This classic of American and World Literature was ignored in its own time. Herman Melville was a true visionary that not only saw through the industrial capitalist enterprise in America in its development but forewarned about its ecological consequences. The book is not only a sea yarn but it’s bursting with symbolism–that looks beyond actual circumstances and context to their eschatological meanings. This is a book that deserves a new reading for every generation, and with change being so fast and speeding up every day, more than once a generation! We will be using the Third Norton Critical Edition of 2017, edited by Hershel Parker, ISBN 9780393285000 paperback, which has all 135 short chapters in 391 pages of text.
