Herman Melville's Moby Dick often ends up, quietly, on "top books" lists, and with good reason.
Melville may never surpass Mark Twain as the greatest American author, but Melville's place in history is assured by having written the definitive American epic.
Moby Dick is part epic, part allegory, and part whaling textbook.
It is, in a word, great.
Norton has a very nice critical edition, but the Dover thrift edition, pictured here, is a great value.
"Look to Windward"!
Review by Michael Patrick Jost
