Melville, writer of vivid descriptions of the South Seas,
"Typee," "Omoo," which were perfect of their kind, but still only
superlative travel books, distinguished in style but seldom
lifting beyond autobiography, began another reminiscent narrative
in "Moby Dick." In spite of his profound intellectual growth away
from the cool and humorous youth who paddled the Marquesan lake
with primitive beauties beside him, he seems to have meant in "The
White Whale" to go back to his earlier manner, to write an
accurate though highly personal account of the whaler's life, and
to that end had assembled a mass of information upon the sperm
whale to add to his own memories. Very literally the story begins
as an autobiography; even the elemental figure of the cannibal,
Queequeg, with his incongruous idol and harpoon in a New Bedford
lodging house, does not warn of what is to come. But even before
the _Pequod_ leaves sane Nantucket an undercurrent begins to
sweep through the narrative. This brooding captain, Ahab (for
Melville also broods, though with characteristic difference), and
his ivory leg, those warning voices in the mist, the strange crew
of all races and temperaments--the civilized, the barbarous, and
the savage--in their ship, which is a microcosm, hints that creep
in of the white whale whose nature is inimical to man and arouses
passions deeper than gain or revenge--all this prepares the reader
for something more than incident.
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