Nathaniel Hawthorne and his family had moved to a small red farmhouse near Lenox, Massachusetts, at the end of March 1850.[48] He became friends with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. and Melville beginning on August 5, 1850, when the authors met at a picnic hosted by a mutual friend.[49] Melville wrote an unsigned review of Hawthorne's short story collection Mosses from an Old Manse titled "Hawthorne and His Mosses," which appeared in the The Literary World on August 17 and 24.[50] Bezanson finds the essay "so deeply related to Melville's imaginative and intellectual world while writing Moby-Dick" that it could be regarded as a virtual preface and should be "everybody's prime piece of contextual reading."[41] In the essay Melville compares Hawthorne to Shakespeare and Dante, and his "self-projection" is evident in the repeats of the word "genius," the more than two dozen references to Shakespeare, and in the insistence that Shakespeare's "unapproachability" is nonsense for an American.[41]
The most intense work on the book was done during the winter of 1850–1851, when Melville had changed the noise of New York City for a farm in Pittsfield. The move may well have delayed finishing the book.[51] During these months, he wrote several excited letters to Hawthorne, including one of June 1851 in which he summarizes his career: "What I feel most moved to write, that is banned,--it will not pay. Yet, altogether, write the other way I cannot. So the product is a final hash, and all my books are botches."[52] This is the stubborn Melville who stood by Mardi and talked about his other, more commercial books with contempt. The letter also reveals how Melville experienced his development from his 25th year: "Three weeks have scarcely passed, at any time between then and now, that I have not unfolded within myself. But I feel that I am now come to the inmost leaf of the bulb, and that shortly the flower must fall to the mould."[53] One other theory holds that getting to know Hawthorne first inspired him to write Ahab's tragic obsession into the book, but Bryant and Springer object that Melville already had experienced other encounters which could just as well have triggered his imagination, such as the Bible's Jonah and Job, Milton's Satan, Shakespeare's King Lear, Byron's heroes.[54]
Theories of the composition of the book have been harpooned in three ways, first by raising objections against the use of evidence and the evidence itself. Scholar Robert Milder sees "insufficient evidence and doubtful methodology" at work.[55] John Bryant finds "little concrete evidence, and nothing at all conclusive, to show that Melville radically altered the structure or conception of the book."[56] A second type of objection is based upon Melville's intellectual development. Bezanson is not convinced that before he met Hawthorne, "Melville was not ready for the kind of book Moby-Dick became,"[41] because in his letters from the time Melville denounces his last two "straight narratives, Redburn and White-Jacket, as two books written just for the money, and he firmly stood by Mardi as the kind of book he believed in. His language is already "richly steeped in seventeenth century mannerisms," characteristics of Moby-Dick. A third type calls upon the literary nature of passages used as evidence. According to Milder the cetological chapters cannot be leftovers from an earlier stage of composition and any theory that they are "will eventually founder on the stubborn meaningfulness of these chapters," because no scholar adhering to the theory has yet explained how these chapters "can bear intimate thematic relation to a symbolic story not yet conceived."[57] Buell finds that theories based on a combination of selected passages from letters and what are perceived as "loose ends" in the book not only "tend to dissolve into guesswork," but he also suggests that these so-called loose ends may be intended by the author: repeatedly the book mentions "the necessary unfinishedness of immense endeavors." Despite all this, Buell finds the evidence that Melville changed his ambitions during writing "on the whole convincing."[44]
Publication history[edit]
Melville first proposed the English publication in a 27 June 1850 letter to Richard Bentley, London publisher of his earlier works. Textual scholar G. Thomas Tanselle explains that for these earlier books American proof sheets had been sent to the English publisher and that publication in the United States had been held off until the work had been set in type and published in England. This procedure was intended to provide the best (though still uncertain) claim for the English copyright of an American work.[58] In the case of Moby-Dick, Melville had taken almost a year longer than promised, and could not rely on Harpers to prepare the proofs as they had done for the earlier books. Indeed, Harpers had denied him an advance, and since he was already in debt to them for almost $700 he was forced to borrow money and to arrange for the typesetting and plating himself.[59] John Bryant suggests that he did so "to reduce the number of hands playing with his text."[60]
The final stages of composition overlapped with the early stages of publication. In June 1851 Melville wrote to Hawthorne that he was in New York to "work and slave on my 'Whale' while it is driving through the press."[61] By the end of the month, "wearied with the long delay of printers" Melville came back to finish work on the book in Pittsfield. Three weeks later, the typesetting was almost done, as he announced to Bentley on 20 July: "I am now passing thro' the press, the closing sheets of my new work."[61] While Melville was simultaneously writing and proofreading what had been set, the corrected proof would be plated, that is, the type fixed in final form. Since earlier chapters were already plated when he was revising the later ones, Melville must have "felt restricted in the kinds of revisions that were feasible."[62]
On 3 July 1851, Bentley offered Melville ₤150 and "half profits," that is, half the profits that remained after the expenses of production and advertising. On 20 July Melville accepted, after which Bentley drew up a contract on 13 August.[63] Melville signed and returned the contract in early September, and then went to New York with the proof sheets, made from the finished plates, which he sent to London by his brother Allan on 10 September. For over a month these proofs had been in Melville's possession, and because the book would be set anew in England, he could devote all his time to correcting and revising them. He still had no American publisher, so there was not the usual hurry about getting the English publication to precede the American.[64] Only on 12 September was the Harper publishing contract signed.[65] Bentley received the proof sheets with Melville's corrections and revisions marked on them on September 24. He published the book less than four weeks later.
On 18 October, the English edition, The Whale, was published in a printing of only 500 copies, fewer than Melville's previous books. Their slow sales had convinced Bentley that a smaller number was more realistic. The London Morning Herald on October 20 printed the earliest known review.[66] On 14 November, the American edition, Moby-Dick, was published and the same day reviewed in both the Albany Argus and the Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer. On 19 November, Washington received the copy to be deposited for copyright purposes. The first American printing of 2,915 copies was almost the same as the first of Mardi, but the first printing of Melville's other three Harper books had been a thousand copies more.[67]
Melville's revisions and British editorial revisions[edit]
The English edition, set by Bentley's printers from the American page proofs with Melville's revisions and corrections, differs from the American edition in over 700 wordings and thousands of punctuation and spelling changes.[64]
Excluding the preliminaries and the one extract, the three volumes of the English edition came to 927 pages[68] and the single American volume to 635 pages.[69] Accordingly, the dedication to Hawthorne in the American edition -- "this book is inscribed to"—became "these volumes are inscribed to" in the English.[70] The table of contents in the English edition generally follows the actual chapter titles in the American edition, but nineteen titles in the American table of contents differ from the titles above the chapters themselves. This list was probably drawn up by Melville himself: the titles of chapters describing encounters of the Pequod with other ships had—apparently to stress the parallelisms between these chapters—been standardized to "The Pequod meets the...," with the exception of the already published 'The Town-Ho's Story'.[71] For unknown reasons, the "Etymology" and "Extracts" were moved to the end of the third volume.[72] An epigraph from Paradise Lost, taken from the second of the two quotations from that work in the American edition, appears on the title page of each of the three English volumes. Melville's involvement with this rearrangement is not clear: if it was Bentley's gesture toward accommodating Melville, as Tanselle suggests,[72] its selection put an emphasis on the quotation Melville may not have agreed with.
The largest of Melville's revisions is the addition to the English edition of a 139-word footnote in Chapter 87 explaining the word "gally." The edition also contains six short phrases and some sixty single words lacking in the American edition.[73] In addition, there are about thirty-five changes that produce genuine improvements, as opposed to mere corrections: "Melville may not have made every one of the changes in this category, but it seems certain that he was responsible for the great majority of them."[74]
British censorship and missing "Epilogue"[edit]
One or more British revisers purged the book of any material that might give offense. These expurgations fall into four categories, ranked according to the apparent priorities of the censor:
1.Sacrilegious passages, more than 1200 words. Attributing human failures to God was grounds for excision or revision, as was comparing human shortcomings to divine ones. For example in chapter 28, "Ahab," Ahab stands with "a crucifixion" in his face" was revised to "an apparently eternal anguish;"[75]
2.Sexual matters, including the sex life of whales and even Ishmael's worried anticipation of the nature of Queequeg's underwear, as well as allusions to fornication or harlots, and "our hearts' honeymoon" (in relation to Ishmael and Queequeg)[76] Chapter 95, however "The Cassock," referring to the whale's genital organ, was untouched, perhaps because of Melville's indirect language.
3.Remarks "belittling royalty or implying a criticism of the British." This meant the exclusion of the complete chapter 25, a "Postscript" on the use of sperm oil at coronations;[77]
4.Perceived grammatical or stylistic anomalies were treated with "a highly conservative interpretation of rules of 'correctness'."[78]
These expurgations also meant that any corrections or revisions Melville may have marked upon these passages are now lost.
The final difference in the material not already plated is that the "Epilogue," and thus Ishmael's miraculous survival, is omitted from the British edition. Obviously the epilogue was not an afterthought supplied too late for the English edition, for it is referred to in "The Castaway": "in the sequel of the narrative, it will then be seen what like abandonment befell myself."[79] Why the "Epilogue" is missing is unknown. Since there was nothing objectionable in it, most likely it was somehow lost by Bentley's printer when the "Etymology" and "Extracts" were moved.[80]
Last-minute change of title[edit]
After the sheets had been sent, Melville changed the title. Probably late in September, Allan sent Bentley two pages of proof with a letter of which only a draft survives which informed him that Melville "has determined upon a new title & dedication—Enclosed you have proof of both—It is thought here that the new title will be a better selling title." After expressing his hope that Bentley would receive this change in time, Allan said that "Moby-Dick is a legitimate title for the book, being the name given to a particular whale who if I may so express myself is the hero of the volume."[81] Biographer Hershel Parker suggests that the reason for the change was that Harper's had two years earlier published a book with a similar title, The Whale and His Captors.[82]
Changing the title was not a problem for the American edition, since the running heads throughout the book only showed the titles of the chapters, and the title page, which would include the publisher's name, could not be printed until a publisher was found. In October Harper's New Monthly Magazine printed chapter 54, "The Town-Ho's Story," with a footnote saying: "From The Whale. The title of a new work by Mr. Melville."[81] The one surviving leaf of proof, "a 'trial' page bearing the title 'The Whale' and the Harper imprint,"[83] shows that at this point, after the publisher had been found, the original title still stood. When Allan's letter arrived, no sooner than early October, Bentley had already announced The Whale in both the Athenaem and the Spectator of 4 and 11 October.[84] Probably to accommodate Melville, Bentley inserted a half-title page in the first volume only, which reads "The Whale; or, Moby Dick."[83]
Sales and earnings[edit]
The British printing of 500 copies sold fewer than 300 within the first four months. In 1852, some remaining sheets were bound in a cheaper casing, and in 1853 there were still enough sheets left to issue a cheap edition in one volume. Bentley lost half on Melville's advance of ₤150.[85] Harper's first printing was 2,915 copies, including the standard 125 review copies. The selling price was $1.50, about a fifth of the price of the British three-volume edition.[69] About 1,500 copies were sold within eleven days, and then sales slowed down to less than 300 the next year. After three years the first edition was still available, almost 300 copies of which were lost when a fire broke out at the firm in December 1853. In 1855 a second printing of 250 copies was issued, in 1863 a third of 253 copies, and finally in 1871 a fourth printing of 277 copies, which sold so slowly that no new printing was ordered.[85] Moby-Dick was out of print during the last four years of Melville's life, having sold 2,300 in its first year and a half and on average 27 copies a year for the next 34 years, totaling 3,215 copies.
Melville's earnings from the book add up to $1,260: the ₤150 advance from Bentley was equivalent to $703, and the American printings earned him $556, which was one hundred dollars less than he earned from any of his five previous books.[86] Melville's widow received another $81 when the United States Book Company issued the book and sold almost 1,800 copies between 1892 and 1898.[86]
Reception[edit]
Contemporary[edit]
Melville was acclaimed for his earlier works Typee (1846) and Omoo (1847). He intended Moby-Dick to be his magnum opus, and he was shocked and bewildered at the scathing reviews it received. Instead of bringing literary acclaim, this masterwork started a slide toward literary obscurity. This was partially because the book was first published in England, and the American literary establishment took note of what the English critics said, especially critics who wrote in the more prestigious journals. Many reviews praised Moby-Dick for its unique style, interesting characters, and poetic language,[87] but others agreed with a review in the highly regarded London Athenaeum, which described it as

[A]n ill-compounded mixture of romance and matter-of-fact. The idea of a connected and collected story has obviously visited and abandoned its writer again and again in the course of composition. The style of his tale is in places disfigured by mad (rather than bad) English; and its catastrophe is hastily, weakly, and obscurely managed.[87]
The unfavorable reviews from across the ocean made American readers skittish. Still, a handful of American critics saw value in it. Hawthorne said of the book:

What a book Melville has written! It gives me an idea of much greater power than his preceding ones.[88]
One problem was that since the English edition omitted the epilogue, British reviewers read a book with a first-person narrator who apparently did not survive to tell the tale.[89] The reviewer in the Spectator objected that "nothing should be introduced into a novel which it is physically impossible for the writer to have known: thus, he must not describe the conversation of miners in a pit if they all perish."[90]" The Dublin University Magazine asked "how does it happen that the author is alive to tell the story?" and the Literary Gazette declared that how the writer, "who appears to have been drowned with the rest, communicated his notes for publication to Mr. Bentley is not explained."[90]
It has also been argued the novel was unsuccessful because whaling and maritime adventuring were no longer of topical interest to the American public. The Gold Rush had shifted focus to the West, and lengthy novels with long factual passages about the brutal technology of the whaling industry seemed less relevant to an American audience.[citation needed]
Later reception[edit]
Within a year after Melville's death, Moby-Dick, along with Typee, Omoo, and Mardi, was reprinted by Harper & Brothers, giving it a chance to be rediscovered. However, only New York's literary underground seemed to take much interest, just enough to keep Melville's name circulating for the next 25 years in the capital of American publishing. During this time, a few critics were willing to devote time, space, and a modicum of praise to Melville and his works, or at least those that could still be fairly easily obtained or remembered. Other works, especially the poetry, went largely forgotten.[91]
Then came World War I and its consequences, particularly the shaking or destruction of faith in so many aspects of Western civilization, all of which caused people concerned with culture and its potential redemptive value to experiment with new aesthetic techniques. The stage was set for Melville's legacy to find its place.
With the burgeoning of Modernist aesthetics (see Modernism and American modernism) and the war that tore everything apart still so fresh in memory, Moby-Dick began to seem increasingly relevant. Many of Melville's techniques echo those of Modernism: kaleidoscopic, hybrid in genre and tone, monumentally ambitious in trying to unite so many disparate elements and loose ends.
In 1917, American authorCarl Van Doren became the first of this period to proselytize about Melville's value.[91]
In the 1920s, British literary critics began to take notice. In his idiosyncratic but landmark Studies in Classic American Literature, novelist, poet, and short story writer D. H. Lawrence directed Americans' attention to the great originality and value of many American authors, among them Melville. Perhaps most surprising is that Lawrence saw Moby-Dick as a work of the first order despite his using the original English edition.[91]
In his 1921 study, The American Novel, Carl Van Doren returned to Melville with much more depth. He called Moby-Dick a pinnacle of American Romanticism.[91]
The next great wave of Moby-Dick appraisal came with the publication of F. O. Matthiessen's American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman.[92] Published in 1941, the book proposed that Emerson, Whitman, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Melville were the most prominent figures of a flowering of conflicted (and mostly pre-Civil War) literature important for its promulgation of democracy and the exploration of its possibilities, successes, and failures. Matthiessen's book came out shortly before the entry of the U.S. into World War II; critic Nick Selby argues that

... Moby-Dick was now read as a text that reflected the power struggles of a world concerned to uphold democracy, and of a country seeking an identity for itself within that world.[93]
In 2014 new evidence of the book's standing is scholar Lawrence Buell's study of The Dream of the Great American Novel. Though the author does not indicate a preference for any candidate, the cover illustration of a whale leaves no doubt what book is meant. The Times Literary Supplement review concluded that "it is clear that Moby-Dick is the most likely contender, being a novel that needs 'no defense.'"[94]
Adaptations[edit]
Main article: Adaptations of Moby-Dick
The novel has been adapted or represented in art, film, books, cartoons, television, and more than a dozen versions in comic book format. The first adaptation was the 1926 silent movie, The Sea Beast, starring John Barrymore,[95] in which Ahab kills the whale and returns to marry his fiancée.[96] The most famous adaptation was the John Huston 1956 film produced from a screenplay by author Ray Bradbury.[97] The long list of adaptations, as Bryant and Springer put it, demonstrates that "the iconic image of an angry embittered American slaying a mythic beast seemed to capture the popular imagination," showing how "different readers in different periods of popular culture have rewritten Moby-Dick" to make it a "true cultural icon."[96]
Editions[edit]
Melville, H. The Whale. London: Richard Bentley, 1851 3 vols. (viii, 312; iv, 303; iv, 328 pp.) Published October 18, 1851.
Melville, H., Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1851. xxiii, 635 pages. Published probably on November 14, 1851.
Melville, H. Moby-Dick, or The Whale. Northwestern-Newberry Edition of the Writings of Herman Melville 6. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern U. Press, 1988. A critical text with appendices on the history and reception of the book. The text is in the public domain.
Moby-Dick (Norton Critical Editions), Edited by Hershel Parker and Harrison Hayford. New York: W.W. Norton, 2nd ed. 2002. ISBN 978-0-393-97283-2
Moby-Dick: A Longman Critical Edition, Edited by John Bryant and Haskell Springer. New York: Longman, 2007 and 2009. ISBN 978-0-321-22800-0
Footnotes[edit]

