Moby Dick (1851)

Others: Overwhelmingly positive

"Command the murderous chalices! Drink ye harpooners! Drink and swear, ye men that man the deathful whaleboat's bow -- Death to Moby Dick!" So Captain Ahab binds his crew to fulfil his obsession -- the destruction of the great white whale. Under his lordly but maniacal command the Pequod's commercial mission is perverted to one of vengeance. To Ahab, the monster that destroyed his body is not a creature, but the symbol of "some unknown but still reasoning thing." Uncowed by natural disasters, ill omens, even death, Ahab urges his ship towards "the undeliverable, nameless perils of the whale."

ISBN:: 9780371378151
Length:: 448 pages

Genres: fantasy, historical fiction, classics, poetry

Lists: …

Similar books

1 of 6

Open book
The Iliad
Homer
2023 · 848 pages · 3 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positive
The greatest literary landmark of antiquity masterfully rendered by the most celebrated translator of our time. When Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey appeared in 2017―revealing the ancient poem in a contemporary idiom that was “fresh, unpretentious and lean” (Madeline Miller, Washington Post)―critics lauded it as “a revelation” (Susan Chira, New York Times) and “a cultural landmark” (Charlotte Higgins, Guardian) that would forever change how Homer is read in English. Now Wilson has returned with an equally revelatory translation of Homer’s other great epic―the most revered war poem of all time. The Iliad roars with the clamor of arms, the bellowing boasts of victors, the fury and grief of loss, and the anguished cries of dying men. It sings, too, of the sublime magnitude of the world―the fierce beauty of nature and the gods’ grand schemes beyond the ken of mortals. In Wilson’s hands, this thrilling, magical, and often horrifying tale now gallops at a pace befitting its legendary battle scenes, in crisp but resonant language that evokes the poem’s deep pathos and reveals palpably real, even “complicated,” characters―both human and divine. The culmination of a decade of intense engagement with antiquity’s most surpassingly beautiful and emotionally complex poetry, Wilson’s Iliad now gives us a complete Homer for our generation.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also classics and fantasy
67%
On 5+ of the same lists
22%
Jack Edwards loved both
11%
Personalize your recommendations
Open book
Robinson Crusoe
Daniel Defoe
1686 · 276 pages · 1 review
Others: Positive
During one of his several adventurous voyages in the 1600's, an Englishman becomes the sole survivor of a shipwreck and lives for nearly thirty years on a deserted island.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also classics and fantasy
58%
On 5+ of the same lists
30%
Jack Edwards loved both
12%
Personalize your recommendations
Open book
The Odyssey
Homer
2007 · 374 pages · 8 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positive
Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy. So begins Robert Fagles's magnificent translation of the Odyssey. If The Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, The Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of the everyman's journey through life. During his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, Odysseus relies on his wit and wiles for survival in his encounters with divine and natural forces. In the myths and legends retold here, Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer's original in a bold, contemporary idiom. It's a version to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery. Renowned classicist Bernard Knox's superb Introduction and textual commentary provide new insights and background information for the general reader and scholar alike, intensifying the strength of Fagles's translation.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also classics and fantasy
58%
On 5+ of the same lists
29%
Jack Edwards loved both
13%
Personalize your recommendations
Open book
Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut
1956 · 192 pages · 15 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positive
Slaughterhouse-Five is one of the world's great anti-war books. Centering on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also classics and fantasy
43%
3 creators loved both
33%
On 5+ of the same lists
24%
Personalize your recommendations
Open book
Dracula
Bram Stoker
1897 · 374 pages · 11 reviews
Others: Mostly positive
Na história, um casal e seus amigos são atormentados por Conde Drácula, uma entidade sobrenatural e hematófoga que, presa em uma maldição contagiosa, pretende se mudar de seu recluso castelo na Transilvânia para a efervescente Londres do século XIX. Com a ajuda do professor Van Helsing, o grupo de amigos pretende enfrentar o morto-vivo, mesmo com todos os perigos que a ofensiva trará.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also classics and fantasy
36%
On 5+ of the same lists
36%
3 creators loved both
28%
Personalize your recommendations
Open book
A Christmas Carol
Charles Dickens
1843 · 114 pages · 7 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positive
A reprinting of the 1843 first edition, complete with the original illustrations, is supplemented by over eighty related sketches and annotations on and analyses of the text and historical notes on the writing of "The Christmas Carol."
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also classics and fantasy
45%
On 5+ of the same lists
40%
Jack Edwards loved both
15%
Personalize your recommendations