Adventure · Sea
Moby-Dick
Captain Ahab will chase the white whale that took his leg to the ends of the earth, and his crew with him.
Five levels, about 80 languages
- A2ElementaryShort sentences and everyday words.
- B1IntermediateYou follow clear stories about familiar things.
- B2Upper intermediateLonger sentences, richer vocabulary.
- C1AdvancedClose to the original, lightly condensed.
- C2ProficientThe complete novel.
One purchase is one book, in one language, at one level: $4.99. Another level of a book you own is $1.99. Editions nobody has asked for yet are written on request: chapter 1 in a few minutes, the rest while you read. How the levels work.
About the book
Call me Ishmael
A restless young man signs on for a whaling voyage out of Nantucket. At an inn on the way he is made to share a bed with Queequeg, a tattooed harpooner from a South Sea island, and the two become close friends. Their ship, the Pequod, sails with a captain nobody has seen. When Ahab finally comes on deck, standing on a leg made from a whale’s jaw, he tells the crew the real purpose of the voyage: to find and kill the white whale that took his leg. Herman Melville, who had sailed on a whaler himself, published it in 1851.
Why it works for learners
The story underneath Moby-Dick is simple and gripping: a crew, a captain consumed by one idea, and a chase across the oceans. That story survives retelling very well. What makes the original famously hard is everything around it: chapters on the biology of whales, the business of whaling, philosophy, sermons, even scenes written like a play. Those chapters are why some readers love the book and many never finish it.
The sea and whaling vocabulary (harpoon, boat, mast, oil, crew, storm) is concrete and repeats often. The characters are vivid and quickly told apart: Ahab; the cautious first mate, Starbuck; cheerful Stubb; and Queequeg.
Which level to start at
B1 gives you the whole chase in a book you’ll actually finish. B2 brings back more of Ishmael’s voice and humor. C1 keeps Melville’s style while condensing the longest digressions, the honest choice if you want the real experience without the whole encyclopedia. C2 is the complete novel, every chapter on whales included, and any whaling term is a tap away, explained in its sentence.
Read next
- The Sea-Wolf, a tyrant captain in the Pacific
- Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, the ocean seen from below
- Captains Courageous, a short, warm novel of life on a fishing boat