
Adventure & Exploration · Free digital edition
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville – Read Free with Audio and AI Reading Support
By Herman Melville · 1851
Ishmael joins Captain Ahab’s whaling voyage and witnesses an obsession vast enough to consume a ship and everyone aboard.
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Published in 1851, Moby-Dick follows Ishmael, a sailor who joins the whaling ship commanded by the driven and single-minded Captain Ahab. What begins as a voyage becomes a study in obsession, as Ahab's pursuit of a great whale pulls every person aboard toward an uncertain fate. Herman Melville's novel moves between the practical world of nineteenth-century whaling and something far harder to name — a reckoning with nature, will, and consequence. If you are drawn to sea voyages, morally complex characters, or fiction that asks large questions without easy answers, this edition is free to open right now, with no account or checkout required.
- Free to read and listen online with no account, login, or checkout required
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Source: Project Gutenberg illustrated HTML edition. Not restricted by U.S. copyright law; readers outside the United States should check their local laws.
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From the opening pages
Begin reading
“Call me Ishmael.”
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