18 October 1851: Moby-Dick is published

With the opening sentence “Call me Ishmael” Moby-Dick has one of the most recognisable opening lines in history. The first edition of Moby-Dick, by American writer Herman Melville, was published (in three volumes) as The Whale in London in October 1851, and as Moby-Dick, or, The Whale, in a single-volume edition in New York in November the same year. Melville had begun writing his manuscript in February 1850, finishing it 18 months later, taking a year longer than he had anticipated.

Although less than a month separated the UK and US publication dates, there were hundreds of differences between the two books in addition to the name. The British publishers had censored or changed some passages and completely omitted the Epilogue, which, among other things, explains why Ishmael is alive and able to tell his story.

Reviewers in Britain were mixed, and some objected that the tale seemed to be told by a narrator who perished with his ship. American reviewers were more hostile and, as a result, Moby-Dick was a commercial failure. The book was out of print at the time of the author’s death in 1891 and its reputation as a “Great American Novel” was not established until the 20th century.

Ishmael is a sailor who signs onto a whaling boat despite warnings from a wandering prophet named Elijah. Captain Ahab, the ship’s captain, is obsessed with taking revenge against Moby Dick, a giant white sperm whale that is responsible for his peg leg. Through Ishmael’s journey, Melville examines the concepts of class and social status, good and evil, and the existence of God. His descriptions of a sailor’s life aboard a whaling ship, are woven into the narrative which gives the book a rich sense of time and place.