1.Jump up ^ Lawrence (1923), 168
2.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988) "Editorial Appendix," pp. 810-812
3.Jump up ^ Bryant and Springer (2007), xiv
4.^ Jump up to: a b Bryant and Springer (2007), xv
5.Jump up ^ Berthoff (1962), 177
6.^ Jump up to: a b Buell (2014), 365
7.Jump up ^ Milder (1988), 434
8.^ Jump up to: a b Buell (2014), 367
9.^ Jump up to: a b Bryant and Springer (2007), xvi
10.Jump up ^ Bryant and Springer (2007), x
11.Jump up ^ Bezanson (1986), 188
12.Jump up ^ Bezanson (1986), 195
13.Jump up ^ Bezanson (1986), 190
14.^ Jump up to: a b Bezanson (1986), 191
15.^ Jump up to: a b Bryant and Springer (2007), xxii
16.Jump up ^ Ch 3 The Spouter Inn.
17.Jump up ^ Delbanco (2005), 159
18.Jump up ^ Delbanco (2005), 161
19.Jump up ^ Bryant and Springer (2007), xvii
20.^ Jump up to: a b c Lee (2006), 395
21.^ Jump up to: a b Berthoff (1962), 164
22.Jump up ^ Berthoff (1962), 163
23.Jump up ^ Heflin (2004), 16
24.Jump up ^ Heflin (2004), 18
25.Jump up ^ Heflin (2004), 27
26.Jump up ^ Heflin (2004), 29
27.Jump up ^ Heflin (2004), 28
28.Jump up ^ Heflin (2004), 19
29.Jump up ^ Heflin (2004), 26
30.Jump up ^ Heflin (2004), 252 note 26
31.Jump up ^ Heflin (2004), 189
32.Jump up ^ Heflin (2004), 41
33.Jump up ^ Philbrick (2000), p. xii- xv.
34.^ Jump up to: a b c Reynolds, J.N., "Mocha Dick: or the White Whale of the Pacific: A Leaf from a Manuscript Journal," The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine. 13.5, May 1839, pp. 377–392.
35.Jump up ^ Whipple, Addison Beecher Colvin (1954). Yankee whalers in the South Seas. Doubleday. ISBN 0-8048-1057-5., 66–79
36.Jump up ^ Report of the Commissioner By United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, p115
37.Jump up ^ Melville's Reflections, a page from The Life and Works of Herman Melville
38.Jump up ^ Leyda, Jay. The Melville Log: A Documentary Life of Herman Melville, 1819–1891. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1951, 119.
39.Jump up ^ Melville (1988), p. 971-977.
40.Jump up ^ Mary K. Bercaw, "A Fine, Boisterous Something": Nantucket in Moby-Dick, Historic Nantucket, Vol. 39, No. 3 (Fall 1991); Philip Armstrong, What animals mean in the fiction of modernity, Routledge, 2008, p.132
41.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Walter E. Bezanson, "Moby-Dick: Document, Drama, Dream," in John Bryant (ed.), A Companion to Melville Studies, Greenwoord Press, 1986, 176–180.
42.Jump up ^ Melville (1993), 160
43.Jump up ^ Melville (1993), 162
44.^ Jump up to: a b Buell (2014), 364
45.Jump up ^ Bryant and Springer, (2007), ix
46.Jump up ^ Bryant and Springer, (2007), xi
47.Jump up ^ Melville (1993), 163
48.Jump up ^ Miller (1991), 274
49.Jump up ^ Cheever, Susan. (2006). American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau: Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work. Large Print ed. Detroit: Thorndike. 174. ISBN 0-7862-9521-X.
50.Jump up ^ Miller (1991), 312
51.Jump up ^ Springer and Bryant (2007), xi
52.Jump up ^ Melville (1993), 191
53.Jump up ^ Melville (1993), 193
54.Jump up ^ Bryant and Springer (2007), xi
55.Jump up ^ Milder (1977), 215
56.Jump up ^ Bryant (1998), 67
57.Jump up ^ Milder (1977), 208
58.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 660
59.Jump up ^ Cited by Tanselle (1988), 660-661
60.Jump up ^ Bryant (2006), 560
61.^ Jump up to: a b Cited in Tanselle (1988), 663.
62.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 663
63.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 665.
64.^ Jump up to: a b Tanselle (1988), 667
65.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 661
66.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 683–4
67.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 686–7
68.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 685
69.^ Jump up to: a b Tanselle (1988), 687
70.Jump up ^ Cited in Tanselle (1988), 673
71.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 675–676
72.^ Jump up to: a b Tanselle (1988), 678
73.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 772
74.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 789
75.Jump up ^ Cited in Tanselle (1988), 681 (citation), 784.
76.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 682, 784–5.
77.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 682, 785.
78.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 682, 785–7.
79.Jump up ^ Cited in Tanselle (1988), 679
80.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 678–9
81.^ Jump up to: a b Cited in Tanselle (1988), 671
82.Jump up ^ Parker (1996), 863
83.^ Jump up to: a b Cited in Tanselle (1988), 672
84.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 673
85.^ Jump up to: a b Tanselle (1988), 688
86.^ Jump up to: a b Tanselle (1988), 689
87.^ Jump up to: a b "A page from The Life and Works of Herman Melville"
88.Jump up ^ Miller (1991), 354
89.Jump up ^ Parker (1988), 702
90.^ Jump up to: a b Cited in Parker (1988), 708
91.^ Jump up to: a b c d "Chapter 3. Romances of Adventure. Section 2. Herman Melville. Van Doren, Carl. 1921. The American Novel". Bartleby.com. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
92.Jump up ^ Selby, Nick. Herman Melville, Moby-Dick. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. 51–52. Columbia Critical Guides. ISBN 0-231-11538-5
93.Jump up ^ Selby 53
94.Jump up ^ Sarah Graham, "What is the Great American Noivel?" The Times Literary Supplement, 16 July 2014. Retrieved on 2 September 2014
95.Jump up ^ IMDb link
96.^ Jump up to: a b Bryant and Springer (2007), xxiii-xxv.
97.Jump up ^ Moby Dick (1956) at Rotten Tomatoes
References[edit]
Abrams, M.H. (1999). A Glossary of Literary Terms. Seventh Edition. Fort Worth, Texas: Harcourt Brace College Publishers. ISBN 9780155054523
Berthoff, Warner. (1962). The Example of Melville. Reprinted 1972, New York: W.W. Norton.
Bezanson, Walter E. (1986). "Moby-Dick: Document, Drama, Dream." In Bryant 1986.
Bryant, John (ed.). (1986). A Companion to Melville Studies. Greenport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313238741
Bryant, John. (1998). "Moby-Dick as Revolution." In Levine 1998.
Bryant John. (2006). "The Melville Text." In Kelley 2006.
Bryant, John and Haskell Springer. (2007). "Introduction," "Explanatory Notes" and "The Making of Moby-Dick." In John Bryant and Haskell Springer (eds), Herman Melville, Moby-Dick. New York Boston: Pearson Longman (A Longman Critical Edition). ISBN 0321228006.
Buell, Lawrence. (2014).The Dream of the Great American Novel. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674051157
Gale, Robert L. (1972). Plots and Characters in the Fiction and Narrative Poetry of Herman Melville. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: The MIT Press.
Hayford, Harrison. (1988). "Historical Note Section V." In Melville (1988).
Heflin, Wilson. (2004). Herman Melville's Whaling Years. Edited by Mary K. Bercaw Edwards and Thomas Farel Heffernan. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.
Kelley, Wyn (ed.). (2006). A Companion to Herman Melville. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 9781405122313
Lawrence, D.H. (1923). Studies in Classic American Literature. Reprinted London: Penguin Books. ISBN 9780140183771
Lee, Maurice A. (2006). "The Language of Moby-Dick: 'Read It If You Can.'" In Kelley 2006.
Matthiessen, F.O.. (1941). American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman. Tenth Printing, 1966, New York, London and Toronto: Oxford University Press.
Levine, Robert S. (1998). The Cambridge Companion to Herman Melville. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-55571-X
Melville, Herman (1988). Moby-Dick, or, the Whale. The Writings of Herman Melville Volume Six. Edited by Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, and G. Thomas Tanselle. Evanston; Chicago: Northwestern University Press: Newberry Library. ISBN 0810103249.
--- .(1993). Correspondence. The Writings of Herman Melville Volume Fourteen. Edited by Lynn Horth. Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern University Press and The Newberry Library. ISBN 9780810109957
Milder, Robert. (1977). The Composition of Moby-Dick: A Review and a Prospect." ESQ: A Journal of the American Renaissance.
Milder, Robert. (1988). "Herman Melville." In Emory Elliott (General Editor), Columbia Literary History of the United States. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-05812-8
Miller, Edwin Haviland. (1991). Salem Is My Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. ISBN 0-87745-332-2
Parker, Hershel. (1988). "Historical Note Section VII." In Melville (1988).
Parker, Hershel, and Harrison Hayford (eds). (2001). Herman Melville, Moby-Dick. A Norton Critical Edition. Second Edition, New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 9780393972832
Philbrick, Nathaniel (2000). In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. New York: Viking. ISBN 0670891576.
Tanselle, G. Thomas. (1988). "Historical Note Section VI" and "Note on the Text." In Melville (1988).
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Moby Dick.
 Wikiquote has quotations related to: Moby-Dick
 Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Moby-Dick

Moby-Dick at Project Gutenberg
The Big Read at http://www.mobydickbigread.com
"Versions of Moby-Dick" at Melville Electronic Library. Side by side versions of the British and American 1851 first editions, with differences highlighted.
Moby Dick Audiobook in the public domain.


[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Works by Herman Melville





























































































[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851)






































































   


Categories: Moby-Dick
1851 novels
19th-century American novels
Allegory
American novels adapted into films
Fictional undersea characters
Fictional toothed whales
Nantucket, Massachusetts
Nautical lore
Novels by Herman Melville
Novels set on Cape Cod and the Islands
Novels set on ships
Whaling in the United States
Sperm whales
Harper & Brothers books
Novels adapted into plays









Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
العربية
Aragonés
বাংলা
Беларуская
Беларуская (тарашкевіца)‎
Български
Català
Čeština
Dansk
Deutsch
Eesti
Español
Esperanto
Euskara
فارسی
Français
Galego
한국어
Bahasa Indonesia
Italiano
עברית
Basa Jawa
Latina
Latviešu
Lietuvių
Magyar
മലയാളം
მარგალური
Nederlands
日本語
Norsk bokmål
Norsk nynorsk
Occitan
ਪੰਜਾਬੀ
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Shqip
සිංහල
Simple English
Slovenčina
Српски / srpski
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Suomi
Svenska
Tagalog
ไทย
Türkçe
Українська
Tiếng Việt
Winaray
粵語
中文
Edit links
This page was last modified on 29 January 2015, at 19:38.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby-Dick














Moby-Dick
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Changes must be reviewed before being displayed on this page.show/hide details



Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see Moby-Dick (disambiguation).
Page protected with pending changes level 1
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
Moby-Dick FE title page.jpg
Title page, first American edition of Moby-Dick

Author
Herman Melville
Country
United States
Language
English
Genre
Novel Adventure fiction, Epic, Sea story
Publisher
Richard Bentley (Britain)
Harper & Brothers (U.S.)

Publication date
 October 18, 1851 (Britain)
 November 14, 1851 (U.S.)
Media type
Hardback
Pages
927 (British first edition, 3 vols.)
 635 (U.S. first edition)

Dewey Decimal
 813.3
Preceded by
White-Jacket
Followed by
Pierre: or, The Ambiguities
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (1851) is a novel by Herman Melville considered an outstanding work of Romanticism and the American Renaissance. Ishmael narrates the monomaniacal quest of Ahab, captain of the whaler Pequod, for revenge on Moby Dick, a white whale which on a previous voyage destroyed Ahab's ship and severed his leg at the knee. Although the novel was a commercial failure and out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891, its reputation as a Great American Novel grew during the twentieth century. D. H. Lawrence called it "one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world," and "the greatest book of the sea ever written."[1] "Call me Ishmael" is one of world literature's most famous opening sentences.
The product of a year and a half of writing, the book is dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne, "in token of my admiration for his genius," and draws on Melville's experience at sea, on his reading in whaling literature, and on literary inspirations such as Shakespeare and the Bible. The detailed and realistic descriptions of whale hunting and of extracting whale oil, as well as life aboard ship among a culturally diverse crew, are mixed with exploration of class and social status, good and evil, and the existence of God. In addition to narrative prose, Melville uses styles and literary devices ranging from songs, poetry and catalogs to Shakespearean stage directions, soliloquies and asides.
There were slight but important differences between the texts of the London edition, which appeared first, and the New York edition. The London publisher cut or changed sensitive passages and Melville made changes as well, including a last-minute change in the title. The work first appeared as The Whale in London in October 1851 and then under its definitive title Moby-Dick in New York in November. The whale, however, appears in both the London and New York editions as "Moby Dick," with no hyphen.[2] The British edition was not reprinted during the author's life, while the American edition was reprinted three times, the last time in 1871. Only 3,200 copies were sold during the author's life.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Structure
3 Themes
4 Style
5 Background 5.1 Autobiographical elements
5.2 Melville's sources
5.3 Composition
6 Publication history 6.1 Melville's revisions and British editorial revisions
6.2 British censorship and missing "Epilogue"
6.3 Last-minute change of title
6.4 Sales and earnings
7 Reception 7.1 Contemporary
7.2 Later reception
8 Adaptations
9 Editions
10 Footnotes
11 References
12 External links

Plot[edit]
See also: List of Moby-Dick characters



 Voyage of the Pequod (illustrated by Everett Henry).
Ishmael explains his need to go to sea and travels from Manhattan Island to New Bedford. The inn is crowded and he must share a bed with the tattooed Polynesian, Queequeg, a harpooneer whose father was king of the (imaginary) island of Rokovoko. The next morning Ishmael and Queequeg attend Father Mapple's sermon on Jonah, then head for Nantucket. Ishmael signs up with the Quaker ship-owners Bildad and Peleg for a voyage on their whaler Pequod. Peleg describes Captain Ahab: "He's a grand, ungodly, god-like man" who nevertheless "has his humanities" (Ch. 16, "The Ship"). They hire Queequeg the following morning. A man named Elijah prophesies a dire fate should Ishmael and Queequeg join Ahab. While provisions are loaded, shadowy figures board the ship. On a cold Christmas Day, the Pequod leaves the harbor.
Chapters discourse on cetology (the zoological classification and natural history of the whale), and describe the crew-members. The chief mate is 30-year-old Starbuck, a Nantucket Quaker with a realist mentality, whose harpooneer is Queequeg; second mate is Stubb, from Cape Cod, happy-go-lucky and cheerful, whose harpooneer is Tashtego, a proud, pure-blooded Indian from Gay Head, Martha's Vineyard; the third mate is Flask, from Martha's Vineyard, short, stout, whose harpooneer is Daggoo, a tall African, now a resident of Nantucket.
When Ahab finally appears on the quarter-deck, he announces he is out for revenge on the white whale which took one leg from the knee down and left him with a prosthesis fashioned from a whale's jawbone. Ahab will give the first man to sight Moby Dick a doubloon, a gold coin, which he hammers to the mast. Starbuck objects that he has not come for vengeance but for profit. Ahab's purpose exercises a mysterious spell on Ishmael: "Ahab's quenchless feud seemed mine" (Ch. 41, "Moby Dick"). Instead of rounding Cape Horn, Ahab heads for the equatorial Pacific Ocean via southern Africa. One afternoon, as Ishmael and Queequeg are weaving a mat — "its warp seemed necessity, his hand free will, and Queequeg's sword chance" (Ch. 47, "The Mat-Maker") —, Tashtego sights a sperm whale. Immediately five hidden figures appear who Ahab has brought as his own boat crew. Their leader, Fedallah, a Parsee, is Ahab's harpooneer. The pursuit is unsuccessful.



 Moby Dick
Southeast of the Cape of Good Hope, the Pequod makes the first of nine sea-encounters, or "gams", with other ships: Ahab hails the Goney (Albatross) to ask whether they have seen the White Whale but the trumpet through which her captain tries to speak falls into the sea before he can answer. Ishmael explains that because of Ahab's absorption with Moby Dick, he sails on without the customary "gam", which defines as a "social meeting of two (or more) Whale-ships", in which the two captains remain on one ship and the chief mates on the other. (Ch. 53, "The Gam"). In the second gam off the Cape of Good Hope, with the Town-Ho, a Nantucket whaler, the concealed story of a "judgment of God" (Ch. 54, "The Town-Ho's Story") is revealed, but only to the crew: a defiant sailor who struck an oppressive officer is flogged, and when that officer led the chase for Moby Dick he fell from the boat and was killed by the whale.
Chapters 55-60 discuss pictures of whales, brit (microscopic sea creatures on which whales feed), squid and — after four boats lowered in vain because Daggoo mistook a squid for the white whale — whale-lines. The next day, in the Indian Ocean, Stubb kills a sperm whale, and that night Fleece, the Pequod '​s black cook, prepares him a rare whale steak. Fleece delivers a sermon to the sharks who fight each other to feast on the whale's carcass, tied to the ship, saying that their nature is to be voracious but they must overcome it. (Ch. 64, "Stubb's Supper") The whale is prepared, beheaded, and barrels of oil are tried out. Standing at the head of the whale, Ahab begs it to speak of the depths of the sea. The Pequod next encounters the Jeroboam, which not only lost its chief mate to Moby Dick, but is now plagued by an epidemic.
The whale carcass still lies in the water. Queequeg mounts it, tied to Ishmael's belt by a monkey-rope as if they were Siamese twins. Stubb and Flask kill a right whale whose head is fastened to a yardarm opposite the sperm whale's head. Ishmael compares the two heads in a philosophical way: the right whale is Lockean, stoic, and the sperm whale as Kantean, platonic. Tashtego cuts into the head of the sperm-whale and retrieves buckets of oil. He falls into the head, and the head falls off the yardarm into the sea. Queequeg dives after him and frees his mate with his sword.
The Pequod next gams with the Jungfrau from Bremen. Both ships sight whales simultaneously, with the Pequod winning the contest. The three harpooneers dart their harpoons, and Flask delivers the mortal strike with a lance. The carcass sinks, and Queequeg barely manages to escape. The Pequod '​s next gam is with the French whaler Bouton de Rose, whose crew is ignorant of the ambergris in the head of the diseased whale in their possession. Stubb talks them out of it, but Ahab orders him away. Days later a harpooned whale throws Pip, a little Negro cabin-boy from Alabama, out of his whale-boat. The whale must be cut loose, because the line has Pip so entangled in it. Furious, Stubb orders Pip to stay in the whaleboat, but Pip later jumps again, and is left alone in the immense sea and has gone insane by the time he is picked up.
Cooled sperm oil congeals and must be squeezed back into liquid state; blubber is boiled in the try-pots on deck; the warm oil is decanted into casks, and then stowed in the ship. After the operation, the decks are scrubbed. The coin hammered to the main-mast shows three Andes summits, one with a flame, one with a tower, and one a crowing cock. Ahab stops to look at the doubloon and interprets the coin as signs of his firmness, volcanic energy, and victory; Starbuck takes the high peaks as evidence of the Trinity; Stubb focuses on the zodiacal arch over the mountains; and Flask sees nothing of any symbolic value at all. The Manxman mutters in front of the mast, and Pip declines the verb "look."



