Research Catalog

Title

Ahab's rolling sea : a natural history of Moby-Dick / Richard J. King.

Author

King, Richard J.

Publication

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2019.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

430 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps (some color); 24 cm

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, albatrosses, 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 climbs to the crow's nest, setting Melville at the very start of the Industrial Revolution and just before the publication of On the Origin of Species. He 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 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 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."--

Alternative Title

Natural history of Moby-Dick

Subject

• Melville, Herman, 1819-1891
• Melville, Herman, 1819-1891 > Criticism and interpretation
• Moby Dick (Melville, Herman)
• 1800-1899
• 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
• Sea stories, American > History and criticism
• Sea stories, American
• American literature

Genre/Form

• Literary criticism.
• Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-413) and index.

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.

Call Number

JFE 20-1661

ISBN

• 022651496X
• 9780226514963

LCCN

2019018442

OCLC

1089890354

Author

King, Richard J., author.

Title

Ahab's rolling sea : a natural history of Moby-Dick / Richard J. King.

Publisher

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2019.

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-413) and index.

Chronological Term

1800-1899

Other Form:

ebook version : 9780226515014

Research Call Number

JFE 20-1661