Moby Dick

Ismael, un joven con experiencia en la marina mercante, decide que su siguiente viaje será en un ballenero. De igual forma se convence de que su travesía debe comenzar en Nantucket, Massachusetts, y antes de alcanzar el origen de su aventura, entabla una estrecha amistad con el experimentado arponero polinesio Queequeg, con quien acuerda compartir la empresa.
Ambos se enrolan en el ballenero Pequod, con una tripulación conformada por las más diversas nacionalidades y razas; precisamente sus arponeros son el caníbal Queequeg, el piel roja Tashtego y el «negro salvaje» Daggoo.
Pero el Pequod es dirigido por el enigmático y autoritario capitán Ahab, un viejo lobo de mar con una pierna construida con la mandíbula de un cachalote, quien revelará a su tripulación que el objetivo primordial del viaje es la persecución y captura de Moby Dick, enorme Leviatán que lo privó de su pierna y que había ganado fama de causar estragos a todos y a cada uno de los balleneros que habían intentado darle caza...
Tras leer en 1839 la historia del enfrentamiento entre balleneros y un cachalote albino conocido como Mocha Dick, cerca de la isla Mocha, en el Pacífico chileno, publicada por Jeremiah N. Reynolds en la revista neoyorquina The Knickerbocker, Herman Melville (1819-1891) se inspiró y concibió Moby Dick, novela publicada en 1851 que, en la voz de Ismael, narra la aventura autodestructiva del capitán Ahab en su obsesiva persecución de la gran ballena blanca.
"Llamadme Ismael..."
Con esas dos palabras comienza esta historia, en lo que lectores y críticos coinciden en señalar como uno de los mejores inicios de la literatura universal; y el resto, claro está, no le va en zaga: nos encontramos ante una obra maestra de la literatura universal. Ismael, a young man with experience in the merchant navy, decides that his next trip will be in a whaler. Likewise, it is convinced that his journey must begin in Nantucket, Massachusetts, and before reaching the source of his adventure, he strikes up a close friendship with Polynesian harpooner Queequeg experienced, who agrees to share the company.
Both enroll in the whaler Pequod, with a crew made up of various nationalities and races; precisely his harpoon are the cannibal Queequeg, the red skin Tashtego and "savage black" Daggoo.
But the Pequod is led by the enigmatic and authoritarian Captain Ahab, an old sea dog with a leg built with the jawbone of a sperm whale, who will reveal his crew that the primary purpose of the trip is the pursuit and capture of Moby Dick, huge leviathan that deprived him of his leg and he had a reputation for wreaking havoc each and every one of the whalers who had tried to hunt ...
After reading in 1839 the history of confrontation between whalers and an albino sperm whale Mocha Dick known as near Mocha Island in the Chilean Pacific, published by Jeremiah N. Reynolds in New York magazine The Knickerbocker, Herman Melville (1819-1891) was inspired and conceived Moby Dick, published in 1851 novel in the voice of Ishmael, narrates the self-destructive adventure of captain Ahab in his obsessive pursuit of the great white whale.
"Call me Ishmael ..."
With those two words begins this story as readers and critics agree that as one of the best starts of world literature; and the rest, of course, is not a whit behind him: we have a masterpiece of world literature.