 Queequeg
The Pequod next gams with the Samuel Enderby of London, captained by Boomer, a down-to-earth fellow who lost his right arm to Moby Dick. Nevertheless, he carries no ill will toward the whale, which he regards not as malicious but as awkward. Ahab puts an end to the gam by rushing back to his ship. The narrator now discusses the subjects of 1) whalers supply; 2) a glen in Tranque in the Arsacides islands full of carved whale bones, fossil whales, whale skeleton measurements; 3) the chance that the magnitude of the whale will diminish and that the leviathan might perish.
Leaving the Samuel Enderby, Ahab wrenches his ivory leg and orders the carpenter to fashion him another. Starbuck informs Ahab of oil leakage in the hold. Reluctantly, Ahab orders the harpooneers to inspect the casks. Queequeg, sweating all day below decks, develops a chill and soon is almost mortally feverish. The carpenter makes a coffin for Queequeg, who fears an ordinary burial at sea. Queequeg tries it for size, with Pip sobbing and beating his tambourine, standing by and calling himself a coward while he praises Queequeg for his gameness. Yet Queequeg suddenly rallies, briefly convalesces, and leaps up, back in good health. Henceforth he uses his coffin for a spare sea-chest, which is later caulked and pitched to replace the Pequod's lifebuoy.
The Pequod sails northeast toward Formosa and into the Pacific Ocean. Ahab with one nostril smells the musk from the Bashee isles and with the other the salt of the waters where Moby Dick swims. Ahab goes to Perth, the blacksmith, with bag of race-horse shoe-nail stubs to be forged into the shank of a special harpoon, and with his razors for Perth to melt and fashion into a harpoon barb. Ahab tempers the barb in blood from Queequeg, Tashtego, and Daggoo.
The Pequod gams next with the Bachelor, a Nantucket ship heading home full of sperm oil. Every now and then the Pequod lowers for whales with success. On one of those nights in the whaleboat, Fedallah prophesies that neither hearse nor coffin can be Ahab's, that before he dies Ahab must see two hearses — one not made by mortal hands and the other made of American wood—that Fedallah will precede his captain in death, and finally that only hemp can kill Ahab.
As the Pequod approaches the Equator, Ahab scolds his quadrant for telling him only where he is and not where he will be. He dashes it to the deck. That evening an impressive typhoon attacks the ship. Lightning strikes the mast, setting the doubloon and Ahab's harpoon aglow. Ahab delivers a speech on the spirit of fire, seeing the lightning as a portent of Moby Dick. Starbuck sees the lightning as a warning, and feels tempted to shoot the sleeping Ahab with a musket. Next morning when he finds that the lightning disoriented the compass, Ahab makes a new one out of a lance, a maul, and a sailmaker's needle. He orders the log be heaved, but the weathered line snaps, leaving the ship with no way to fix its location.
The Pequod is now heading southeast toward Moby Dick. A man falls overboard from the mast. The life-buoy is thrown, but both sink. Now Queequeg proposes that his superfluous coffin be used as a new life-buoy. Starbuck orders the carpenter take care it is lidded and caulked. Next morning the ship meets in another truncated gam with the Rachel, commanded by Captain Gardener from Nantucket. The Rachel is seeking survivors from one of her whaleboats which had gone after Moby Dick. Among the missing is Gardiner's young son. Ahab refuses to join the search. Twenty four hours a day Ahab now stands and walks the deck, while Fedallah shadows him. Suddenly a sea hawk grabs Ahab's slouched hat and flies off with it. Next the Pequod, in a ninth and final gam, meets the Delight, badly damaged and with five of her crew left dead by Moby Dick. Her captain shouts that the harpoon which can kill the white whale has yet to be forged, but Ahab flourishes his special lance and once more orders the ship forward. Ahab shares a moment of contemplation with Starbuck. Ahab speaks about his wife and child, calls himself a fool for spending forty years on whaling, and claims he can see his own child in Starbuck's eye. Starbuck tries to persuade Ahab to return to Nantucket to meet both their families, but Ahab simply crosses the deck and stands near Fedallah.
On the first day of the chase, Ahab smells the whale, climbs the mast, and sights Moby Dick. He claims the doubloon for himself, and orders all boats to lower except for Starbuck's. The whale bites Ahab's boat in two, tosses the captain out of it, and scatters the crew. On the second day of the chase, Ahab leaves Starbuck in charge of the Pequod. Moby Dick smashes the three boats that seek him into splinters and tangles their lines. Ahab is rescued, but his ivory leg and Fedallah are lost. Starbuck begs Ahab to desist, but Ahab vows to slay the white whale, even if he would have to dive through the globe itself in order to get his revenge.



 Moby Dick
On the third day of the chase, Ahab sights Moby Dick at noon, and sharks appear as well. Ahab lowers his boat for a final time, leaving Starbuck again on board. Moby Dick breaches and destroys two boats. Fedallah's corpse, still entangled in the fouled lines, is lashed to the whale's back, and so Moby Dick turns out to be the hearse Fedallah prophesied. "Possessed by all the fallen angels" (Ch. 135), Ahab plants his harpoon in the whale's flank. Moby Dick smites the whaleboat, tossing its men into the sea. Only Ishmael survives. The whale now fatally attacks the Pequod. Ahab then realizes that the destroyed ship is the hearse made of American wood in Fedallah's prophesy. The whale returns to Ahab, who stabs at him again. The line loops around Ahab's neck, and as the stricken whale swims away, the captain is drawn with him out of sight. Queequeg's coffin comes to the surface, the only thing to escape the vortex when Pequod sank. For an entire day Ishmael floats on it, and then the Rachel, still looking for its lost seamen, rescues him.
Structure[edit]
In the words of scholars John Bryant and Haskell S. Springer, "Moby-Dick is a classic because it defies classification."[3] It is “both drama and meditation: it is a tragedy and comedy, a stage play and a prose poem," they say, and add that it is "essay, myth, and encyclopedia.”[4] The structure is accordingly complex, comprising both narrative and non-narrative elements. Melville's skillful handling of chapters in Moby-Dick, says Warner Berthoff, is a measure of his "manner of mastery as a writer,"[5]
Lawrence Buell observes that the “narrative architecture” is an “idiosyncratic variant of the bi-polar observer/hero narrative...,” that is, the novel is structured around the two main characters, Ahab and Ishmael, who are intertwined and contrasted with each other, with Ishmael the observer and narrator.[6] As the story of Ishmael, remarks Robert Milder, it is a "narrative of education."[7]
The narrative opens with one of the most well-known sentences in Western literature, “Call me Ishmael,” seeming to signal that Ishmael will be the central actor, and he is soon joined by Queequeg. But after the Pequod sets sail, the story of these two shipmates is “upstaged,” says Buell, by Ahab’s monomaniacal quest.[8] Bryant and Springer go on to show how the book is structured around the two consciousnesses of Ahab and Ishmael, with Ahab as a force of linearity and Ishmael a force of digression.[9] While both have an angry sense of being orphaned, they try to come to terms with this hole in their beings in different ways: Ahab with violence, Ishmael with meditation. And while the plot in Moby-Dick may be driven by Ahab's anger, Ishmael's desire to get a hold of the "ungraspable" accounts for the novel's lyricism.[10] Buell sees a double quest in the book: Ahab's is to hunt Moby Dick, Ishamel's is "to understand what to make of both whale and hunt."[6]
The arrangement of the non-narrative chapters, Buell explains, is structured around three patterns: First, the nine meetings of the Pequod with ships that have encountered Moby Dick. Each has been more and more severely damaged, foreshadowing the Pequod's own fate. Second, the increasingly impressive encounters with whales. In the early encounters, the whaleboats hardly make contact; later there are false alarms and routine chases; finally, the massive assembling of whales at the edges of the China Sea in "The grand armada." A typhoon near Japan sets the stage for Ahab's confrontation with Moby Dick. The third pattern is the cetological documentation, so lavish that it can be divided into two subpatterns. These chapters start with the ancient history of whaling and a bibliographical classification of whales, getting closer with second-hand stories of the evil of whales in general and of Moby Dick in particular, a chronologically ordered commentary on pictures of whales. The climax to this section is chapter 57, "Of whales in paint etc.," which begins with the humble (a beggar in London) and ends with the sublime (the constellation Cetus). The next chapter ("Brit") and thus the other half of this pattern begins with the book's first description of live whales, and next the anatomy of the sperm whale is studied, more or less from front to rear and from outer to inner parts, all the way down to the skeleton. Two concluding chapters set forth the whale's evolution as a species and claim its eternal nature.[8]
One of the most distinctive features of the book is the variety of genres. Bezanson mentions sermons, dreams, travel account, autobiography, Elizabethan plays, epic poetry.[11] He calls Ishmael's explanatory footnotes to establish the documentary genre "a Nabokovian touch."[12] Some scholars have tried to identify a single basic genre. Charles Olson saw the Elizabethan play as a likely model, but when he tried to divide the book into acts he found that the chapters resisted this arrangement.[13] F.O. Matthiessen joined in this enterprise, only to admit that some two hundred central pages delay the forward movement of the drama.[14] Northrop Frye found the book to be the best illustration of the "romance-anatomy," but Bezanson cautions us not to forget that the book's "deepest anxieties" stem not from whales but from the Bible and Shakespeare. [clarification needed] Newton Arvin tried to link the book to the heroic poem or epic, but found that the book does not fit into epic form.[14]
Themes[edit]
Chief among Melville's themes is the difficulty of seeing and understanding, which makes deep reality hard to discover and truth hard to pin down. Ahab explains that, like all things, the evil whale wears a disguise: "All visible objects, man, are but pasteboard masks" — and Ahab is determined to "strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside, except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall" (Ch. 36, "The Quarter-Deck"). This theme pervades the novel, perhaps never so emphatically as in "The Doubloon" (Ch. 99), where each crewmember perceives the coin in a way shaped by his own personality. Later, the American edition has Ahab "discover no sign" (Ch. 133) of the whale when he is staring into the deep. In fact, Moby Dick is then swimming up at him. In the British edition, Melville changed the word "discover" to "perceive." And with good reason, for "discovery" means finding what is already there, but "perceiving," or better still, perception is "a matter of shaping what exists by the way in which we see it."[15] The point is not that Ahab would discover the whale as an object, but that he would perceive it as a symbol of his making.[15]
Race is an example of this search for truth beneath surface differences. All races are represented among the crew members of the Pequod. Although Ishmael initially is afraid of Queequeg as a tattooed cannibal, he soon decides "Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.[16] While it may be rare for a mid-nineteenth century American book to feature black characters in a non-slavery context, slavery is frequently mentioned. The theme of race is primarily carried by Pip, the diminutive black cabin boy.[17] When Pip has almost drowned, Ahab, genuinely touched by Pip's suffering, questions him gently, Pip "can only parrot the language of an advertisement for the return of a fugitive slave: 'Pip! Reward for Pip!'"[18]
Yet Melville does not offer easy solutions. Ishmael and Queequeg's sensual friendship initiates a kind of racial harmony that is shattered when the crew's dancing erupts into racial conflict in "Midnight, Forecastle" (Ch. 40).[9] Fifty chapters later, Pip suffers mental disintegration after he is reminded that as a slave he would be worth less money than a whale. Commodified and brutalized, "Pip becomes the ship's conscience."[19] His views of property are another example of wrestling with moral choice. In Chapter 89, Ishamel expounds the concept of the fast-fish and the loose-fish, which gives right of ownership to those who take possession of an abandoned fish or ship, and observes that the British Empire took possession of native American lands in colonial times in just the way that whalers take possession of an unclaimed whale.
Style[edit]
"Above all," say the scholars Bryant and Springer, Moby-Dick is language: "nautical, biblical, Homeric, Shakespearean, Miltonic, cetological, alliterative, fanciful, colloquial, archaic and unceasingly allusive." Melville can stretch grammar, quote a range of well-known or obscure sources, or swing from calm prose to high rhetoric, technical exposition, seaman's slang, mystic speculation, or wild prophetic archaism.[4] The superabundant vocabulary of the work can be broken down into strategies used individually and in combination. First, the original modification of words as "Leviathanism"[20] and the exaggerated repetition of modified words, as in the series "pitiable," "pity," "pitied" and "piteous" (Ch. 81, "The Pequod Meets the Virgin"),[21] Second, the use of existing words in new ways, as when the whale "heaps" and "tasks."[20] Third, words lifted from specialized fields, as "fossiliferous."[20] Fourth, the use of unusual adjective-noun combinations, as in "concentrating brow" and "immaculate manliness" (Ch. 26, "Knights and Squires").[22] Fifth, using the participial modifier to emphasize and to reinforce the already established expectations of the reader, as the words "preluding" and "foreshadowing" ("so still and subdued and yet somehow preluding was all the scene...," "In this foreshadowing interval...").[21]
Background[edit]
Autobiographical elements[edit]
Moby-Dick is based on Melville's actual experience on a whaler. On December 30, 1840, he signed on as a green hand for the maiden voyage of the Acushnet, planned to last for 52 months. Its owner, Melvin O. Bradford resembled Bildad, who signed on Ishmael, in that he was a Quaker: on several instances when he signed documents, he erased the word "swear" and replaced it with "affirm."[23] Its captain was Valentine Pease, Jr., who was 43 years old at the start of the voyage.[24] Although 26 men signed up as crew members, two did not show up for the ship's departure and were replaced by one new crew member. Five of the crew were foreigners, four of them Portuguese. The Scottish carpenter was one of the two who did not show for the ship's departure. There were three black men in the crew, two seaman and the cook. Fleece, the cook of the Pequod, was also black, and therefore probably modeled on this Philadelphia-born William Maiden, who was 38 years old when he signed for the Acushnet.[25]
Only eleven of the 26 original crew members completed the voyage. The others either deserted or were regularly discharged.[26] The First Officer, Frederic Raymond, left the ship after a "fight" with the captain.[27] A first mate, actually called Edward C. Starbuck, was on an earlier voyage with Captain Pease, in the early 1830s, and was discharged at Tahiti under mysterious circumstances.[28] The second mate on the Acushnet' was John Hall, English-born but a naturalized American.[29] He is identified as Stubb in an annotation in the book's copy of crew member Henry Hubbard, who, like Melville, had joined the voyage as a green hand. Hubbard also identified the model for Pip: John Backus, a little black man added to the crew during the voyage.[30] Hubbard's annotation appears in the chapter "The Castaway" and reveals that Pip's falling into the water was authentic; Hubbard was with him in the same boat when the incident occurred.
Ahab seems to have had no model in real life, though his death may have been based on an actual event. On May 18, 1843, Melville was aboard The Star, which sailed for Honolulu. Aboard were two sailors from the Nantucket who could have told him that they had seen their second mate "taken out of a whaleboat by a foul line and drowned."[31] The model for the Whaleman's Chapel of chapter 7 is the Seamen's Bethel on Johnny Cake Hill. Melville attended a service there shortly before he shipped out on the Acushnet, and he heard a sermon by the chaplain, 63-year-old Reverend Enoch Mudge, who is at least in part the model for Father Mapple. Even the topic of Jonah and the Whale may be authentic, for Mudge was a contributor to Sailor's Magazine, which printed in December 1840 the ninth of a series of sermons on Jonah.[32]
Melville's sources[edit]



 Melville's copy of The History of the Sperm Whale, 1839
In addition to his own experience on the whaling ship Acushnet, two actual events served as the genesis for Melville's tale. One was the sinking of the Nantucket ship Essex in 1820, after it was rammed by an enraged sperm whale 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from the western coast of South America. First mate Owen Chase, one of eight survivors, recorded the events in his 1821 Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex.[33]
The other event was the alleged killing in the late 1830s of the albino sperm whale Mocha Dick, in the waters off the Chilean island of Mocha. Mocha Dick was rumored to have twenty or so harpoons in his back from other whalers, and appeared to attack ships with premeditated ferocity. One of his battles with a whaler served as subject for an article by explorer Jeremiah N. Reynolds in the May 1839 issue of The Knickerbocker or New-York Monthly Magazine.[34] Melville was familiar with the article, which described:

This renowned monster, who had come off victorious in a hundred fights with his pursuers, was an old bull whale, of prodigious size and strength. From the effect of age, or more probably from a freak of nature... a singular consequence had resulted – he was white as wool![34]
Significantly, Reynolds writes a first-person narration that serves as a frame for the story of a whaling captain he meets. The captain resembles Ahab and suggests a similar symbolism and single-minded motivation in hunting this whale, in that when his crew first encounters Mocha Dick and cowers from him, the captain rallies them:

As he drew near, with his long curved back looming occasionally above the surface of the billows, we perceived that it was white as the surf around him; and the men stared aghast at each other, as they uttered, in a suppressed tone, the terrible name of MOCHA DICK!
"Mocha Dick or the d----l [devil],' said I, 'this boat never sheers off from any thing that wears the shape of a whale."[34]
Mocha Dick had over 100 encounters with whalers in the decades between 1810 and the 1830s. He was described as being gigantic and covered in barnacles. Although he was the most famous, Mocha Dick was not the only white whale in the sea, nor the only whale to attack hunters.[35]
While an accidental collision with a sperm whale at night accounted for sinking of the Union in 1807,[36] it was not until August 1851 that the whaler Ann Alexander, while hunting in the Pacific off the Galapagos Islands, became the second vessel since the Essex to be attacked, holed and sunk by a whale. Melville remarked:

Ye Gods! What a commentator is this Ann Alexander whale. What he has to say is short & pithy & very much to the point. I wonder if my evil art has raised this monster.[37]
While Melville had already drawn on his different sailing experiences in his previous novels, such as Mardi, he had never focused specifically on whaling. The eighteen months he spent as an ordinary seaman aboard the whaler Acushnet in 1841–42, and one incident in particular, now served as inspiration. It was during a mid-ocean "gam" (rendezvous at sea between ships) that he met Chase's son William, who lent him his father's book. Melville later wrote:

I questioned him concerning his father's adventure; . . . he went to his chest & handed me a complete copy . . . of the Narrative [of the Essex catastrophe]. This was the first printed account of it I had ever seen. The reading of this wondrous story on the landless sea, and so close to the very latitude of the shipwreck, had a surprising effect upon me.[38]
The book was out of print, and rare. Melville let his interest in the book be known to his father-in-law, Lemuel Shaw, whose friend in Nantucket procured an imperfect but clean copy which Shaw gave to Melville in April 1851. Melville read this copy avidly, made copious notes in it, and had it bound, keeping it in his library for the rest of his life. [39]



 Herman Melville
Moby-Dick contains large sections—most of them narrated by Ishmael—that seemingly have nothing to do with the plot but describe aspects of the whaling business. Although there had been a successful earlier novel about Nantucket whalers, Miriam Coffin or The Whale-Fisherman (1835) by Joseph C. Hart,[40] which is credited with influencing elements of Melville's work, most accounts of whaling tended to be sensational tales of bloody mutiny, and Melville believed that no book up to that time had portrayed the whaling industry in as fascinating or immediate a way as he had experienced it. Early Romantics also proposed that fiction was the exemplary way to describe and record history, so Melville wanted to craft something educational and definitive.
Composition[edit]
The earliest surviving mention of the composition of what became Moby-Dick[41][42] is the final paragraph of the letter Melville wrote to Richard Henry Dana, Jr. on May 1, 1850:

