This innovative, scholarly edition of Moby Dick offers unprecedented access to the revisions Herman Melville made to the original 1851 American version of the novel and illuminates all changes which scholars have made to create the classic that readers know today.  The "fluid text" feature illuminates the personal, social, and cultural context of Melville's writing process, right on the page, while also offering fresh contextual notes, illustrations, and other apparatus to make this the most reader-friendly -- and therefore most teachable -- edition available today.