The score(s) next to each publication’s review and the average rating is an interpretation of the reviews by Literature’s Pretty Long History.
Critics:
“A new work by HERMAN MELVILLE, entitled Moby Dick ; or, The Whale, has just been issued by Harper and Brothers, which, in point of richness and variety of incident, originality of conception, and splendor of description, surpasses any of the former productions of this highly successful author.”
Supplemental Notice(s)
Excerpted by Harper’s New Monthly Magazine (October 1851), Sunday Morning Republican (October 12, 1851), Weekly Missouri Republican (October 17, 1851), The Philadelphia Inquirer (October 25, 1851), The Philadelphia Inquirer (October 28, 1851), Cincinnati Daily Gazette (December 4, 1851), and Cincinnati Daily Gazette (December 11, 1851)
“HERMAN MELVILLE’s last work, Moby Dick, or The Whale, has excited a general interest among the critical journals of London. The bold and impulsive style of some portions of the book, seems to shock John Bull’s fastidious sense of propriety.” — Harper’s New Monthly Magazine (January 1852)
“The rapid northern spring raises its waters and loosens the ice simultaneously ; when the waters of the Gulf are at their usual level, the accumulated ice and water find an easy outlet down the broad and rapid Neva. But let a strong west wind heap up the waters of the Gulf just as the breaking up of Lake Ladoga takes place, and the waters from above and from below would suffice to inundate the whole city, while all its palaces, monuments, and temples would be crushed between the masses of ice, like “Captain Ahab’s” boat in the ivory jaws of “Moby Dick.”” — Harper’s New Monthly Magazine (March 1852)
“The Captain and crew took to the boats, from which they were taken the next day by a Nantucket whaler, which fortunately came in sight at the time, and proved the means of saving their lives. A similar incident has been made the foundation of a new work by Herman Melville, entitled “Moby Dick, or the White Whaler,” just published in this city.”
“Faulty as the book may be, it bears the marks of such unquestionable genius, and displays graphic powers of so rare an order, that it cannot fail to add to the popular author’s reputation.”
“The high reputation attained by Mr. Melville as the author of those admirable works, Typee, Omoo, Redburn, Mardi, and White Jacket, is fully sustained in the volume which is the subject of this notice.”
“We have read Typee more than once, we have forgiven Mardi, and we shall turn with the assurance of new enjoyment to Moby-Dick.”
Reprinted by Manufacturers And Farmers Journal (December 1, 1851)
“As a describer of the manners of the class of men he has chosen to depict, as a close observer and a striking limner of nature, Mr. Melville has few equals and no superiors among living authors, and there is a store of information upon all sorts of subjects, sacred and profane, landward and seaward, which surprises and delights one in a work of fiction.”
“With a power of description almost unequalled, with a ready inventive faculty not often surpassed, he is incurably irreligious, and even seems to seek occasions to make things sacred the subjects of his irreligious wit.”
“The result is a very racy, spirited, curious and entertaining book, which affords quite an amount of information, excites the sympathies, and often charms the fancy.”
“This book, is beyond all question, Herman Melville’s best.”
“To the artist, the naturalist and the genaral reader these volumes may be confidently recommended among the freshest and most vigorous that the present publishing season has produced.”
“Herman Melville has written a new book called “The Whale.” From all accounts it will not occupy among books the place the whale does among fish.”
“We regret to see that Mr. Melville is guilty of sneering at the truths of revealed religion.”
“It is a book which well sustains his reputation as a tale writer and sketcher, while it enhances in a high degree his fame as an original thinker and illustrater of every day sailor men, and every day sailor scenes.”
“We take exception to some of his moral views, but acknowledge his attractive talents. Few books are more readable than his.”
“A Whale Chase”
Reprinted by Daily Missouri Republican (December 4, 1851), Cummings’ Evening Bulletin (December 13, 1851), The Buffalo Daily Republic (December 20, 1851), and The Boston Times (December 23, 1851)
“Persons who are fond of reading marvelous fish stories, this book will be welcome. It is written with considerable spirit, and abounds in wit and humor.”
“We nowhere find a more perfect delineation of character; he has a keen perception of the humorous and grotesque, excels in the description of natural scenery; his pencil is rich in coloring and his mind fertile in invention.”
“These volumes—tastefully done up in blue, white, and gold, with a huge sperm whale sprawling on the back of each volume—strange mixture of smart observations, quaint philosophy, American vulgarisms, and grandiose writing.”
“Mr. Herman Melville, in his new sea-story, describes a marvellous chase by a whaling monomanic after the “Moby Dick,” the fabulous leviathan of the sailors, during which he probably let us into the realities of actual whaling as minutely and faithfully as any sea-author has ever done. We shall give a couple of passages, hoping that they will put the reader on the look-out for the book itself.”
Reprinted by The Evening Post (November 29, 1851), Troy Daily Budget (December 6, 1851), New Hampshire Patriot And State Gazette (December 10, 1851), The Caledonian (December 20, 1851), Republican Journal (December 26, 1851), Monongahela Valley Republican (December 26, 1851), Grand River Times (January 6, 1852), and Vermont Patriot (January 8, 1852)
“In richness and boldness of coloring, whether he is portraying scenery or men, describing a chase for a whale, the revel in the forecastle, or the self-communion of a strong spirit marked and wrenched by fate or circumstance, the author of “Moby Dick” has scarcely an equal and no superior. We venture to predict, that among the prolific issues of the American press, this year, none will take hold of a wider and more speedy popularity, or more successfully maintain its place in the affections of the reading public, than this last production of Herman Melville. ”
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