About the "whaling voyage"--I am half way in the work, & am very glad that your suggestion so jumps with mine. It will be a strange sort of book, tho', I fear; blubber is blubber you know; tho' you may get oil out of it, the poetry runs as hard as sap from a frozen maple tree;--& to cook the thing up, one must needs throw in a little fancy, which from the nature of the thing, must be ungainly as the gambols of the whales themselves. Yet I mean to give the truth of the thing, spite of this.[43]
Some scholars have concluded that Melville composed Moby-Dick in two or even three stages. Reasoning from a series of inconsistencies and structural developments in the final version they hypothesize that the work he mentioned to Dana was, in the words of Lawrence Buell, a "relatively straightforward" whaling adventure, but that reading Shakespeare and his encounters with Hawthorne inspired him to rewrite it as "an epic of cosmic encyclopedic proportions."[44] Bezanson objects that the letter contains too many ambiguities to assume "that Dana's 'suggestion' would obviously be that Melville do for whaling what he had done for life on a man-of-war in White-Jacket."[41] In addition, Dana had experienced how incomparable Melville was in dramatic story telling when he met him in Boston, so perhaps "his 'suggestion' was that Melville do a book that captured that gift."[41] And the long sentence in the middle of the above quotation simply acknowledges that Melville is struggling with the problem, not of choosing between fact and fancy but of how to interrelate them. The most positive statements are that it will be a strange sort of a book and that Melville means to give the truth of the thing, but what thing exactly is not clear.[41]
Melville may have found the plot before writing or developed it after the writing process was underway. Considering his elaborate use of sources, "it is safe to say" that they helped him shape the narrative, its plot included.[45] Scholars John Bryant and Haskell Springer cite the development of the character Ishmael as another factor which prolonged Melville's process of composition and which can be deduced from the structure of the final version of the book. Ishmael in the early chapters is simply the narrator, just as the narrators in Melville's earlier sea adventures had been, but in later chapters becomes a mystical stage manager who is central to the tragedy.[46]
Less than two months after mentioning the project to Dana, Melville reported in a letter of June 27 to Richard Bentley, his English publisher:

My Dear Sir,--In the latter part of the coming autumn I shall have ready a new work; and I write you now to propose its publication in England.The book is a romance of adventure, founded upon certain wild legends in the Southern Sperm Whale Fisheries, and illustrated by the author's own personal experience, of two years & more, as a harpooneer.[47]
Nathaniel Hawthorne and his family had moved to a small red farmhouse near Lenox, Massachusetts, at the end of March 1850.[48] He became friends with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. and Melville beginning on August 5, 1850, when the authors met at a picnic hosted by a mutual friend.[49] Melville wrote an unsigned review of Hawthorne's short story collection Mosses from an Old Manse titled "Hawthorne and His Mosses," which appeared in the The Literary World on August 17 and 24.[50] Bezanson finds the essay "so deeply related to Melville's imaginative and intellectual world while writing Moby-Dick" that it could be regarded as a virtual preface and should be "everybody's prime piece of contextual reading."[41] In the essay Melville compares Hawthorne to Shakespeare and Dante, and his "self-projection" is evident in the repeats of the word "genius," the more than two dozen references to Shakespeare, and in the insistence that Shakespeare's "unapproachability" is nonsense for an American.[41]
The most intense work on the book was done during the winter of 1850–1851, when Melville had changed the noise of New York City for a farm in Pittsfield. The move may well have delayed finishing the book.[51] During these months, he wrote several excited letters to Hawthorne, including one of June 1851 in which he summarizes his career: "What I feel most moved to write, that is banned,--it will not pay. Yet, altogether, write the other way I cannot. So the product is a final hash, and all my books are botches."[52] This is the stubborn Melville who stood by Mardi and talked about his other, more commercial books with contempt. The letter also reveals how Melville experienced his development from his 25th year: "Three weeks have scarcely passed, at any time between then and now, that I have not unfolded within myself. But I feel that I am now come to the inmost leaf of the bulb, and that shortly the flower must fall to the mould."[53] One other theory holds that getting to know Hawthorne first inspired him to write Ahab's tragic obsession into the book, but Bryant and Springer object that Melville already had experienced other encounters which could just as well have triggered his imagination, such as the Bible's Jonah and Job, Milton's Satan, Shakespeare's King Lear, Byron's heroes.[54]
Theories of the composition of the book have been harpooned in three ways, first by raising objections against the use of evidence and the evidence itself. Scholar Robert Milder sees "insufficient evidence and doubtful methodology" at work.[55] John Bryant finds "little concrete evidence, and nothing at all conclusive, to show that Melville radically altered the structure or conception of the book."[56] A second type of objection is based upon Melville's intellectual development. Bezanson is not convinced that before he met Hawthorne, "Melville was not ready for the kind of book Moby-Dick became,"[41] because in his letters from the time Melville denounces his last two "straight narratives, Redburn and White-Jacket, as two books written just for the money, and he firmly stood by Mardi as the kind of book he believed in. His language is already "richly steeped in seventeenth century mannerisms," characteristics of Moby-Dick. A third type calls upon the literary nature of passages used as evidence. According to Milder the cetological chapters cannot be leftovers from an earlier stage of composition and any theory that they are "will eventually founder on the stubborn meaningfulness of these chapters," because no scholar adhering to the theory has yet explained how these chapters "can bear intimate thematic relation to a symbolic story not yet conceived."[57] Buell finds that theories based on a combination of selected passages from letters and what are perceived as "loose ends" in the book not only "tend to dissolve into guesswork," but he also suggests that these so-called loose ends may be intended by the author: repeatedly the book mentions "the necessary unfinishedness of immense endeavors." Despite all this, Buell finds the evidence that Melville changed his ambitions during writing "on the whole convincing."[44]
Publication history[edit]
Melville first proposed the English publication in a 27 June 1850 letter to Richard Bentley, London publisher of his earlier works. Textual scholar G. Thomas Tanselle explains that for these earlier books American proof sheets had been sent to the English publisher and that publication in the United States had been held off until the work had been set in type and published in England. This procedure was intended to provide the best (though still uncertain) claim for the English copyright of an American work.[58] In the case of Moby-Dick, Melville had taken almost a year longer than promised, and could not rely on Harpers to prepare the proofs as they had done for the earlier books. Indeed, Harpers had denied him an advance, and since he was already in debt to them for almost $700 he was forced to borrow money and to arrange for the typesetting and plating himself.[59] John Bryant suggests that he did so "to reduce the number of hands playing with his text."[60]
The final stages of composition overlapped with the early stages of publication. In June 1851 Melville wrote to Hawthorne that he was in New York to "work and slave on my 'Whale' while it is driving through the press."[61] By the end of the month, "wearied with the long delay of printers" Melville came back to finish work on the book in Pittsfield. Three weeks later, the typesetting was almost done, as he announced to Bentley on 20 July: "I am now passing thro' the press, the closing sheets of my new work."[61] While Melville was simultaneously writing and proofreading what had been set, the corrected proof would be plated, that is, the type fixed in final form. Since earlier chapters were already plated when he was revising the later ones, Melville must have "felt restricted in the kinds of revisions that were feasible."[62]
On 3 July 1851, Bentley offered Melville ₤150 and "half profits," that is, half the profits that remained after the expenses of production and advertising. On 20 July Melville accepted, after which Bentley drew up a contract on 13 August.[63] Melville signed and returned the contract in early September, and then went to New York with the proof sheets, made from the finished plates, which he sent to London by his brother Allan on 10 September. For over a month these proofs had been in Melville's possession, and because the book would be set anew in England, he could devote all his time to correcting and revising them. He still had no American publisher, so there was not the usual hurry about getting the English publication to precede the American.[64] Only on 12 September was the Harper publishing contract signed.[65] Bentley received the proof sheets with Melville's corrections and revisions marked on them on September 24. He published the book less than four weeks later.
On 18 October, the English edition, The Whale, was published in a printing of only 500 copies, fewer than Melville's previous books. Their slow sales had convinced Bentley that a smaller number was more realistic. The London Morning Herald on October 20 printed the earliest known review.[66] On 14 November, the American edition, Moby-Dick, was published and the same day reviewed in both the Albany Argus and the Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer. On 19 November, Washington received the copy to be deposited for copyright purposes. The first American printing of 2,915 copies was almost the same as the first of Mardi, but the first printing of Melville's other three Harper books had been a thousand copies more.[67]
Melville's revisions and British editorial revisions[edit]
The English edition, set by Bentley's printers from the American page proofs with Melville's revisions and corrections, differs from the American edition in over 700 wordings and thousands of punctuation and spelling changes.[64]
Excluding the preliminaries and the one extract, the three volumes of the English edition came to 927 pages[68] and the single American volume to 635 pages.[69] Accordingly, the dedication to Hawthorne in the American edition -- "this book is inscribed to"—became "these volumes are inscribed to" in the English.[70] The table of contents in the English edition generally follows the actual chapter titles in the American edition, but nineteen titles in the American table of contents differ from the titles above the chapters themselves. This list was probably drawn up by Melville himself: the titles of chapters describing encounters of the Pequod with other ships had—apparently to stress the parallelisms between these chapters—been standardized to "The Pequod meets the...," with the exception of the already published 'The Town-Ho's Story'.[71] For unknown reasons, the "Etymology" and "Extracts" were moved to the end of the third volume.[72] An epigraph from Paradise Lost, taken from the second of the two quotations from that work in the American edition, appears on the title page of each of the three English volumes. Melville's involvement with this rearrangement is not clear: if it was Bentley's gesture toward accommodating Melville, as Tanselle suggests,[72] its selection put an emphasis on the quotation Melville may not have agreed with.
The largest of Melville's revisions is the addition to the English edition of a 139-word footnote in Chapter 87 explaining the word "gally." The edition also contains six short phrases and some sixty single words lacking in the American edition.[73] In addition, there are about thirty-five changes that produce genuine improvements, as opposed to mere corrections: "Melville may not have made every one of the changes in this category, but it seems certain that he was responsible for the great majority of them."[74]
British censorship and missing "Epilogue"[edit]
One or more British revisers purged the book of any material that might give offense. These expurgations fall into four categories, ranked according to the apparent priorities of the censor:
1.Sacrilegious passages, more than 1200 words. Attributing human failures to God was grounds for excision or revision, as was comparing human shortcomings to divine ones. For example in chapter 28, "Ahab," Ahab stands with "a crucifixion" in his face" was revised to "an apparently eternal anguish;"[75]
2.Sexual matters, including the sex life of whales and even Ishmael's worried anticipation of the nature of Queequeg's underwear, as well as allusions to fornication or harlots, and "our hearts' honeymoon" (in relation to Ishmael and Queequeg)[76] Chapter 95, however "The Cassock," referring to the whale's genital organ, was untouched, perhaps because of Melville's indirect language.
3.Remarks "belittling royalty or implying a criticism of the British." This meant the exclusion of the complete chapter 25, a "Postscript" on the use of sperm oil at coronations;[77]
4.Perceived grammatical or stylistic anomalies were treated with "a highly conservative interpretation of rules of 'correctness'."[78]
These expurgations also meant that any corrections or revisions Melville may have marked upon these passages are now lost.
The final difference in the material not already plated is that the "Epilogue," and thus Ishmael's miraculous survival, is omitted from the British edition. Obviously the epilogue was not an afterthought supplied too late for the English edition, for it is referred to in "The Castaway": "in the sequel of the narrative, it will then be seen what like abandonment befell myself."[79] Why the "Epilogue" is missing is unknown. Since there was nothing objectionable in it, most likely it was somehow lost by Bentley's printer when the "Etymology" and "Extracts" were moved.[80]
Last-minute change of title[edit]
After the sheets had been sent, Melville changed the title. Probably late in September, Allan sent Bentley two pages of proof with a letter of which only a draft survives which informed him that Melville "has determined upon a new title & dedication—Enclosed you have proof of both—It is thought here that the new title will be a better selling title." After expressing his hope that Bentley would receive this change in time, Allan said that "Moby-Dick is a legitimate title for the book, being the name given to a particular whale who if I may so express myself is the hero of the volume."[81] Biographer Hershel Parker suggests that the reason for the change was that Harper's had two years earlier published a book with a similar title, The Whale and His Captors.[82]
Changing the title was not a problem for the American edition, since the running heads throughout the book only showed the titles of the chapters, and the title page, which would include the publisher's name, could not be printed until a publisher was found. In October Harper's New Monthly Magazine printed chapter 54, "The Town-Ho's Story," with a footnote saying: "From The Whale. The title of a new work by Mr. Melville."[81] The one surviving leaf of proof, "a 'trial' page bearing the title 'The Whale' and the Harper imprint,"[83] shows that at this point, after the publisher had been found, the original title still stood. When Allan's letter arrived, no sooner than early October, Bentley had already announced The Whale in both the Athenaem and the Spectator of 4 and 11 October.[84] Probably to accommodate Melville, Bentley inserted a half-title page in the first volume only, which reads "The Whale; or, Moby Dick."[83]
Sales and earnings[edit]
The British printing of 500 copies sold fewer than 300 within the first four months. In 1852, some remaining sheets were bound in a cheaper casing, and in 1853 there were still enough sheets left to issue a cheap edition in one volume. Bentley lost half on Melville's advance of ₤150.[85] Harper's first printing was 2,915 copies, including the standard 125 review copies. The selling price was $1.50, about a fifth of the price of the British three-volume edition.[69] About 1,500 copies were sold within eleven days, and then sales slowed down to less than 300 the next year. After three years the first edition was still available, almost 300 copies of which were lost when a fire broke out at the firm in December 1853. In 1855 a second printing of 250 copies was issued, in 1863 a third of 253 copies, and finally in 1871 a fourth printing of 277 copies, which sold so slowly that no new printing was ordered.[85] Moby-Dick was out of print during the last four years of Melville's life, having sold 2,300 in its first year and a half and on average 27 copies a year for the next 34 years, totaling 3,215 copies.
Melville's earnings from the book add up to $1,260: the ₤150 advance from Bentley was equivalent to $703, and the American printings earned him $556, which was one hundred dollars less than he earned from any of his five previous books.[86] Melville's widow received another $81 when the United States Book Company issued the book and sold almost 1,800 copies between 1892 and 1898.[86]
Reception[edit]
Contemporary[edit]
Melville was acclaimed for his earlier works Typee (1846) and Omoo (1847). He intended Moby-Dick to be his magnum opus, and he was shocked and bewildered at the scathing reviews it received. Instead of bringing literary acclaim, this masterwork started a slide toward literary obscurity. This was partially because the book was first published in England, and the American literary establishment took note of what the English critics said, especially critics who wrote in the more prestigious journals. Many reviews praised Moby-Dick for its unique style, interesting characters, and poetic language,[87] but others agreed with a review in the highly regarded London Athenaeum, which described it as

[A]n ill-compounded mixture of romance and matter-of-fact. The idea of a connected and collected story has obviously visited and abandoned its writer again and again in the course of composition. The style of his tale is in places disfigured by mad (rather than bad) English; and its catastrophe is hastily, weakly, and obscurely managed.[87]
The unfavorable reviews from across the ocean made American readers skittish. Still, a handful of American critics saw value in it. Hawthorne said of the book:

What a book Melville has written! It gives me an idea of much greater power than his preceding ones.[88]
One problem was that since the English edition omitted the epilogue, British reviewers read a book with a first-person narrator who apparently did not survive to tell the tale.[89] The reviewer in the Spectator objected that "nothing should be introduced into a novel which it is physically impossible for the writer to have known: thus, he must not describe the conversation of miners in a pit if they all perish."[90]" The Dublin University Magazine asked "how does it happen that the author is alive to tell the story?" and the Literary Gazette declared that how the writer, "who appears to have been drowned with the rest, communicated his notes for publication to Mr. Bentley is not explained."[90]
It has also been argued the novel was unsuccessful because whaling and maritime adventuring were no longer of topical interest to the American public. The Gold Rush had shifted focus to the West, and lengthy novels with long factual passages about the brutal technology of the whaling industry seemed less relevant to an American audience.[citation needed]
Later reception[edit]
Within a year after Melville's death, Moby-Dick, along with Typee, Omoo, and Mardi, was reprinted by Harper & Brothers, giving it a chance to be rediscovered. However, only New York's literary underground seemed to take much interest, just enough to keep Melville's name circulating for the next 25 years in the capital of American publishing. During this time, a few critics were willing to devote time, space, and a modicum of praise to Melville and his works, or at least those that could still be fairly easily obtained or remembered. Other works, especially the poetry, went largely forgotten.[91]
Then came World War I and its consequences, particularly the shaking or destruction of faith in so many aspects of Western civilization, all of which caused people concerned with culture and its potential redemptive value to experiment with new aesthetic techniques. The stage was set for Melville's legacy to find its place.
With the burgeoning of Modernist aesthetics (see Modernism and American modernism) and the war that tore everything apart still so fresh in memory, Moby-Dick began to seem increasingly relevant. Many of Melville's techniques echo those of Modernism: kaleidoscopic, hybrid in genre and tone, monumentally ambitious in trying to unite so many disparate elements and loose ends.
In 1917, American authorCarl Van Doren became the first of this period to proselytize about Melville's value.[91]
In the 1920s, British literary critics began to take notice. In his idiosyncratic but landmark Studies in Classic American Literature, novelist, poet, and short story writer D. H. Lawrence directed Americans' attention to the great originality and value of many American authors, among them Melville. Perhaps most surprising is that Lawrence saw Moby-Dick as a work of the first order despite his using the original English edition.[91]
In his 1921 study, The American Novel, Carl Van Doren returned to Melville with much more depth. He called Moby-Dick a pinnacle of American Romanticism.[91]
The next great wave of Moby-Dick appraisal came with the publication of F. O. Matthiessen's American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman.[92] Published in 1941, the book proposed that Emerson, Whitman, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Melville were the most prominent figures of a flowering of conflicted (and mostly pre-Civil War) literature important for its promulgation of democracy and the exploration of its possibilities, successes, and failures. Matthiessen's book came out shortly before the entry of the U.S. into World War II; critic Nick Selby argues that

... Moby-Dick was now read as a text that reflected the power struggles of a world concerned to uphold democracy, and of a country seeking an identity for itself within that world.[93]
In 2014 new evidence of the book's standing is scholar Lawrence Buell's study of The Dream of the Great American Novel. Though the author does not indicate a preference for any candidate, the cover illustration of a whale leaves no doubt what book is meant. The Times Literary Supplement review concluded that "it is clear that Moby-Dick is the most likely contender, being a novel that needs 'no defense.'"[94]
Adaptations[edit]
Main article: Adaptations of Moby-Dick
The novel has been adapted or represented in art, film, books, cartoons, television, and more than a dozen versions in comic book format. The first adaptation was the 1926 silent movie, The Sea Beast, starring John Barrymore,[95] in which Ahab kills the whale and returns to marry his fiancée.[96] The most famous adaptation was the John Huston 1956 film produced from a screenplay by author Ray Bradbury.[97] The long list of adaptations, as Bryant and Springer put it, demonstrates that "the iconic image of an angry embittered American slaying a mythic beast seemed to capture the popular imagination," showing how "different readers in different periods of popular culture have rewritten Moby-Dick" to make it a "true cultural icon."[96]
Editions[edit]
Melville, H. The Whale. London: Richard Bentley, 1851 3 vols. (viii, 312; iv, 303; iv, 328 pp.) Published October 18, 1851.
Melville, H., Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1851. xxiii, 635 pages. Published probably on November 14, 1851.
Melville, H. Moby-Dick, or The Whale. Northwestern-Newberry Edition of the Writings of Herman Melville 6. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern U. Press, 1988. A critical text with appendices on the history and reception of the book. The text is in the public domain.
Moby-Dick (Norton Critical Editions), Edited by Hershel Parker and Harrison Hayford. New York: W.W. Norton, 2nd ed. 2002. ISBN 978-0-393-97283-2
Moby-Dick: A Longman Critical Edition, Edited by John Bryant and Haskell Springer. New York: Longman, 2007 and 2009. ISBN 978-0-321-22800-0
Footnotes[edit]

