名著 | Moby Dick 《白鲸》NOVEL BY MELVILLE

Alternative Titles: “Moby-Dick; or, The Whale”, “The Whale”

Moby Dick, novel by Herman Melville, published in London in October 1851 as The Whale  and a month later in New York City as Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. It is dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne. Moby Dick is generally regarded as Melville’s magnum opus and one of the greatest American novels.

magnum opus 

/ˏmægnəm ˈəupəs/ (Latin 拉) work of art or literature regarded as its author's greatest （某艺术家或文学家的）最伟大的作品, 杰作, 巨著.

Plot Summary

Moby Dick famously begins with the narratorial invocation (祈祷; 符咒) “Call me Ishmael.” The narrator, like his biblical counterpart, is an outcast. Ishmael, who turns to the sea for meaning, relays to the audience the final voyage of the Pequod, a whaling vessel. Amid a story of tribulation (苦难, 磨难), beauty, and madness, the reader is introduced to a number of characters, many of whom have names with religious resonance. The ship's captain is Ahab, who Ishmael and his friend Queequeg soon learn is losing his mind. Starbuck, Ahab's first-mate, recognizes this problem too, and is the only one throughout the novel to voice his disapproval of Ahab's increasingly obsessive behavior. This nature of Ahab's obsession is first revealed to Ishmael and Queequeg after the Pequod's owners, Peleg and Bildad, explain to them that Ahab is still recovering from an encounter with a large whale that resulted in the loss of his leg. That whale's name is Moby Dick. The Pequod sets sail, and the crew is soon informed that this journey will be unlike their other whaling missions: this time, despite the reluctance of Starbuck, Ahab intends to hunt and kill the beastly Moby Dick no matter the cost.

Ahab and the crew continue their eventful journey and encounter a number of obstacles along the way. Queequeg falls ill, which prompts a coffin to be built in anticipation of the worst. After he recovers, the coffin becomes a replacement lifeboat that eventually saves Ishmael’s life. Ahab receives a prophecy from a crew member informing him of his future death, which he ignores. Moby Dick is spotted and, over the course of three days, engages violently with Ahab and the Pequod until the whale destroys the ship, killing everyone except Ishmael. Ishmael survives by floating on Queequeg’s coffin until he is picked up by another ship, the Rachel. The novel consists of 135 chapters, in which narrative and essayistic portions intermingle, as well as an epilogue and front matter.

Interpreting Moby Dick

Moby Dick can sustain numerous, if not seemingly infinite, readings generated by multiple interpretative approaches. One of the most fruitful ways to appreciate the novel’s complexity is through the names that Melville gave to its characters, many of which are shared with figures of the Abrahamic religions. The very first line of Moby Dick, for instance, identifies Ishmael as the narrator; Ishmael was the illegitimate (in terms of the Covenant) son of Abraham and was cast away after Isaac was born. There are a number of other Abrahamic names in the book as well, including Ahab—who, according to the Hebrew Bible, was an evil king who led the Israelites into a life of idolatry. Melville’s Ahab is obsessed with Moby Dick, an idol that causes the death of his crew. The ship that saves Ishmael, the Rachel, is named for the mother of Joseph, known for interceding to protect her children. It is Rachel, as depicted in the Book of Jeremiah, who convinced God to end the exile placed upon the Jewish tribes for idolatry. The rescue of Ishmael by the Rachel in Moby Dick can thus be read as his return from an exile caused by his complicity (because he was on the Pequod’s crew) in Ahab’s idolatry of the whale. Melville’s use of these names grants his novel a rich layer of additional meaning.

The whale itself is perhaps the most striking symbol in Moby Dick, and interpretations of its meaning range from the Judeo-Christian God to atheism and everything in between. Between the passages of carefully detailed cetology, the epigraphs, and the shift from a hero’s quest narrative to a tragedy, Melville set the stage for purposeful ambiguity. The novel’s ability to produce numerous interpretations is, perhaps, the main reason it is considered one of the greatest American novels.

Context And Reception

Melville himself was well versed in whaling, as he had spent some time aboard the Acushnet, a whaling vessel, which gave him firsthand experience. He also did tremendous amounts of research, consulting a number of scientific sources as well as accounts of historical events that he incorporated into Moby Dick. In particular, the story of the Essex was one that fascinated Melville—and perhaps served as his primary inspiration for the novel. The Essex, a whaling vessel, was attacked by a sperm whale in 1820. The ship sank, and many of the crew members were either lost immediately or died of starvation as they awaited rescue for nearly eight months.

Melville also consulted the story of Mocha Dick, a famed whale who was, like Moby Dick, very white and aggressive and whose name was clearly an inspiration to Melville. Mocha Dick was often found off the coast of Chile in the Pacific Ocean, near Mocha Island. He lived during the early 19th century and became a legend among whalers. In 1839 a story about the whale was written in The Knickerbocker, which was likely the source of Melville’s discovery of Mocha Dick. Unlike Moby Dick, however, Mocha Dick was eventually killed and used for oil.

