The young sailor Ishmael befriends a tattooed Polynesian harpooner named Queequeg, and finds himself aboard the Pequod, which is captained by the obsessive Captain Ahab. Not long after the voyage has begun, Ahab tells the crew about his secret plot to hunt down the whale that crippled him on a previous voyage, Moby Dick. The crew of the Pequod are also after as much sperm oil as their ship can carry, and the account of the crew’s years-long pursuit of the White Whale is interspersed with detailed and encyclopaedic descriptions of a whaler’s life. Melville unites narrative virtuosity with a lifetime of sailing experience in perhaps the single most important classic of American literature.


以實瑪利是名年輕的水手，他與全身佈滿紋身、波利尼西亞籍的鏢槍手奎奎格一見如故。以實瑪利登上了斐龐德號，而船長是一心只想著報復的亞哈。出航後，亞哈船長很快地宣布，他誓死要獵殺上次航行中害他失去一條腿的大白鯨──莫比‧迪克，斐龐德號的水手們也希望能汲取更多船身能夠負荷的鯨油量。船員多年追捕白鯨的艱辛歷程，以及捕鯨船上的點點滴滴，讓本書成為捕鯨人的百科全書。梅爾維爾運用精湛的敘事技巧撰寫自身的航海經驗，使《白鯨記》成為美國最重要的經典文學作品。