1.Jump up ^ Lawrence (1923), 168
2.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988) "Editorial Appendix," pp. 810-812
3.Jump up ^ Bryant and Springer (2007), xiv
4.^ Jump up to: a b Bryant and Springer (2007), xv
5.Jump up ^ Berthoff (1962), 177
6.^ Jump up to: a b Buell (2014), 365
7.Jump up ^ Milder (1988), 434
8.^ Jump up to: a b Buell (2014), 367
9.^ Jump up to: a b Bryant and Springer (2007), xvi
10.Jump up ^ Bryant and Springer (2007), x
11.Jump up ^ Bezanson (1986), 188
12.Jump up ^ Bezanson (1986), 195
13.Jump up ^ Bezanson (1986), 190
14.^ Jump up to: a b Bezanson (1986), 191
15.^ Jump up to: a b Bryant and Springer (2007), xxii
16.Jump up ^ Ch 3 The Spouter Inn.
17.Jump up ^ Delbanco (2005), 159
18.Jump up ^ Delbanco (2005), 161
19.Jump up ^ Bryant and Springer (2007), xvii
20.^ Jump up to: a b c Lee (2006), 395
21.^ Jump up to: a b Berthoff (1962), 164
22.Jump up ^ Berthoff (1962), 163
23.Jump up ^ Heflin (2004), 16
24.Jump up ^ Heflin (2004), 18
25.Jump up ^ Heflin (2004), 27
26.Jump up ^ Heflin (2004), 29
27.Jump up ^ Heflin (2004), 28
28.Jump up ^ Heflin (2004), 19
29.Jump up ^ Heflin (2004), 26
30.Jump up ^ Heflin (2004), 252 note 26
31.Jump up ^ Heflin (2004), 189
32.Jump up ^ Heflin (2004), 41
33.Jump up ^ Philbrick (2000), p. xii- xv.
34.^ Jump up to: a b c Reynolds, J.N., "Mocha Dick: or the White Whale of the Pacific: A Leaf from a Manuscript Journal," The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine. 13.5, May 1839, pp. 377–392.
35.Jump up ^ Whipple, Addison Beecher Colvin (1954). Yankee whalers in the South Seas. Doubleday. ISBN 0-8048-1057-5., 66–79
36.Jump up ^ Report of the Commissioner By United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, p115
37.Jump up ^ Melville's Reflections, a page from The Life and Works of Herman Melville
38.Jump up ^ Leyda, Jay. The Melville Log: A Documentary Life of Herman Melville, 1819–1891. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1951, 119.
39.Jump up ^ Melville (1988), p. 971-977.
40.Jump up ^ Mary K. Bercaw, "A Fine, Boisterous Something": Nantucket in Moby-Dick, Historic Nantucket, Vol. 39, No. 3 (Fall 1991); Philip Armstrong, What animals mean in the fiction of modernity, Routledge, 2008, p.132
41.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Walter E. Bezanson, "Moby-Dick: Document, Drama, Dream," in John Bryant (ed.), A Companion to Melville Studies, Greenwoord Press, 1986, 176–180.
42.Jump up ^ Melville (1993), 160
43.Jump up ^ Melville (1993), 162
44.^ Jump up to: a b Buell (2014), 364
45.Jump up ^ Bryant and Springer, (2007), ix
46.Jump up ^ Bryant and Springer, (2007), xi
47.Jump up ^ Melville (1993), 163
48.Jump up ^ Miller (1991), 274
49.Jump up ^ Cheever, Susan. (2006). American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau: Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work. Large Print ed. Detroit: Thorndike. 174. ISBN 0-7862-9521-X.
50.Jump up ^ Miller (1991), 312
51.Jump up ^ Springer and Bryant (2007), xi
52.Jump up ^ Melville (1993), 191
53.Jump up ^ Melville (1993), 193
54.Jump up ^ Bryant and Springer (2007), xi
55.Jump up ^ Milder (1977), 215
56.Jump up ^ Bryant (1998), 67
57.Jump up ^ Milder (1977), 208
58.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 660
59.Jump up ^ Cited by Tanselle (1988), 660-661
60.Jump up ^ Bryant (2006), 560
61.^ Jump up to: a b Cited in Tanselle (1988), 663.
62.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 663
63.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 665.
64.^ Jump up to: a b Tanselle (1988), 667
65.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 661
66.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 683–4
67.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 686–7
68.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 685
69.^ Jump up to: a b Tanselle (1988), 687
70.Jump up ^ Cited in Tanselle (1988), 673
71.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 675–676
72.^ Jump up to: a b Tanselle (1988), 678
73.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 772
74.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 789
75.Jump up ^ Cited in Tanselle (1988), 681 (citation), 784.
76.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 682, 784–5.
77.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 682, 785.
78.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 682, 785–7.
79.Jump up ^ Cited in Tanselle (1988), 679
80.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 678–9
81.^ Jump up to: a b Cited in Tanselle (1988), 671
82.Jump up ^ Parker (1996), 863
83.^ Jump up to: a b Cited in Tanselle (1988), 672
84.Jump up ^ Tanselle (1988), 673
85.^ Jump up to: a b Tanselle (1988), 688
86.^ Jump up to: a b Tanselle (1988), 689
87.^ Jump up to: a b "A page from The Life and Works of Herman Melville"
88.Jump up ^ Miller (1991), 354
89.Jump up ^ Parker (1988), 702
90.^ Jump up to: a b Cited in Parker (1988), 708
91.^ Jump up to: a b c d "Chapter 3. Romances of Adventure. Section 2. Herman Melville. Van Doren, Carl. 1921. The American Novel". Bartleby.com. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
92.Jump up ^ Selby, Nick. Herman Melville, Moby-Dick. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. 51–52. Columbia Critical Guides. ISBN 0-231-11538-5
93.Jump up ^ Selby 53
94.Jump up ^ Sarah Graham, "What is the Great American Noivel?" The Times Literary Supplement, 16 July 2014. Retrieved on 2 September 2014
95.Jump up ^ IMDb link
96.^ Jump up to: a b Bryant and Springer (2007), xxiii-xxv.
97.Jump up ^ Moby Dick (1956) at Rotten Tomatoes
References[edit]
Abrams, M.H. (1999). A Glossary of Literary Terms. Seventh Edition. Fort Worth, Texas: Harcourt Brace College Publishers. ISBN 9780155054523
Berthoff, Warner. (1962). The Example of Melville. Reprinted 1972, New York: W.W. Norton.
Bezanson, Walter E. (1986). "Moby-Dick: Document, Drama, Dream." In Bryant 1986.
Bryant, John (ed.). (1986). A Companion to Melville Studies. Greenport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313238741
Bryant, John. (1998). "Moby-Dick as Revolution." In Levine 1998.
Bryant John. (2006). "The Melville Text." In Kelley 2006.
Bryant, John and Haskell Springer. (2007). "Introduction," "Explanatory Notes" and "The Making of Moby-Dick." In John Bryant and Haskell Springer (eds), Herman Melville, Moby-Dick. New York Boston: Pearson Longman (A Longman Critical Edition). ISBN 0321228006.
Buell, Lawrence. (2014).The Dream of the Great American Novel. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674051157
Gale, Robert L. (1972). Plots and Characters in the Fiction and Narrative Poetry of Herman Melville. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: The MIT Press.
Hayford, Harrison. (1988). "Historical Note Section V." In Melville (1988).
Heflin, Wilson. (2004). Herman Melville's Whaling Years. Edited by Mary K. Bercaw Edwards and Thomas Farel Heffernan. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.
Kelley, Wyn (ed.). (2006). A Companion to Herman Melville. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 9781405122313
Lawrence, D.H. (1923). Studies in Classic American Literature. Reprinted London: Penguin Books. ISBN 9780140183771
Lee, Maurice A. (2006). "The Language of Moby-Dick: 'Read It If You Can.'" In Kelley 2006.
Matthiessen, F.O.. (1941). American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman. Tenth Printing, 1966, New York, London and Toronto: Oxford University Press.
Levine, Robert S. (1998). The Cambridge Companion to Herman Melville. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-55571-X
Melville, Herman (1988). Moby-Dick, or, the Whale. The Writings of Herman Melville Volume Six. Edited by Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, and G. Thomas Tanselle. Evanston; Chicago: Northwestern University Press: Newberry Library. ISBN 0810103249.
--- .(1993). Correspondence. The Writings of Herman Melville Volume Fourteen. Edited by Lynn Horth. Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern University Press and The Newberry Library. ISBN 9780810109957
Milder, Robert. (1977). The Composition of Moby-Dick: A Review and a Prospect." ESQ: A Journal of the American Renaissance.
Milder, Robert. (1988). "Herman Melville." In Emory Elliott (General Editor), Columbia Literary History of the United States. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-05812-8
Miller, Edwin Haviland. (1991). Salem Is My Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. ISBN 0-87745-332-2
Parker, Hershel. (1988). "Historical Note Section VII." In Melville (1988).
Parker, Hershel, and Harrison Hayford (eds). (2001). Herman Melville, Moby-Dick. A Norton Critical Edition. Second Edition, New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 9780393972832
Philbrick, Nathaniel (2000). In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. New York: Viking. ISBN 0670891576.
Tanselle, G. Thomas. (1988). "Historical Note Section VI" and "Note on the Text." In Melville (1988).
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Moby Dick.
 Wikiquote has quotations related to: Moby-Dick
 Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Moby-Dick

Moby-Dick at Project Gutenberg
The Big Read at http://www.mobydickbigread.com
"Versions of Moby-Dick" at Melville Electronic Library. Side by side versions of the British and American 1851 first editions, with differences highlighted.
Moby Dick Audiobook in the public domain.


[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Works by Herman Melville





























































































[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851)






































































   


Categories: Moby-Dick
1851 novels
19th-century American novels
Allegory
American novels adapted into films
Fictional undersea characters
Fictional toothed whales
Nantucket, Massachusetts
Nautical lore
Novels by Herman Melville
Novels set on Cape Cod and the Islands
Novels set on ships
Whaling in the United States
Sperm whales
Harper & Brothers books
Novels adapted into plays









Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
العربية
Aragonés
বাংলা
Беларуская
Беларуская (тарашкевіца)‎
Български
Català
Čeština
Dansk
Deutsch
Eesti
Español
Esperanto
Euskara
فارسی
Français
Galego
한국어
Bahasa Indonesia
Italiano
עברית
Basa Jawa
Latina
Latviešu
Lietuvių
Magyar
മലയാളം
მარგალური
Nederlands
日本語
Norsk bokmål
Norsk nynorsk
Occitan
ਪੰਜਾਬੀ
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Shqip
සිංහල
Simple English
Slovenčina
Српски / srpski
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Suomi
Svenska
Tagalog
ไทย
Türkçe
Українська
Tiếng Việt
Winaray
粵語
中文
Edit links
This page was last modified on 29 January 2015, at 19:38.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby-Dick










Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (disambiguation).



[hide]This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page.




##This article needs additional citations for verification.  (March 2010)


Text document with red question mark.svg

##This article uses citations that link to broken or outdated sources.  (September 2013)


Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
20000 title 0a.jpg
Title page of the original illustrated edition

Author
Jules Verne
Original title
Vingt mille lieues sous les mers
Illustrator
Alphonse de Neuville and Édouard Riou
Country
France
Language
French
Series
Voyages Extraordinaires
Genre
Science fiction, adventure novel
Publisher
Pierre-Jules Hetzel

Publication date
 1870
Preceded by
In Search of the Castaways
Followed by
Around the Moon

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (French: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers: Tour du monde sous-marin, literally Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World) is a classic science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne published in 1870. It tells the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus, as seen from the perspective of Professor Pierre Aronnax after he, his servant Conseil, and Canadian whaler Ned Land wash up on their ship. On the Nautilus, the three embark on a journey which has them going all around the world, under the sea.
The novel was originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870 in Pierre-Jules Hetzel's periodical, the Magasin d’Éducation et de Récréation. The deluxe illustrated edition, published by Hetzel in November 1871, included 111 illustrations by Alphonse de Neuville and Édouard Riou.[1] The book was highly acclaimed when released and still is now; it is regarded as one of the premiere adventure novels and one of Verne's greatest works, along with Around the World in Eighty Days and Journey to the Center of the Earth. The description of Nemo's ship, the Nautilus, was considered ahead of its time, as it accurately describes features on submarines, which at the time were very primitive vessels. Thus, the book has been able to age well because of its scientific theories, unlike some other of Verne's works, like Journey to the Center of the Earth, which are not scientifically accurate and serve more simply as adventure novels.


Contents  [hide]
1 Title
2 Plot
3 Themes and subtext
4 Recurring themes in later books
5 English translations
6 Adaptations and variations
7 Comic book and graphic adaptations
8 References in popular culture
9 See also
10 References
11 External links

Title[edit]
The title refers to the distance traveled while under the sea and not to a depth, as 20,000 leagues is over six times the diameter of Earth.[2] The greatest depth mentioned in the book is four leagues. (The book uses metric leagues, which are four kilometres each.[3]) A literal translation of the French title would end in the plural "seas", thus implying the "seven seas" through which the characters of the novel travel; however, the early English translations of the title used "sea", meaning the ocean in general.
Plot[edit]
In the year 1866, ships of several nations spot a mysterious sea monster, which some suggest to be a giant narwhal. The United States government assembles an expedition in New York City to find and destroy the monster. Professor Pierre Aronnax, a French marine biologist and narrator of the story, who happens to be in New York at the time, receives a last-minute invitation to join the expedition which he accepts. Canadian whaler and master harpoonist Ned Land and Aronnax's faithful servant Conseil are also brought aboard.



 Frontispiece (1871)
The expedition departs Brooklyn aboard the United States Navy frigate Abraham Lincoln and travels south around Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean. The ship finds the monster after a long search and then attacks the beast, which damages the ship's rudder. The three protagonists are then hurled into the water and grasp hold of the "hide" of the creature, which they find, to their surprise, to be a submarine very far ahead of its era. They are quickly captured and brought inside the vessel, where they meet its enigmatic creator and commander, Captain Nemo.
The rest of the story follows the adventures of the protagonists aboard the creature—the submarine, the Nautilus—which was built in secrecy and now roams the seas free from any land-based government. Captain Nemo's motivation is implied to be both a scientific thirst for knowledge and a desire for revenge on (and self-imposed exile from) civilization. Nemo explains that his submarine is electrically powered and can perform advanced marine biology research; he also tells his new passengers that although he appreciates conversing with such an expert as Aronnax, maintaining the secrecy of his existence requires never letting them leave. Aronnax is enthralled by the undersea vistas, but Land constantly plans to escape.
They visit many places in the world's oceans, some known to Jules Verne from real travelers' descriptions and speculation, while others are completely fictional. Thus, the travelers witness the real corals of the Red Sea, the wrecks of the battle of Vigo Bay, the Antarctic ice shelves, the Transatlantic telegraph cable and the fictional submerged land of Atlantis. The travelers also use diving suits to hunt sharks and other marine life with air-guns and have an underwater funeral for a crew member who died when an accident occurred under mysterious—and unknown to the reader—conditions inside the Nautilus. When the Nautilus returns to the Atlantic Ocean, a pack of "poulpes" (usually translated as a giant squid, although in French "poulpe" means "octopus") attacks the vessel and kills a crew member.
Throughout the story Captain Nemo is suggested to have exiled himself from the world after an encounter with the forces that occupied his country that had devastating effects on his family. Near the end of the book, the Nautilus is attacked by a warship of that nation. Nemo ignores Aronnax's pleas for mercy. Nemo—nicknamed angel of hatred by Aronnax—attacks the ship, ramming it just below the waterline, sending it to the bottom of the ocean, much to the horror of Aronnax who watches in awe from the saloon glass as the ship plunges to the depths. Nemo bows before the pictures of his wife and children and is plunged into deep depression after this encounter, and "voluntarily or involuntarily" allows the submarine to wander into an encounter with the Moskenstraumen, more commonly known as the "Maelstrom", a whirlpool off the coast of Norway. The three prisoners seize this opportunity to escape. They manage to escape the danger and find refuge on a nearby island off the coast of Norway, but the fate of Nautilus is unknown.
Themes and subtext[edit]



 Nautilus's route through the Pacific


 Nautilus's route through the Atlantic
Captain Nemo's name is a subtle allusion to Homer's Odyssey, a Greek epic poem. In The Odyssey, Odysseus meets the monstrous cyclops Polyphemus during the course of his wanderings. Polyphemus asks Odysseus his name, and Odysseus replies that his name is "Utis" (ουτις), which translates as "No-man" or "No-body". In the Latin translation of the Odyssey, this pseudonym is rendered as "Nemo", which in Latin also translates as "No-man" or "No-body". Similarly to Nemo, Odysseus must wander the seas in exile (though only for 10 years) and is tormented by the deaths of his ship's crew.
Jules Verne several times mentions Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury, "Captain Maury" in Verne's book, a real-life oceanographer who explored the winds, seas, currents, and collected samples of the bottom of the seas and charted all of these things. Verne would have known of Matthew Maury's international fame and perhaps Maury's French ancestry.
References are made to other such Frenchmen as Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse, a famous explorer who was lost while circumnavigating the globe; Dumont D'Urville, the explorer who found the remains of Lapérouse's ship; and Ferdinand Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal and the nephew of the sole survivor of Lapérouse's expedition. The Nautilus seems to follow the footsteps of these men: she visits the waters where Lapérouse was lost; she sails to Antarctic waters and becomes stranded there, just like D'Urville's ship, the Astrolabe; and she passes through an underwater tunnel from the Red Sea into the Mediterranean.
The most famous part of the novel, the battle against a school of giant cuttlefish, begins when a crewman opens the hatch of the boat and gets caught by one of the monsters. As the tentacle that has grabbed him pulls him away, he yells "Help!" in French. At the beginning of the next chapter, concerning the battle, Aronnax states, "To convey such sights, one would take the pen of our most famous poet, Victor Hugo, author of The Toilers of the Sea." The Toilers of the Sea also contains an episode where a worker fights a giant octopus, wherein the octopus symbolizes the Industrial Revolution. It is probable that Verne borrowed the symbol, but used it to allude to the Revolutions of 1848 as well, in that the first man to stand against the "monster" and the first to be defeated by it is a Frenchman.
In several parts of the book, Captain Nemo is depicted as a champion of the world's underdogs and downtrodden. In one passage, Captain Nemo is mentioned as providing some help to Greeks rebelling against Ottoman rule during the Cretan Revolt of 1866–1869, proving to Arronax that he had not completely severed all relations with mankind outside the Nautilus after all. In another passage, Nemo takes pity on a poor Indian pearl diver who must do his diving without the sophisticated diving suit available to the submarine's crew, and who is doomed to die young due to the cumulative effect of diving on his lungs. Nemo approaches him underwater and gives him a whole pouch full of pearls, more than he could have acquired in years of his dangerous work. Nemo remarks that the diver as an inhabitant of British Colonial India, "is an inhabitant of an oppressed country".