Melville befriended fellow author Nathaniel Hawthorne during the writing of Moby Dick, which led to him dramatically revising the narrative to make it more complex. The novel is dedicated to Hawthorne because of his impact on Melville and the novel.

Once the novel was published, the public was unimpressed. It sold fewer than 4,000 copies in total, with fewer than 600 in the United Kingdom. It was not until the mid-20th century that the novel became recognized as one of the most important novels in American literature.

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I should say that those New England rocks on the seacoast

我敢说，新英格兰沿海的那些岩石

which Agassiz imagines to bear the marks of violent scraping contact with vast floating icebergs

也就是阿伽西认为那上面是跟大浮冰块相碰击的结果，才有那么厉害的伤痕

I should say, that those rocks must not a little resemble the Sperm Whale in this particular

我敢说，在这方面说来，那些岩石准是跟抹香鲸极其相似的

It also seems to me that such scratches in the whale are probably made by hostile contact with other whales

我也认为，大鲸之所以有这些搔痕，大概是跟其它大鲸争斗所致

for I have most remarked them in the large, full-grown bulls of the species

因为我常常在那种茁壮结实的大鲸身上看到那种搔痕

A word or two more concerning this matter of the skin or blubber of the whale

关于鲸皮或者鲸脂这问题，还得再说一两句话

It has already been said, that it is stript from him in long pieces, called blanket-pieces

我已经说过，人们把那种从它身上剥下来的长条条叫做绒毯

Like most sea-terms, this one is very happy and significant

这名称，跟大多数的航海术语一样，也是十分巧妙而深具意义的

For the whale is indeed wrapt up in his blubber as in a real blanket or counterpane

因为大鲸确实是裹在它的鲸脂里，好像真的裹着一条绒毯或者被单

or, still better, an Indian poncho slipt over his head, and skirting his extremity

或者，不如更恰切地说，是裹着一件印第安人穿的那种从头上套下去的硬大衣，把它四周都裹得紧紧密密

It is by reason of this cosy blanketing of his body, that the whale is enabled to keep himself comfortable in all weathers, in all seas, times, and tides

正是由于它身上裹有这种舒适的绒毯，鲸才能够在各种气候、各种海洋、各种时间、各种潮汐中过得舒舒服服

What would become of a Greenland whale, say, in those shuddering, icy seas of the North, if unsupplied with his cosy surtout

比如拿格陵兰鲸来说，它在北极那种冰封雪冻，冷彻肌肤的海洋里，如果它没有那件舒适的大衣，将会有什么结果呢

True, other fish are found exceedingly brisk in those Hyperborean waters

不错，其它的鱼类，在那种北方乐土似的海里是过得非常活泼的

but these, be it observed, are your cold-blooded, lungless fish, whose very bellies are refrigerators

不过，请注意，那些鱼，都是冷血无肺的鱼类，它们的肚皮本来就是冰箱

creatures, that warm themselves under the lee of an iceberg, as a traveller in winter would bask before an inn fire

这些在冰块下取暖的生物，就像一个寒冬的旅客，在小客店里的火盆前烤火一样

whereas, like man, the whale has lungs and warm blood

反之，鲸却跟人一样，既有肺又有热血

《白鲸》是19世纪美国最重要的小说家之一赫尔曼·麦尔维尔(Herman Melville，1819~1891年)于1851年发表的一篇海洋题材的小说。它是作者的代表作。小说描写了亚哈船长追逐并杀死白鲸Moby Dick, 最终与白鲸同归于尽的故事。

《白鲸》是一部史诗般的小说，被誉为美国的《哈姆莱特》。故事的主人公莫比是一头聪明、凶残的白鲸，它经常在海上兴风作浪，夺去了无数捕鲸人的生命。亚哈船长也在一次捕鲸中被莫比咬掉了一条腿，从此他发誓一定要报仇雪恨。他在几乎航行了全球海域之后，终于与莫比再次遭遇。经过三天追踪，他用鱼叉击中白鲸，但船被白鲸撞破，除一位水手得救外，船长和全船人员与白鲸同归于尽。

故事营造了一种让人置身海上航行、随时可能遭遇各种危险甚至是死亡的氛围。《白鲸》是一部融戏剧、冒险、哲理于一体的鸿篇巨制。在这部作品中，作者麦尔维尔对船长亚哈的刻画是多方面的，除了把船长刻画成一个自私、残忍的人以外，还赋予船长一些优良品质，比如坚强不屈、不向困难低头等。

这部小说在1956年被改编为电影《白鲸记》。