Moby-Dick

Herman Melville · 1851 CE · Novel · Modern / American · Victorian

Ishmael signs onto a Nantucket whaler and discovers that its captain has turned a commercial voyage into a hunt for the white whale that took his leg. Between chases the book stops to catalogue whales, rope, oil and the color white. Obsession hunted across an indifferent ocean; the monster as a mirror for the self.

Open Moby-Dick in the archive — filters, lineage graph and full facet browsing.

Lineage

• influenced by ↑ The Scarlet Letter
  Nathaniel Hawthorne · 1850 CE · Novel
• ↑ The Book of Jonah
  Hebrew scripture · c. 450 BCE · Scripture — prefigures this
• ↓ Housekeeping
  Marilynne Robinson · 1980 CE · Novel — influenced by this
• ↓ The Old Man and the Sea
  Ernest Hemingway · 1952 CE · Novel — parallels this
• ↓ The Searchers
  John Ford · 1956 CE · Film — parallels this
• ↓ Jaws
  Steven Spielberg · 1975 CE · Film — alludes to this
• ↓ Blood Meridian
  Cormac McCarthy · 1985 CE · Novel — influenced by this
• ↓ Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
  Nicholas Meyer · 1982 CE · Film — alludes to this

Attributes

Closest analogues

• The Epic of Gilgamesh
  Anonymous · c. 2100 BCE · Poem

  46% · 12 shared
  EpicTragedyAmbition & HubrisNature vs CivilizationVoyage and ReturnCall to AdventureRoad of TrialsThe SeaThe Beastvs Naturevs Fate / GodsEpic
• The Lusiads
  Luís de Camões · 1572 CE · Poem

  40% · 11 shared
  EpicAdventureNature vs CivilizationVoyage and ReturnCall to AdventureCrossing the ThresholdRoad of TrialsThe Seavs Naturevs Fate / GodsEpic
• The Old Man and the Sea
  Ernest Hemingway · 1952 CE · Novel

  38% · 11 shared
  NovelAdventureTragedyAmbition & HubrisNature vs CivilizationEverymanThe SeaThe Beastvs Naturevs SelfModern / American
• The Saga of the Volsungs
  Anonymous · c. 1270 CE · Myth / Legend

  38% · 10 shared
  EpicTragedyJustice & RevengeFreedom vs FateTragic ReversalOvercoming the MonsterThe Beastvs Fate / GodsEpicTragic
• Jaws
  Steven Spielberg · 1975 CE · Film

  36% · 9 shared
  AdventureNature vs CivilizationObsessionEverymanOvercoming the MonsterThe SeaThe Beastvs NatureModern / American
• Toilers of the Sea
  Victor Hugo · 1866 CE · Novel

  35% · 12 shared
  NovelAdventureTragedyNature vs CivilizationVictorianOvercoming the MonsterThe SeaThe Beastvs Naturevs SelfEpicTragic