 Model of the 1863 French Navy submarine Plongeur at the Musée de la Marine, Paris.


 The Nautilus as imagined by Jules Verne.
Verne took the name "Nautilus" from one of the earliest successful submarines, built in 1800 by Robert Fulton, who later invented the first commercially successful steamboat. Fulton's submarine was named after the paper nautilus because it had a sail. Three years before writing his novel, Jules Verne also studied a model of the newly developed French Navy submarine Plongeur at the 1867 Exposition Universelle, which inspired him for his definition of the Nautilus.[4]
The breathing apparatus used by Nautilus divers is depicted as an untethered version of underwater breathing apparatus designed by Benoit Rouquayrol and Auguste Denayrouze in 1865. They designed a diving set with a backpack spherical air tank that supplied air through the first known demand regulator.[5][6] The diver still walked on the seabed and did not swim.[5] This set was called an aérophore (Greek for "air-carrier"). Air pressure tanks made with the technology of the time could only hold 30 atmospheres, and the diver had to be surface supplied; the tank was for bailout.[5] The durations of 6 to 8 hours on a tankful without external supply recorded for the Rouquayrol set in the book are greatly exaggerated.
No less significant, though more rarely commented on, is the very bold political vision (indeed, revolutionary for its time) represented by the character of Captain Nemo. As revealed in the later Verne book The Mysterious Island, Captain Nemo is a descendant of Tipu Sultan, a Muslim ruler of Mysore who resisted the expansionism of the British East India Company. Nemo took to the underwater life after the suppression of the Indian Mutiny of 1857, in which his close family members were killed by the British. This change was made at the request of Verne's publisher, Pierre-Jules Hetzel, who is known to be responsible for many serious changes in Verne's books. In the original text the mysterious captain was a Polish nobleman, avenging his family who were killed by the Russians in retaliation for the captain's taking part in the Polish January Uprising of 1863. As France was at the time allied with the Russian Empire, the target for Nemo's wrath was changed to France's old enemy, the British Empire, to avoid political trouble. It is no wonder that Professor Pierre Aronnax does not suspect Nemo's origins, as these were explained only later, in Verne's next book. What remained in the book from the initial concept is a portrait of Tadeusz Kościuszko, a Polish national hero, leader of the uprising against Russia in 1794, with an inscription in Latin: "Finis Poloniae!" ("The end of Poland!").
The national origin of Captain Nemo was changed again in most movie realizations; in nearly all picture-based works following the book Nemo was made into a European. However, he was represented as an Indian by Omar Sharif in the 1973 European miniseries The Mysterious Island. Nemo is also depicted as Indian in a silent film version of the story released in 1916 and later in both the graphic novel and the movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. In Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), a live-action Technicolor film version of the novel, Captain Nemo is a European, bitter because his wife and son were tortured to death by those in power in the fictional prison camp of Rura Penthe, in an effort to get Nemo to reveal his scientific secrets. This is Nemo's motivation for sinking warships in the film. He is played in this version by the British actor James Mason, with an English accent. No mention is made of any Indians in the film.
Margaret Drabble argues that Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea anticipated the ecology movement and shaped the French avant-garde.[7]
Recurring themes in later books[edit]
Jules Verne wrote a sequel to this book: L'Île mystérieuse (The Mysterious Island, 1874), which concludes the stories begun by Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and In Search of the Castaways. While The Mysterious Island seems to give more information about Nemo (or Prince Dakkar), it is muddied by the presence of several irreconcilable chronological contradictions between the two books and even within The Mysterious Island.
Verne returned to the theme of an outlaw submarine captain in his much later Facing the Flag. That book's main villain, Ker Karraje, is a completely unscrupulous pirate acting purely and simply for gain, completely devoid of all the saving graces which gave Nemo—for all that he, too, was capable of ruthless killings—some nobility of character.
Like Nemo, Ker Karraje plays "host" to unwilling French guests—but unlike Nemo, who manages to elude all pursuers, Karraje's career of outlawry is decisively ended by the combination of an international task force and the rebellion of his French captives. Though also widely published and translated, it never attained the lasting popularity of Twenty Thousand Leagues.
More similar to the original Nemo, though with a less finely worked-out character, is Robur in Robur the Conqueror—a dark and flamboyant outlaw rebel using an aircraft instead of a submarine—later used as a basis for the movie Master of the World.
English translations[edit]
The novel was first translated into English in 1873 by Reverend Lewis Page Mercier (aka "Mercier Lewis"). Mercier cut nearly a quarter of Verne's original text and made hundreds of translation errors, sometimes dramatically changing the meaning of Verne's original intent (including uniformly mistranslating French scaphandre (properly "diving apparatus") as "cork-jacket", following a long-obsolete meaning as "a type of lifejacket"). Some of these bowdlerizations may have been done for political reasons, such as Nemo's identity and the nationality of the two warships he sinks, or the portraits of freedom fighters on the wall of his cabin which originally included Daniel O'Connell.[8] Nonetheless, it became the standard English translation for more than a hundred years, while other translations continued to draw from it and its mistakes (especially the mistranslation of the title; the French title actually means Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas).
In the Argyle Press/Hurst and Company 1892 Arlington Edition, the translation and editing mistakes attributed to Mercier are missing. Scaphandre is correctly translated as "diving apparatus" and not as "cork jackets". Although the book cover gives the title as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, the title page titles the book Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas; Or, The Marvelous and Exciting Adventures of Pierre Arronax, Conseil His Servant, and Ned Land a Canadian Harpooner.
A modern translation was produced in 1966 by Walter James Miller and published by Washington Square Press.[9] Many of Mercier's changes were addressed in the translator's preface, and most of Verne's text was restored.
In the 1960s, Anthony Bonner published a translation of the novel for Bantam Classics. A specially written introduction by Ray Bradbury, comparing Captain Nemo and Captain Ahab of Moby Dick, was also included.
Many of Mercier's errors were again corrected in a from-the-ground-up re-examination of the sources and an entirely new translation by Walter James Miller and Frederick Paul Walter, published in 1993 by Naval Institute Press in a "completely restored and annotated edition."[10] It was based on Walter's own 1991 public-domain translation, which is available from a number of sources, notably a recent edition with the title Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas (ISBN 978-1-904808-28-2). In 2010 Walter released a fully revised, newly researched translation with the title 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas—part of an omnibus of five of his Verne translations titled Amazing Journeys: Five Visionary Classics and published by State University of New York Press.
In 1998 William Butcher issued a new, annotated translation from the French original, published by Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-953927-8, with the title Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas. He includes detailed notes, an extensive bibliography, appendices and a wide-ranging introduction studying the novel from a literary perspective. In particular, his original research on the two manuscripts studies the radical changes to the plot and to the character of Nemo forced on Verne by the first publisher, Jules Hetzel.
One or more of these recent English translations uses the word "frogman" uniformly and wrongly to mean a diver in standard diving dress or similar, to translate French scaphandrier.
Adaptations and variations[edit]



 The Nautilus as envisioned in the 1954 Walt Disney film.##"Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Seas" (1873) – book – Edition of James R. Osgood & Company, published by George M. Smith & Company, Boston Massachusetts, includes one hundred and ten illustrations.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1874) – musical – libretto Joseph Bradford – music G. Operti.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (20,000 lieues sous les mers) (1907) – The silent short movie by French filmmaker Georges Méliès.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916) – The first feature film (also silent) based on the novel. The actor/director Allan Holubar played Captain Nemo.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1952) – A two-part adaptation for the science fiction television anthology Tales of Tomorrow. (Part One was subtitled The Chase, Part Two was subtitled The Escape.)
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) – Probably the most well-known film adaptation of the book, directed by Richard Fleischer, produced by Walt Disney, and starring Kirk Douglas as Ned Land and James Mason as Captain Nemo.
##Captain Nemo and the Underwater City (1969) – A British film based on characters from the novel, starring Robert Ryan as Captain Nemo.
##Captain Nemo (Капитан Немо) (1975) – A Soviet film adaptation.
##The Undersea Adventures of Captain Nemo (1975) – A futuristic version of Captain Nemo and the Nautilus appeared in this Canadian animated television series.
##The Return of Captain Nemo (1978), sometimes known as The Amazing Captain Nemo, starred Jose Ferrer in the title role.
##The Black Hole (1979) – A very loose science fiction variation on the novel. Maximilian Schell's mad captain character is a more murderous, and considerably less sympathetic version of Captain Nemo. His hair, moustache and beard resemble those of James Mason from the 1954 film.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1985) – A made-for-television animated film by Burbank Films Australia starring Tom Burlinson as Ned Land.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1997, Village Roadshow) – A made-for-television film starring Michael Caine as Captain Nemo.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1997, Hallmark) – A made-for-television film starring Ben Cross as Captain Nemo.
##Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1998) - an audiobook published by Blackstone Audiobooks, with the unabridged text read by Frederick Davidson.
##Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (1990–1991) and Nadia: The Secret of Fuzzy (1992) – A Japanese science fiction anime TV series and film directed by Hideaki Anno, and inspired by the book and exploits of Captain Nemo.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (2001) – A radio drama adaption of Jules Verne's novel aired in the United States.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (2002) – A DIC (now owned by Cookie Jar) children's animated television film loosely based on the novel. It premiered on television on Nickelodeon Sunday Movie Toons and was released on DVD and VHS shortly afterward by MGM Home Entertainment.
##A stage play adaptation by Walk the Plank (2003). In this version, the "Nautilese" private language used by the Nautilus's crew was kept, represented by a mixture of Polish and Persian.
##The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) – Although not a film version of the Verne novel (it is based on the comic book of the same name by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill), it does feature Captain Nemo (and his submarine the Nautilus) as a member of the 'League' of 19th century superheroes.
##Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (2006). A stage play adaptation by Ade Morris for the Watermill Theatre, Bagnor, England. This version was for six actors and used physical theatre to help tell the story, which emphasised parallels in Verne's original with contemporary world events.
##30,000 Leagues Under the Sea (2007) – A modern update on the classic book starring Lorenzo Lamas as Lt. Aronnaux and Sean Lawlor as the misanthropic Captain Nemo.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (2009) – A hidden object game on iPad, iPhone and MAC published by Anuman Interactive.[11]
Comic book and graphic adaptations[edit]
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea has been adapted into comic book format numerous times.
##In 1948, Gilberton Publishing published a comic adaptation in issue #47 of their Classics Illustrated series.[12] It was reprinted in 1955;[13] 1968;[14] 1978, this time by King Features Syndicate as issue #8 of their King Classics series; and again in 1997, this later time by Acclaim/Valiant. Art by was Henry C. Kiefer.
##In 1954, the newspaper strip Walt Disney's Treasury Of Classic Tales published a comic based on the 1954 film, which ran from August 1-December 26, 1954. This was translated into many languages worldwide. Adaptation was by Frank Reilly, with art by Jesse Marsh.
##In 1955, Dell Comics published a comic based on the 1954 film in issue #614 of their Four Color anthology series called Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.[15] This was reprinted by Hjemmet in Norway in 1955 & 1976, by Gold Key in 1963, and in 1977 was serialized in several issues of Western's The New Micky Mouse Club Funbook, beginning with issue #11190. Art was by Frank Thorne.
##In 1963, in conjunction with the first nationwide re-release of the film, Gold Key published a comic based on the 1954 film called Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.[16] This reprinted the Frank Thorne version.
##In 1963, Gold Key published Walt Disney's World Of Adventure, which featured The Adventures Of Captain Nemo, a prequel to the Disney film. Story & art were by Dan Spiegle, who eventually did 6 episodes of the series between 1963-1972.
##In 1972, IPC in England published Donald And Mickey. The first 12 issues featured The Adventures Of Captain Nemo, with art by Sam Fair.
##In 1973, Vince Fago's Pendulum Press published a hardcover illustrated book.[17] This collected a new version which had been previously serialized in Weekly Reader magazine. Adaptation was by Otto Binder, with art by Romy Gaboa & Ernie Patricio. This was reprinted in 1976 by Marvel Comics in issue #4 of their Marvel Classics Comics series; in 1984 by Academic Industries, Inc. as issue #C12 of their Classics Illustrated paperback book series; in 1990 again by Pendulum Press, with a new painted cover; and again, using the same cover, in 2010 by Saddleback Publishing, Inc., this time in color.
##In 1974, Power Records published a comic and record set, PR-42.[18] Art was by Rich Buckler & Dick Giordano.
##In 1975, Look And Learn Ltd. in England published an adaptation of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea as 11 chapters in issues 707-717 of their Look And Learn magazine. This version was reprinted in late 1980 by Fleetway in their Lion Annual 1981.
##In 1976, Marvel Comics published a comic book adaptation via issue #4 of their Marvel Classics Comics line.[19] This was a reprint of the Pendulum Press version.
##In 1990, Pendulum Press published another comic based on the novel via issue #4 of their Illustrated Stories line.[20] This was a reprint of the Pendulum Press version, with a new painted cover.
##In 1992, Dark Horse Comics published a one shot comic called Dark Horse Classics.[21] This was originally announced as part of the Berkeley/First Comics Classics Illustrated series, as a full-color "prestige format" book, but was delayed when the company went bankrupt. The Dark Horse version was scaled back to a standard comic-book format with B&W interiors. It was reprinted in 2001 by Hieronymous Press as a limited-edition of 50 copies available only from the artist's website, and more recently, in 2008 from Flesk Publications as an expensive full-color book, as originally intended. Adaptation & art by Gary Gianni.
##In 1997, Acclaim/Valiant published CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED #8.[22] This was a reprint of the 1948 Gilberton version with a new cover.
##In 2001, Hieronymus Press published a reprint of the Dark Horse Comics version, with a new cover, as a limited-edition of 50 copies, available only from Gary Ginanni's website.
##In 2008, Sterling Graphics published a pop-up graphic book.[23]
##In 2008, Capstone Publishers / Stone Arch Books published a graphic novel called Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under The Sea. The adaptation was by Carl Bowen, the cartoon-style art by Jose Alfonso Ocampo Ruiz, and the coloring by Benny Fuentes.
##In 2009, Flesk Publications published a graphic novel called Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under The Sea.[24] This was a reprint, in color for the first time, of the Gary Gianni version.
##In 2010, Saddleback Publishing, Inc. published a new reprint of the Pendulum Press version, this time in color, and reusing the 1990 cover painting.
##In 2010, Campfire Classics, a company in India, published a new version. Adaptation was by Dan Rafter, with art by Bhupendra Ahluwalia.
##In 2011, Campfire Classic published a trade paperback.[25]
References in popular culture[edit]


 This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2009)
##The novel The Neverending Story by Michael Ende, and its film adaptations, uses Nemo's battle with the giant squid as an example of the unforgettable and immersive nature of great stories.
##An episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, entitled "20,000 Koopas Under the Sea", borrows many elements from the original story (including a submarine named the "Koopilus" and King Koopa referring to himself as "Koopa Nemo").
##In a 1989 episode "20,000 Leaks Under the City" of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series is heavily based on Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, including a battle with a giant squid. This story takes place in New York City of the 1980s where a flood caused by Krang using a Super Pump has occurred.[26]
##A SpongeBob SquarePants episode is called "20,000 Patties Under the Sea". It is a parody of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and of the traveling song "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall".
##In the 2006 "The Evil Beneath" segment of "The Evil Beneath/Carl Wheezer, Boy Genius" season 3 double episode from the Nicktoons children's CG animated series The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius references are made to similar characters and environments: Dr. Sydney Orville Moist, a paranoid dance-crazy genius scientist (parodying Captain Nemo) who lives in a hidden underwater headquarters (stationary Nautilus) at the bottom of fictional Bahama Quadrangle, takes revenge against humanity by transforming unsuspecting tourists like Jimmy, Carl and Sheen into zombie-like algae men (the Nautilus crew).[27]
##In the 1990 sci-fi comedy film, Back to the Future Part III, Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) states that Jules Verne is his favourite author and adores Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. At the end of the film, Dr. Brown introduces his two sons, named Jules and Verne respectively.
##A 1994 Saturday Night Live sketch (featuring Kelsey Grammer as Captain Nemo) pokes fun at the misconception of leagues being a measure of depth instead of a measure of distance. Nemo tries repeatedly, though unsuccessfully, to convince his crew of this.
##One of the inaugural rides at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom was called 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Submarine Voyage and was based on the Disney movie.
##In the novel and movie Sphere, Harry Adams (played by Samuel L. Jackson) reads (and is very interested in) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
##Captain Nemo is one of the main characters in Alan Moore's and Kevin O'Neill's graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, as well as in the film.
##In the 2001 Clive Cussler novel Valhalla Rising, reference to a submarine that "inspired" Verne's story is made as one of the central plot points; it differs in having been British, with Verne being accused of being anti-British.
##Nemo and the Nautilus, along with several other plot points, are major elements of Kevin J. Anderson's Captain Nemo: The Fantastic History of a Dark Genius.
##The early-2000s novel series called the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica depicts Captain Nemo in a "world within a world". In this version, Nemo is the captain of the sentient ship Yellow Dragon (stated to be the in-universe origin of the Nautilus) and therefore a prominent figure in the series. Jules Verne's character is said to be fiction based on him.
##Mentioned in Into the Wild as one of Chris McCandless' inspirations, before his trek into the Alaskan interior.
##The Nautilus is said to be based on a civil war era ship in the novel, Leviathan by David Lynn Golemon.
##An episode of the English dubbed TV series of Digimon is entitled "20,000 Digi-Leagues Under the Sea" (though the actual episode synopsis is completely unrelated).
##One of Mortadelo y Filemón's long stories is called "20,000 leguas de viaje sibilino" (20,000 leagues of sibylline travel), in which they have to go from Madrid to Lugo via Kenya, India, China and the United States without using public transport.
##On Xbox Kinect, there is a game called 20,000 Leaks where the player uses themselves to plug holes in a glass box under water.
##An achievement in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is called "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and is awarded after completing a quests in the Vashj'ir zone which include travelling in a submarine, being attacked by a giant squid and ultimately trying to stop the Naga from overthrowing Neptulon. There is also a submarine built by the goblins that is remarkably similar to Disney's 1954 portrayal of the Nautilus, piloted by Captain "Jewels" Verne. The submarine has appropriately been dubbed "The Verne" (after Jules Verne).
##On February 8, 2011 the Google homepage featured an interactive logo adapted from "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" honoring Jules Verne's 183rd birthday.[28]
##The novel, "I, Nemo" by J. Dharma & Deanna Windham is a re-imagining of Captain Nemo's origins told from his point of view. This book ends where "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea" begins and is the first in a three part series.
See also[edit]

