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The Forum: Herman Melville: Moby Dick

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Sperm Whale - Martin Camms/Getty Images (Getty Creative premium Access download)

10/03/2018 GMT

Herman Melville: Moby Dick

BBC World Service - The Forum, Herman Melville: Moby Dick

The 19th Century epic novel on a vengeful sailor’s battle with the great ‘white whale’

Herman Melville’s epic 19th Century novel on a Captain Ahab’s battle with the great ‘white whale’

Moby Dick is the story of a crazed and vengeful sailor, Captain Ahab, hunting a giant whale that bit off his leg. It's a large and challenging book and its author, Herman Melville died without knowing how influential or revered it would become. Although it failed to impress when it first came out in 1851, it’s now hailed as a ‘great American novel’, one of the towering achievements of American literature. With Bridget Kendall to explore the book and its author, Professor Jamie Jones from the University of Illinois, Emily Ogden from the University of Virginia and poet and academic from Lancaster University in the UK,  Paul Farley. 

Photo: Sperm Whale (Martin Camms/Getty Images)

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