Herman Melville

Mythic white sperm whale captured on film near Jamaica
Type of whale immortalised in Moby-Dick has only been spotted handful of times this century
Philip Hoare
30, Nov, 2021 @4:53 PM

The 20-page rule: how much time should you give a devastatingly boring book?
Novelist Mark Billingham advises readers to angrily launch a book across the room after 20 non-gripping pages – but almost 40% of people will keep going right to the end
12, Oct, 2021 @1:36 PM

‘You think wrong!’: top 10 rants in literature
Some distrust kvetching in print, but writers from Shakespeare to Valerie Solanas show there’s nothing wrong with constructive – and even destructive – criticism
Lucy Ellmann
25, Aug, 2021 @11:00 AM

Moby on fame and regret: ‘I was an out-of-control, utterly entitled drink and drug addict’
He declared his intention to go away for a while after pointed criticism of his second memoir. But now the musician is back with a new album - and a visceral documentary
Tim Jonze
12, Apr, 2021 @5:00 AM

Top 10 Shakespearean books | Robert McCrum
William Shakespeare’s influence on English literature is enormous, but from Dr Johnson to Germaine Greer, some outstanding works have explored his legacy and life story
Robert McCrum
02, Dec, 2020 @11:00 AM

'It had been on my shelf for years': readers share their lockdown reads
Publishers report that coronavirus has boosted sales of long, classic novels. You reveal the great baggy monsters you’ve found the time to tackle
Guardian readers and Rachel Obordo
06, Nov, 2020 @10:00 AM

Nina Stibbe: 'I read a few pages of Moby-Dick and switched to Jaws'
The author on being inspired by Sue Townsend, frightened by Beatrix Potter – and the monologue she wishes she’d written
Nina Stibbe
18, Sep, 2020 @9:00 AM

André Aciman: 'I couldn’t finish Moby-Dick. I lacked the patience'
The author of Call Me By Your Name on laughing out loud at The Pickwick Papers and racing through Enid Blyton
André Aciman
24, Apr, 2020 @9:00 AM

Moby-Dick is a slippery book | Letter
Letter: Philip Hoare offers further insight into sperm whales and ponders Herman Melville’s intentions
Letters
09, Aug, 2019 @4:33 PM

Spermaceti hand rubs in Moby-Dick | Letter
Letter: Peter Eiseman-Renyard clarifies some details about a massage substance in Herman Melville’s novel
Letters
02, Aug, 2019 @4:33 PM

Subversive, queer and terrifyingly relevant: six reasons why Moby-Dick is the novel for our times
The book features gay marriage, hits out at slavery and imperialism and predicts the climate crisis – 200 years after the birth of its author, Herman Melville, it has never been more important
Philip Hoare
30, Jul, 2019 @9:00 AM

Top 10 Quakers in fiction
From magnanimous Mrs Wilcox in Howards End to the bloodthirsty Captain Bildad in Moby-Dick, these portrayals complicate porridge-oat stereotypes
Bridget Collins
09, Jan, 2019 @10:00 AM
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