Portal icon Novels portal
##Leyden bullet (Leyden ball)
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Dehs, Volker; Jean-Michel Margot, Zvi Har’El, "The Complete Jules Verne Bibliography: I. Voyages Extraordinaires", Jules Verne Collection (Zvi Har’El), retrieved 6 September 2012
2.Jump up ^ [1]
3.Jump up ^ Part 2, Chapter 7 "Accordingly, our speed was 25 miles (that is, twelve four–kilometer leagues) per hour. Needless to say, Ned Land had to give up his escape plans, much to his distress. Swept along would have been like jumping off a train racing at this speed, a rash move if there ever was one."
4.Jump up ^ Notice at the Musée de la Marine, Rochefort
5.^ Jump up to: a b c Davis, RH (1955). Deep Diving and Submarine Operations (6th ed.). Tolworth, Surbiton, Surrey: Siebe Gorman & Company Ltd. p. 693.
6.Jump up ^ Acott, C. (1999). "A brief history of diving and decompression illness.". South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society Journal 29 (2). ISSN 0813-1988. OCLC 16986801. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
7.Jump up ^ Margaret Drabble (8 May 2014). "Submarine dreams: Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas". New Statesman. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
8.Jump up ^ "How Lewis Mercier and Eleanor King brought you Jules Verne". Ibiblio.org. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
9.Jump up ^ Jules Verne (author), Walter James Miller (trans). Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Washington Square Press, 1966. Standard book number 671-46557-0; Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 65-25245.
10.Jump up ^ Jules Verne (author), Walter James Miller (trans), Frederick Paul Walter (trans). Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: A Completely Restored and Annotated Edition, Naval Institute Press, 1993. ISBN 1-55750-877-1
11.Jump up ^ http://mzonestudio.com/wp/gallery-item/20000-lieues-sous-les-mers/
12.Jump up ^ "GCD :: Cover :: Classics Illustrated #47 [O]". Comics.org. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
13.Jump up ^ "GCD :: Cover :: Classics Illustrated #47 [HRN128]". Comics.org. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
14.Jump up ^ "GCD :: Cover :: Classics Illustrated #47 [HRN166]". Comics.org. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
15.Jump up ^ http://www.comicbookdb.com/graphics/comic_graphics/1/384/193573_20100305100800_large.jpg
16.Jump up ^ "GCD :: Cover :: Walt Disney 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea [Movie Comics] #[nn]". Comics.org. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
17.Jump up ^ http://www.comicbookdb.com/graphics/comic_graphics/1/184/92146_20070501085647_large.jpg
18.Jump up ^ http://www.comicbookdb.com/graphics/comic_graphics/1/444/221727_20110316150602_large.jpg
19.Jump up ^ "GCD :: Cover :: Marvel Classics Comics #4". Comics.org. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
20.Jump up ^ http://www.comicbookdb.com/graphics/comic_graphics/1/260/128942_20080516121657_large.jpg
21.Jump up ^ "GCD :: Cover :: Dark Horse Classics: 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea #1". Comics.org. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
22.Jump up ^ [2][dead link]
23.Jump up ^ [3][dead link]
24.Jump up ^ [4][dead link]
25.Jump up ^ [5][dead link]
26.Jump up ^ Ninjaturtles - 20,000 Leaks Under the City[dead link]
27.Jump up ^ Nickelodeon. "Jimmy Neutron: "The Evil Beneath/Carl Wheezer, Boy Genius"". Nicktoons. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
28.Jump up ^ "Jules Verne's 183rd Birthday". Google. Retrieved 2012-02-09.
External links[edit]
 Wikisource has original text related to this article:
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

 French Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Vingt mille lieues sous les mers

 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
##Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas, full text of the Oxford University Press edition and translation by Verne scholar, William Butcher (with an introduction, notes and appendices)
##Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, p.d. trans. by F. P. Walter prepared in 1991.
##20,000 Leagues under the Sea at Project Gutenberg, obsolete translation by Lewis Mercier, 1872
##(French) Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, audio version Speaker Icon.svg
##Map the trajectory of Nautilus
##Manuscripts of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea in gallica.bnf.fr
##Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea – Original French version


[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea







































[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Works by Jules Verne




[show] 
Voyages Extraordinaires



















































































[show] 
Other works










































































[show] 
Characters and universe



























Bibliography ·
 Wikipedia book Book:Jules Verne ·
 Category Category:Jules Verne ·
 Portal Portal:Literature
 



[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Piracy



















































































































































































































































































































































[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island
















































  


Categories: 1870 novels
Novels by Jules Verne
1870s science fiction novels
19th-century French novels
Submarines in fiction
Pirate books
Atlantis in fiction
Novels set in Norway
Novels set in New York City
Novels set in Greece
Novels set in Spain
Novels set in Japan
Novels set in India
1860s in fiction
French novels adapted into films
French science fiction novels
Nautical fiction
Adventure novels
















Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
Ænglisc
العربية
Azərbaycanca
Bân-lâm-gú
Български
Català
Čeština
Dansk
Deutsch
Eesti
Ελληνικά
Español
Esperanto
Euskara
فارسی
Français
Galego
한국어
Հայերեն
Hrvatski
Bahasa Indonesia
Íslenska
Italiano
עברית
Magyar
Македонски
Монгол
Nederlands
日本語
Norsk bokmål
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Simple English
Slovenčina
Slovenščina
Српски / srpski
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Suomi
Svenska
Tagalog
ไทย
Türkçe
Українська
Tiếng Việt
中文
Edit links
This page was last modified on 23 January 2015, at 12:33.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty_Thousand_Leagues_Under_the_Sea














Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (disambiguation).



[hide]This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page.




##This article needs additional citations for verification.  (March 2010)


Text document with red question mark.svg

##This article uses citations that link to broken or outdated sources.  (September 2013)


Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
20000 title 0a.jpg
Title page of the original illustrated edition

Author
Jules Verne
Original title
Vingt mille lieues sous les mers
Illustrator
Alphonse de Neuville and Édouard Riou
Country
France
Language
French
Series
Voyages Extraordinaires
Genre
Science fiction, adventure novel
Publisher
Pierre-Jules Hetzel

Publication date
 1870
Preceded by
In Search of the Castaways
Followed by
Around the Moon

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (French: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers: Tour du monde sous-marin, literally Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World) is a classic science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne published in 1870. It tells the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus, as seen from the perspective of Professor Pierre Aronnax after he, his servant Conseil, and Canadian whaler Ned Land wash up on their ship. On the Nautilus, the three embark on a journey which has them going all around the world, under the sea.
The novel was originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870 in Pierre-Jules Hetzel's periodical, the Magasin d’Éducation et de Récréation. The deluxe illustrated edition, published by Hetzel in November 1871, included 111 illustrations by Alphonse de Neuville and Édouard Riou.[1] The book was highly acclaimed when released and still is now; it is regarded as one of the premiere adventure novels and one of Verne's greatest works, along with Around the World in Eighty Days and Journey to the Center of the Earth. The description of Nemo's ship, the Nautilus, was considered ahead of its time, as it accurately describes features on submarines, which at the time were very primitive vessels. Thus, the book has been able to age well because of its scientific theories, unlike some other of Verne's works, like Journey to the Center of the Earth, which are not scientifically accurate and serve more simply as adventure novels.


Contents  [hide]
1 Title
2 Plot
3 Themes and subtext
4 Recurring themes in later books
5 English translations
6 Adaptations and variations
7 Comic book and graphic adaptations
8 References in popular culture
9 See also
10 References
11 External links

Title[edit]
The title refers to the distance traveled while under the sea and not to a depth, as 20,000 leagues is over six times the diameter of Earth.[2] The greatest depth mentioned in the book is four leagues. (The book uses metric leagues, which are four kilometres each.[3]) A literal translation of the French title would end in the plural "seas", thus implying the "seven seas" through which the characters of the novel travel; however, the early English translations of the title used "sea", meaning the ocean in general.
Plot[edit]
In the year 1866, ships of several nations spot a mysterious sea monster, which some suggest to be a giant narwhal. The United States government assembles an expedition in New York City to find and destroy the monster. Professor Pierre Aronnax, a French marine biologist and narrator of the story, who happens to be in New York at the time, receives a last-minute invitation to join the expedition which he accepts. Canadian whaler and master harpoonist Ned Land and Aronnax's faithful servant Conseil are also brought aboard.



 Frontispiece (1871)
The expedition departs Brooklyn aboard the United States Navy frigate Abraham Lincoln and travels south around Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean. The ship finds the monster after a long search and then attacks the beast, which damages the ship's rudder. The three protagonists are then hurled into the water and grasp hold of the "hide" of the creature, which they find, to their surprise, to be a submarine very far ahead of its era. They are quickly captured and brought inside the vessel, where they meet its enigmatic creator and commander, Captain Nemo.
The rest of the story follows the adventures of the protagonists aboard the creature—the submarine, the Nautilus—which was built in secrecy and now roams the seas free from any land-based government. Captain Nemo's motivation is implied to be both a scientific thirst for knowledge and a desire for revenge on (and self-imposed exile from) civilization. Nemo explains that his submarine is electrically powered and can perform advanced marine biology research; he also tells his new passengers that although he appreciates conversing with such an expert as Aronnax, maintaining the secrecy of his existence requires never letting them leave. Aronnax is enthralled by the undersea vistas, but Land constantly plans to escape.
They visit many places in the world's oceans, some known to Jules Verne from real travelers' descriptions and speculation, while others are completely fictional. Thus, the travelers witness the real corals of the Red Sea, the wrecks of the battle of Vigo Bay, the Antarctic ice shelves, the Transatlantic telegraph cable and the fictional submerged land of Atlantis. The travelers also use diving suits to hunt sharks and other marine life with air-guns and have an underwater funeral for a crew member who died when an accident occurred under mysterious—and unknown to the reader—conditions inside the Nautilus. When the Nautilus returns to the Atlantic Ocean, a pack of "poulpes" (usually translated as a giant squid, although in French "poulpe" means "octopus") attacks the vessel and kills a crew member.
Throughout the story Captain Nemo is suggested to have exiled himself from the world after an encounter with the forces that occupied his country that had devastating effects on his family. Near the end of the book, the Nautilus is attacked by a warship of that nation. Nemo ignores Aronnax's pleas for mercy. Nemo—nicknamed angel of hatred by Aronnax—attacks the ship, ramming it just below the waterline, sending it to the bottom of the ocean, much to the horror of Aronnax who watches in awe from the saloon glass as the ship plunges to the depths. Nemo bows before the pictures of his wife and children and is plunged into deep depression after this encounter, and "voluntarily or involuntarily" allows the submarine to wander into an encounter with the Moskenstraumen, more commonly known as the "Maelstrom", a whirlpool off the coast of Norway. The three prisoners seize this opportunity to escape. They manage to escape the danger and find refuge on a nearby island off the coast of Norway, but the fate of Nautilus is unknown.
Themes and subtext[edit]



 Nautilus's route through the Pacific


 Nautilus's route through the Atlantic
Captain Nemo's name is a subtle allusion to Homer's Odyssey, a Greek epic poem. In The Odyssey, Odysseus meets the monstrous cyclops Polyphemus during the course of his wanderings. Polyphemus asks Odysseus his name, and Odysseus replies that his name is "Utis" (ουτις), which translates as "No-man" or "No-body". In the Latin translation of the Odyssey, this pseudonym is rendered as "Nemo", which in Latin also translates as "No-man" or "No-body". Similarly to Nemo, Odysseus must wander the seas in exile (though only for 10 years) and is tormented by the deaths of his ship's crew.
Jules Verne several times mentions Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury, "Captain Maury" in Verne's book, a real-life oceanographer who explored the winds, seas, currents, and collected samples of the bottom of the seas and charted all of these things. Verne would have known of Matthew Maury's international fame and perhaps Maury's French ancestry.
References are made to other such Frenchmen as Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse, a famous explorer who was lost while circumnavigating the globe; Dumont D'Urville, the explorer who found the remains of Lapérouse's ship; and Ferdinand Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal and the nephew of the sole survivor of Lapérouse's expedition. The Nautilus seems to follow the footsteps of these men: she visits the waters where Lapérouse was lost; she sails to Antarctic waters and becomes stranded there, just like D'Urville's ship, the Astrolabe; and she passes through an underwater tunnel from the Red Sea into the Mediterranean.
The most famous part of the novel, the battle against a school of giant cuttlefish, begins when a crewman opens the hatch of the boat and gets caught by one of the monsters. As the tentacle that has grabbed him pulls him away, he yells "Help!" in French. At the beginning of the next chapter, concerning the battle, Aronnax states, "To convey such sights, one would take the pen of our most famous poet, Victor Hugo, author of The Toilers of the Sea." The Toilers of the Sea also contains an episode where a worker fights a giant octopus, wherein the octopus symbolizes the Industrial Revolution. It is probable that Verne borrowed the symbol, but used it to allude to the Revolutions of 1848 as well, in that the first man to stand against the "monster" and the first to be defeated by it is a Frenchman.
In several parts of the book, Captain Nemo is depicted as a champion of the world's underdogs and downtrodden. In one passage, Captain Nemo is mentioned as providing some help to Greeks rebelling against Ottoman rule during the Cretan Revolt of 1866–1869, proving to Arronax that he had not completely severed all relations with mankind outside the Nautilus after all. In another passage, Nemo takes pity on a poor Indian pearl diver who must do his diving without the sophisticated diving suit available to the submarine's crew, and who is doomed to die young due to the cumulative effect of diving on his lungs. Nemo approaches him underwater and gives him a whole pouch full of pearls, more than he could have acquired in years of his dangerous work. Nemo remarks that the diver as an inhabitant of British Colonial India, "is an inhabitant of an oppressed country".



 Model of the 1863 French Navy submarine Plongeur at the Musée de la Marine, Paris.


 The Nautilus as imagined by Jules Verne.
Verne took the name "Nautilus" from one of the earliest successful submarines, built in 1800 by Robert Fulton, who later invented the first commercially successful steamboat. Fulton's submarine was named after the paper nautilus because it had a sail. Three years before writing his novel, Jules Verne also studied a model of the newly developed French Navy submarine Plongeur at the 1867 Exposition Universelle, which inspired him for his definition of the Nautilus.[4]
The breathing apparatus used by Nautilus divers is depicted as an untethered version of underwater breathing apparatus designed by Benoit Rouquayrol and Auguste Denayrouze in 1865. They designed a diving set with a backpack spherical air tank that supplied air through the first known demand regulator.[5][6] The diver still walked on the seabed and did not swim.[5] This set was called an aérophore (Greek for "air-carrier"). Air pressure tanks made with the technology of the time could only hold 30 atmospheres, and the diver had to be surface supplied; the tank was for bailout.[5] The durations of 6 to 8 hours on a tankful without external supply recorded for the Rouquayrol set in the book are greatly exaggerated.
No less significant, though more rarely commented on, is the very bold political vision (indeed, revolutionary for its time) represented by the character of Captain Nemo. As revealed in the later Verne book The Mysterious Island, Captain Nemo is a descendant of Tipu Sultan, a Muslim ruler of Mysore who resisted the expansionism of the British East India Company. Nemo took to the underwater life after the suppression of the Indian Mutiny of 1857, in which his close family members were killed by the British. This change was made at the request of Verne's publisher, Pierre-Jules Hetzel, who is known to be responsible for many serious changes in Verne's books. In the original text the mysterious captain was a Polish nobleman, avenging his family who were killed by the Russians in retaliation for the captain's taking part in the Polish January Uprising of 1863. As France was at the time allied with the Russian Empire, the target for Nemo's wrath was changed to France's old enemy, the British Empire, to avoid political trouble. It is no wonder that Professor Pierre Aronnax does not suspect Nemo's origins, as these were explained only later, in Verne's next book. What remained in the book from the initial concept is a portrait of Tadeusz Kościuszko, a Polish national hero, leader of the uprising against Russia in 1794, with an inscription in Latin: "Finis Poloniae!" ("The end of Poland!").
The national origin of Captain Nemo was changed again in most movie realizations; in nearly all picture-based works following the book Nemo was made into a European. However, he was represented as an Indian by Omar Sharif in the 1973 European miniseries The Mysterious Island. Nemo is also depicted as Indian in a silent film version of the story released in 1916 and later in both the graphic novel and the movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. In Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), a live-action Technicolor film version of the novel, Captain Nemo is a European, bitter because his wife and son were tortured to death by those in power in the fictional prison camp of Rura Penthe, in an effort to get Nemo to reveal his scientific secrets. This is Nemo's motivation for sinking warships in the film. He is played in this version by the British actor James Mason, with an English accent. No mention is made of any Indians in the film.
Margaret Drabble argues that Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea anticipated the ecology movement and shaped the French avant-garde.[7]
Recurring themes in later books[edit]
Jules Verne wrote a sequel to this book: L'Île mystérieuse (The Mysterious Island, 1874), which concludes the stories begun by Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and In Search of the Castaways. While The Mysterious Island seems to give more information about Nemo (or Prince Dakkar), it is muddied by the presence of several irreconcilable chronological contradictions between the two books and even within The Mysterious Island.
Verne returned to the theme of an outlaw submarine captain in his much later Facing the Flag. That book's main villain, Ker Karraje, is a completely unscrupulous pirate acting purely and simply for gain, completely devoid of all the saving graces which gave Nemo—for all that he, too, was capable of ruthless killings—some nobility of character.
Like Nemo, Ker Karraje plays "host" to unwilling French guests—but unlike Nemo, who manages to elude all pursuers, Karraje's career of outlawry is decisively ended by the combination of an international task force and the rebellion of his French captives. Though also widely published and translated, it never attained the lasting popularity of Twenty Thousand Leagues.
More similar to the original Nemo, though with a less finely worked-out character, is Robur in Robur the Conqueror—a dark and flamboyant outlaw rebel using an aircraft instead of a submarine—later used as a basis for the movie Master of the World.
English translations[edit]
The novel was first translated into English in 1873 by Reverend Lewis Page Mercier (aka "Mercier Lewis"). Mercier cut nearly a quarter of Verne's original text and made hundreds of translation errors, sometimes dramatically changing the meaning of Verne's original intent (including uniformly mistranslating French scaphandre (properly "diving apparatus") as "cork-jacket", following a long-obsolete meaning as "a type of lifejacket"). Some of these bowdlerizations may have been done for political reasons, such as Nemo's identity and the nationality of the two warships he sinks, or the portraits of freedom fighters on the wall of his cabin which originally included Daniel O'Connell.[8] Nonetheless, it became the standard English translation for more than a hundred years, while other translations continued to draw from it and its mistakes (especially the mistranslation of the title; the French title actually means Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas).
In the Argyle Press/Hurst and Company 1892 Arlington Edition, the translation and editing mistakes attributed to Mercier are missing. Scaphandre is correctly translated as "diving apparatus" and not as "cork jackets". Although the book cover gives the title as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, the title page titles the book Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas; Or, The Marvelous and Exciting Adventures of Pierre Arronax, Conseil His Servant, and Ned Land a Canadian Harpooner.
A modern translation was produced in 1966 by Walter James Miller and published by Washington Square Press.[9] Many of Mercier's changes were addressed in the translator's preface, and most of Verne's text was restored.
In the 1960s, Anthony Bonner published a translation of the novel for Bantam Classics. A specially written introduction by Ray Bradbury, comparing Captain Nemo and Captain Ahab of Moby Dick, was also included.
Many of Mercier's errors were again corrected in a from-the-ground-up re-examination of the sources and an entirely new translation by Walter James Miller and Frederick Paul Walter, published in 1993 by Naval Institute Press in a "completely restored and annotated edition."[10] It was based on Walter's own 1991 public-domain translation, which is available from a number of sources, notably a recent edition with the title Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas (ISBN 978-1-904808-28-2). In 2010 Walter released a fully revised, newly researched translation with the title 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas—part of an omnibus of five of his Verne translations titled Amazing Journeys: Five Visionary Classics and published by State University of New York Press.
In 1998 William Butcher issued a new, annotated translation from the French original, published by Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-953927-8, with the title Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas. He includes detailed notes, an extensive bibliography, appendices and a wide-ranging introduction studying the novel from a literary perspective. In particular, his original research on the two manuscripts studies the radical changes to the plot and to the character of Nemo forced on Verne by the first publisher, Jules Hetzel.
One or more of these recent English translations uses the word "frogman" uniformly and wrongly to mean a diver in standard diving dress or similar, to translate French scaphandrier.
Adaptations and variations[edit]



