A sea adventure, a study of evil, and a cast of fascinating characters, including the crazed captain who is obsessed with hunting down the whale that maimed him - Moby Dick is all of this and more. Based on the author's experiences as a sailor, Herman Melville's probing look into the human heart has been read and analyzed from every angle, including the most absurd. The tragic tale is looked at afresh in this Ignatius Critical Edition, which examines the background and other writings of the author and provides his essay on a work by his literary friend Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The Ignatius Critical Editions represent a tradition-oriented alternative to popular textbook series such as the Norton Critical Editions or Oxford World Classics, and are designed to concentrate on traditional readings of the Classics of world literature. While many modern critical editions have succumbed to the fads of modernism and post-modernism, this series will concentrate on tradition-oriented criticism of these great works. Edited by acclaimed literary biographer, Joseph Pearce, the Ignatius Critical Editions will ensure that traditional moral readings of the works are given prominence, instead of the feminist, or deconstructionist readings that often proliferate in other series of 'critical editions'. As such, they represent a genuine extension of consumer-choice, enabling educators, students and lovers of good literature to buy editions of classic literary works without having to 'buy into' the ideologies of secular fundamentalism.

The series is ideal for anyone wishing to understand great works of western civilization, enabling the modern reader to enjoy these classics in the company of some of the finest literature professors alive today.

Contributors to this Volume:

Robert Alexander

Mitchell Kalpakgian

Joseph Pearce

Mary R. Reichardt

Stephen Zelnick