Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmaels narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship Pequod, for revenge on Moby Dick, the giant white sperm whale that on the ships previous voyage bit off Ahabs leg at the knee. A contribution to the literature of the American Renaissance, Moby-Dick was published to mixed reviews, was a commercial failure, and was out of print at the time of the authors death in 1891. Its reputation as a ldquo;Great American Novelrdquo; was established only in the 20th century, after the centennial of its authors birth. William Faulkner said he wished he had written the book himself, and D.H. Lawrence called it ldquo;one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the worldrdquo; and ldquo;the greatest book of the sea ever writtenrdquo;. Its opening sentence, ldquo;Call me Ishmaelrdquo;, is among world literatures most famous.(Tanıtm Bülteninden)