 The Nautilus as envisioned in the 1954 Walt Disney film.##"Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Seas" (1873) – book – Edition of James R. Osgood & Company, published by George M. Smith & Company, Boston Massachusetts, includes one hundred and ten illustrations.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1874) – musical – libretto Joseph Bradford – music G. Operti.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (20,000 lieues sous les mers) (1907) – The silent short movie by French filmmaker Georges Méliès.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916) – The first feature film (also silent) based on the novel. The actor/director Allan Holubar played Captain Nemo.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1952) – A two-part adaptation for the science fiction television anthology Tales of Tomorrow. (Part One was subtitled The Chase, Part Two was subtitled The Escape.)
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) – Probably the most well-known film adaptation of the book, directed by Richard Fleischer, produced by Walt Disney, and starring Kirk Douglas as Ned Land and James Mason as Captain Nemo.
##Captain Nemo and the Underwater City (1969) – A British film based on characters from the novel, starring Robert Ryan as Captain Nemo.
##Captain Nemo (Капитан Немо) (1975) – A Soviet film adaptation.
##The Undersea Adventures of Captain Nemo (1975) – A futuristic version of Captain Nemo and the Nautilus appeared in this Canadian animated television series.
##The Return of Captain Nemo (1978), sometimes known as The Amazing Captain Nemo, starred Jose Ferrer in the title role.
##The Black Hole (1979) – A very loose science fiction variation on the novel. Maximilian Schell's mad captain character is a more murderous, and considerably less sympathetic version of Captain Nemo. His hair, moustache and beard resemble those of James Mason from the 1954 film.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1985) – A made-for-television animated film by Burbank Films Australia starring Tom Burlinson as Ned Land.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1997, Village Roadshow) – A made-for-television film starring Michael Caine as Captain Nemo.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1997, Hallmark) – A made-for-television film starring Ben Cross as Captain Nemo.
##Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1998) - an audiobook published by Blackstone Audiobooks, with the unabridged text read by Frederick Davidson.
##Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (1990–1991) and Nadia: The Secret of Fuzzy (1992) – A Japanese science fiction anime TV series and film directed by Hideaki Anno, and inspired by the book and exploits of Captain Nemo.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (2001) – A radio drama adaption of Jules Verne's novel aired in the United States.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (2002) – A DIC (now owned by Cookie Jar) children's animated television film loosely based on the novel. It premiered on television on Nickelodeon Sunday Movie Toons and was released on DVD and VHS shortly afterward by MGM Home Entertainment.
##A stage play adaptation by Walk the Plank (2003). In this version, the "Nautilese" private language used by the Nautilus's crew was kept, represented by a mixture of Polish and Persian.
##The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) – Although not a film version of the Verne novel (it is based on the comic book of the same name by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill), it does feature Captain Nemo (and his submarine the Nautilus) as a member of the 'League' of 19th century superheroes.
##Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (2006). A stage play adaptation by Ade Morris for the Watermill Theatre, Bagnor, England. This version was for six actors and used physical theatre to help tell the story, which emphasised parallels in Verne's original with contemporary world events.
##30,000 Leagues Under the Sea (2007) – A modern update on the classic book starring Lorenzo Lamas as Lt. Aronnaux and Sean Lawlor as the misanthropic Captain Nemo.
##20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (2009) – A hidden object game on iPad, iPhone and MAC published by Anuman Interactive.[11]
Comic book and graphic adaptations[edit]
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea has been adapted into comic book format numerous times.
##In 1948, Gilberton Publishing published a comic adaptation in issue #47 of their Classics Illustrated series.[12] It was reprinted in 1955;[13] 1968;[14] 1978, this time by King Features Syndicate as issue #8 of their King Classics series; and again in 1997, this later time by Acclaim/Valiant. Art by was Henry C. Kiefer.
##In 1954, the newspaper strip Walt Disney's Treasury Of Classic Tales published a comic based on the 1954 film, which ran from August 1-December 26, 1954. This was translated into many languages worldwide. Adaptation was by Frank Reilly, with art by Jesse Marsh.
##In 1955, Dell Comics published a comic based on the 1954 film in issue #614 of their Four Color anthology series called Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.[15] This was reprinted by Hjemmet in Norway in 1955 & 1976, by Gold Key in 1963, and in 1977 was serialized in several issues of Western's The New Micky Mouse Club Funbook, beginning with issue #11190. Art was by Frank Thorne.
##In 1963, in conjunction with the first nationwide re-release of the film, Gold Key published a comic based on the 1954 film called Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.[16] This reprinted the Frank Thorne version.
##In 1963, Gold Key published Walt Disney's World Of Adventure, which featured The Adventures Of Captain Nemo, a prequel to the Disney film. Story & art were by Dan Spiegle, who eventually did 6 episodes of the series between 1963-1972.
##In 1972, IPC in England published Donald And Mickey. The first 12 issues featured The Adventures Of Captain Nemo, with art by Sam Fair.
##In 1973, Vince Fago's Pendulum Press published a hardcover illustrated book.[17] This collected a new version which had been previously serialized in Weekly Reader magazine. Adaptation was by Otto Binder, with art by Romy Gaboa & Ernie Patricio. This was reprinted in 1976 by Marvel Comics in issue #4 of their Marvel Classics Comics series; in 1984 by Academic Industries, Inc. as issue #C12 of their Classics Illustrated paperback book series; in 1990 again by Pendulum Press, with a new painted cover; and again, using the same cover, in 2010 by Saddleback Publishing, Inc., this time in color.
##In 1974, Power Records published a comic and record set, PR-42.[18] Art was by Rich Buckler & Dick Giordano.
##In 1975, Look And Learn Ltd. in England published an adaptation of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea as 11 chapters in issues 707-717 of their Look And Learn magazine. This version was reprinted in late 1980 by Fleetway in their Lion Annual 1981.
##In 1976, Marvel Comics published a comic book adaptation via issue #4 of their Marvel Classics Comics line.[19] This was a reprint of the Pendulum Press version.
##In 1990, Pendulum Press published another comic based on the novel via issue #4 of their Illustrated Stories line.[20] This was a reprint of the Pendulum Press version, with a new painted cover.
##In 1992, Dark Horse Comics published a one shot comic called Dark Horse Classics.[21] This was originally announced as part of the Berkeley/First Comics Classics Illustrated series, as a full-color "prestige format" book, but was delayed when the company went bankrupt. The Dark Horse version was scaled back to a standard comic-book format with B&W interiors. It was reprinted in 2001 by Hieronymous Press as a limited-edition of 50 copies available only from the artist's website, and more recently, in 2008 from Flesk Publications as an expensive full-color book, as originally intended. Adaptation & art by Gary Gianni.
##In 1997, Acclaim/Valiant published CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED #8.[22] This was a reprint of the 1948 Gilberton version with a new cover.
##In 2001, Hieronymus Press published a reprint of the Dark Horse Comics version, with a new cover, as a limited-edition of 50 copies, available only from Gary Ginanni's website.
##In 2008, Sterling Graphics published a pop-up graphic book.[23]
##In 2008, Capstone Publishers / Stone Arch Books published a graphic novel called Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under The Sea. The adaptation was by Carl Bowen, the cartoon-style art by Jose Alfonso Ocampo Ruiz, and the coloring by Benny Fuentes.
##In 2009, Flesk Publications published a graphic novel called Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under The Sea.[24] This was a reprint, in color for the first time, of the Gary Gianni version.
##In 2010, Saddleback Publishing, Inc. published a new reprint of the Pendulum Press version, this time in color, and reusing the 1990 cover painting.
##In 2010, Campfire Classics, a company in India, published a new version. Adaptation was by Dan Rafter, with art by Bhupendra Ahluwalia.
##In 2011, Campfire Classic published a trade paperback.[25]
References in popular culture[edit]


 This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2009)
##The novel The Neverending Story by Michael Ende, and its film adaptations, uses Nemo's battle with the giant squid as an example of the unforgettable and immersive nature of great stories.
##An episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, entitled "20,000 Koopas Under the Sea", borrows many elements from the original story (including a submarine named the "Koopilus" and King Koopa referring to himself as "Koopa Nemo").
##In a 1989 episode "20,000 Leaks Under the City" of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series is heavily based on Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, including a battle with a giant squid. This story takes place in New York City of the 1980s where a flood caused by Krang using a Super Pump has occurred.[26]
##A SpongeBob SquarePants episode is called "20,000 Patties Under the Sea". It is a parody of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and of the traveling song "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall".
##In the 2006 "The Evil Beneath" segment of "The Evil Beneath/Carl Wheezer, Boy Genius" season 3 double episode from the Nicktoons children's CG animated series The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius references are made to similar characters and environments: Dr. Sydney Orville Moist, a paranoid dance-crazy genius scientist (parodying Captain Nemo) who lives in a hidden underwater headquarters (stationary Nautilus) at the bottom of fictional Bahama Quadrangle, takes revenge against humanity by transforming unsuspecting tourists like Jimmy, Carl and Sheen into zombie-like algae men (the Nautilus crew).[27]
##In the 1990 sci-fi comedy film, Back to the Future Part III, Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) states that Jules Verne is his favourite author and adores Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. At the end of the film, Dr. Brown introduces his two sons, named Jules and Verne respectively.
##A 1994 Saturday Night Live sketch (featuring Kelsey Grammer as Captain Nemo) pokes fun at the misconception of leagues being a measure of depth instead of a measure of distance. Nemo tries repeatedly, though unsuccessfully, to convince his crew of this.
##One of the inaugural rides at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom was called 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Submarine Voyage and was based on the Disney movie.
##In the novel and movie Sphere, Harry Adams (played by Samuel L. Jackson) reads (and is very interested in) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
##Captain Nemo is one of the main characters in Alan Moore's and Kevin O'Neill's graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, as well as in the film.
##In the 2001 Clive Cussler novel Valhalla Rising, reference to a submarine that "inspired" Verne's story is made as one of the central plot points; it differs in having been British, with Verne being accused of being anti-British.
##Nemo and the Nautilus, along with several other plot points, are major elements of Kevin J. Anderson's Captain Nemo: The Fantastic History of a Dark Genius.
##The early-2000s novel series called the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica depicts Captain Nemo in a "world within a world". In this version, Nemo is the captain of the sentient ship Yellow Dragon (stated to be the in-universe origin of the Nautilus) and therefore a prominent figure in the series. Jules Verne's character is said to be fiction based on him.
##Mentioned in Into the Wild as one of Chris McCandless' inspirations, before his trek into the Alaskan interior.
##The Nautilus is said to be based on a civil war era ship in the novel, Leviathan by David Lynn Golemon.
##An episode of the English dubbed TV series of Digimon is entitled "20,000 Digi-Leagues Under the Sea" (though the actual episode synopsis is completely unrelated).
##One of Mortadelo y Filemón's long stories is called "20,000 leguas de viaje sibilino" (20,000 leagues of sibylline travel), in which they have to go from Madrid to Lugo via Kenya, India, China and the United States without using public transport.
##On Xbox Kinect, there is a game called 20,000 Leaks where the player uses themselves to plug holes in a glass box under water.
##An achievement in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is called "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and is awarded after completing a quests in the Vashj'ir zone which include travelling in a submarine, being attacked by a giant squid and ultimately trying to stop the Naga from overthrowing Neptulon. There is also a submarine built by the goblins that is remarkably similar to Disney's 1954 portrayal of the Nautilus, piloted by Captain "Jewels" Verne. The submarine has appropriately been dubbed "The Verne" (after Jules Verne).
##On February 8, 2011 the Google homepage featured an interactive logo adapted from "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" honoring Jules Verne's 183rd birthday.[28]
##The novel, "I, Nemo" by J. Dharma & Deanna Windham is a re-imagining of Captain Nemo's origins told from his point of view. This book ends where "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea" begins and is the first in a three part series.
See also[edit]

Portal icon Novels portal
##Leyden bullet (Leyden ball)
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Dehs, Volker; Jean-Michel Margot, Zvi Har’El, "The Complete Jules Verne Bibliography: I. Voyages Extraordinaires", Jules Verne Collection (Zvi Har’El), retrieved 6 September 2012
2.Jump up ^ [1]
3.Jump up ^ Part 2, Chapter 7 "Accordingly, our speed was 25 miles (that is, twelve four–kilometer leagues) per hour. Needless to say, Ned Land had to give up his escape plans, much to his distress. Swept along would have been like jumping off a train racing at this speed, a rash move if there ever was one."
4.Jump up ^ Notice at the Musée de la Marine, Rochefort
5.^ Jump up to: a b c Davis, RH (1955). Deep Diving and Submarine Operations (6th ed.). Tolworth, Surbiton, Surrey: Siebe Gorman & Company Ltd. p. 693.
6.Jump up ^ Acott, C. (1999). "A brief history of diving and decompression illness.". South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society Journal 29 (2). ISSN 0813-1988. OCLC 16986801. Retrieved 2009-03-17.
7.Jump up ^ Margaret Drabble (8 May 2014). "Submarine dreams: Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas". New Statesman. Retrieved May 9, 2014.
8.Jump up ^ "How Lewis Mercier and Eleanor King brought you Jules Verne". Ibiblio.org. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
9.Jump up ^ Jules Verne (author), Walter James Miller (trans). Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Washington Square Press, 1966. Standard book number 671-46557-0; Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 65-25245.
10.Jump up ^ Jules Verne (author), Walter James Miller (trans), Frederick Paul Walter (trans). Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: A Completely Restored and Annotated Edition, Naval Institute Press, 1993. ISBN 1-55750-877-1
11.Jump up ^ http://mzonestudio.com/wp/gallery-item/20000-lieues-sous-les-mers/
12.Jump up ^ "GCD :: Cover :: Classics Illustrated #47 [O]". Comics.org. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
13.Jump up ^ "GCD :: Cover :: Classics Illustrated #47 [HRN128]". Comics.org. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
14.Jump up ^ "GCD :: Cover :: Classics Illustrated #47 [HRN166]". Comics.org. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
15.Jump up ^ http://www.comicbookdb.com/graphics/comic_graphics/1/384/193573_20100305100800_large.jpg
16.Jump up ^ "GCD :: Cover :: Walt Disney 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea [Movie Comics] #[nn]". Comics.org. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
17.Jump up ^ http://www.comicbookdb.com/graphics/comic_graphics/1/184/92146_20070501085647_large.jpg
18.Jump up ^ http://www.comicbookdb.com/graphics/comic_graphics/1/444/221727_20110316150602_large.jpg
19.Jump up ^ "GCD :: Cover :: Marvel Classics Comics #4". Comics.org. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
20.Jump up ^ http://www.comicbookdb.com/graphics/comic_graphics/1/260/128942_20080516121657_large.jpg
21.Jump up ^ "GCD :: Cover :: Dark Horse Classics: 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea #1". Comics.org. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
22.Jump up ^ [2][dead link]
23.Jump up ^ [3][dead link]
24.Jump up ^ [4][dead link]
25.Jump up ^ [5][dead link]
26.Jump up ^ Ninjaturtles - 20,000 Leaks Under the City[dead link]
27.Jump up ^ Nickelodeon. "Jimmy Neutron: "The Evil Beneath/Carl Wheezer, Boy Genius"". Nicktoons. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
28.Jump up ^ "Jules Verne's 183rd Birthday". Google. Retrieved 2012-02-09.
External links[edit]
 Wikisource has original text related to this article:
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

 French Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Vingt mille lieues sous les mers

 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
##Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas, full text of the Oxford University Press edition and translation by Verne scholar, William Butcher (with an introduction, notes and appendices)
##Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, p.d. trans. by F. P. Walter prepared in 1991.
##20,000 Leagues under the Sea at Project Gutenberg, obsolete translation by Lewis Mercier, 1872
##(French) Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, audio version Speaker Icon.svg
##Map the trajectory of Nautilus
##Manuscripts of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea in gallica.bnf.fr
##Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea – Original French version


[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea







































[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Works by Jules Verne




[show] 
Voyages Extraordinaires



















































































[show] 
Other works










































































[show] 
Characters and universe



























Bibliography ·
 Wikipedia book Book:Jules Verne ·
 Category Category:Jules Verne ·
 Portal Portal:Literature
 



[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Piracy



















































































































































































































































































































































[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island
















































  


Categories: 1870 novels
Novels by Jules Verne
1870s science fiction novels
19th-century French novels
Submarines in fiction
Pirate books
Atlantis in fiction
Novels set in Norway
Novels set in New York City
Novels set in Greece
Novels set in Spain
Novels set in Japan
Novels set in India
1860s in fiction
French novels adapted into films
French science fiction novels
Nautical fiction
Adventure novels
















Navigation menu



Create account
Log in



Article

Talk









Read

Edit

View history

















Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages
Ænglisc
العربية
Azərbaycanca
Bân-lâm-gú
Български
Català
Čeština
Dansk
Deutsch
Eesti
Ελληνικά
Español
Esperanto
Euskara
فارسی
Français
Galego
한국어
Հայերեն
Hrvatski
Bahasa Indonesia
Íslenska
Italiano
עברית
Magyar
Македонски
Монгол
Nederlands
日本語
Norsk bokmål
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Simple English
Slovenčina
Slovenščina
Српски / srpski
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Suomi
Svenska
Tagalog
ไทย
Türkçe
Українська
Tiếng Việt
中文
Edit links
This page was last modified on 23 January 2015, at 12:33.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view
Wikimedia Foundation
Powered by MediaWiki
 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty_Thousand_Leagues_Under_the_Sea