Introduction

Herman Melville's 1851 Moby Dick, or The Whale. We've chosen this work because our two finalists for this summer reading were long fellows translation of Dante's Divine Comedy. And the reason this work won out is because of all the disparaging things that people have said about it. There are people who purport to be extraordinarily learned and sophisticated, and will say terribly cruel things about Moby Dick. In fact it is extremely vital and pressing and urgent in some regards and even now quite relevant.