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Ahab's rolling sea : a natural history of Moby-Dick / Richard J. King.
LIBRA PS2384.M62 K56 2019
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- King, Richard J., author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Melville, Herman, 1819-1891. Moby Dick.
- Melville, Herman.
- Melville, Herman, 1819-1891--Criticism and interpretation.
- Melville, Herman, 1819-1891.
- Moby Dick (Melville, Herman).
- Sea in literature.
- Nature in literature.
- Seafaring life in literature.
- Whaling in literature.
- Whales in literature.
- Human-animal relationships in literature.
- Environmentalism in literature.
- American literature--19th century--History and criticism.
- American literature.
- Sea stories, American--History and criticism.
- Sea stories, American.
- Criticism and interpretation.
- Genre:
- Literary criticism.
- Physical Description:
- 430 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps (some color) ; 24 cm
- Other Title:
- Natural history of Moby-Dick
- Place of Publication:
- Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2019.
- Summary:
- A revelation for Moby-Dick devotees and neophytes alike, Ahab's Rolling Sea is a chronological journey through the natural history of Melville's novel. From white whales to whale intelligence, giant squids, barnacles, albatross, and sharks, Richard J. King examines what Melville knew from his own experiences and the sources available to a reader in the mid-1800s, exploring how and why Melville might have twisted what was known to serve his fiction. King then climbs to the crow's nest, setting Melville in the context of the American perception of the ocean in 1851--at the very start of the Industrial Revolution and just before the publication of On the Origin of Species. King compares Ahab's and Ishmael's worldviews to how we see the ocean today: an expanse still immortal and sublime, but also in crisis. And although the concept of stewardship of the sea would have been entirely foreign, if not absurd, to Melville, King argues that Melville's narrator Ishmael reveals his own tendencies toward what we would now call environmentalism. Featuring a coffer of illustrations and an array of interviews with contemporary scientists, fishers, and whale watch operators, Ahab's Rolling Sea offers new insight not only into a cherished masterwork and its author but also into our evolving relationship with the briny deep--from whale hunters to climate refugees. -- Publisher's description.
- Contents:
- 1. Herman Melville: Whaleman, Author, Natural Philosopher
- 2. Numerous Fish Documents
- 3. Cetology and Evolution
- 4. White Whales and Natural Theology
- 5. Whale Migration
- 6. Wind
- 7. Gulls, Sea-Ravens, and Albatrosses
- 8. Small Harmless Fish
- 9. Phosphorescence
- 10. Sword-Fish and Lively Grounds
- 11. Brit and Baleen
- 12. Giant Squid
- 13. Sharks
- 14. Fresh Fare
- 15. Barnacles and Sea Candies
- 16. Practical Cetology: Spout, Senses, and the Dissection of Heads
- 17. Whale and Human Intelligence
- 18. Ambergris
- 19. Coral Insects
- 20. Grandissimus
- 21. Whale Skeletons and Fossils
- 22. Does the Whale Diminish?
- 23. Mother Carey's Chickens
- 24. Typhoons and Corpusants
- 25. Navigation
- 26. Seals
- 27. The Feminine Air
- 28. Noiseless Nautilus
- 29. Sperm Whale Behavior
- 30. Sky-Hawk
- 31. Ishmael: Blue Environmentalist and Climate Refugee.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 365-413) and index.
- Other Format:
- ebook version :
- ISBN:
- 022651496X
- 9780226514963
- OCLC:
- 1089890354
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