Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick” is the story of Captain Ahab’s obsession with destroying the white whale that crippled him in a previous encounter. “Moby Dick” transcends its subject by exploring the bigger picture of man and his precarious and often contradictory relationship with the universe he inhabits, a universe of the greatest good and the most profound evil.
It is a timeless epic parable that is by turns amusing and unsettling, but always fascinating. The vocal performances of a solid cast, originally recorded in 1975, add to the listening excitement. Charlton Heston is Ahab, tyrannical, God-ridden and consumed with his quest; Keir Dullea, best known for his starring role in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” is the laconic and mysterious narrator, Ishmael; and George Rose delivers Father Mapple’s tremendous call to the whaling men.
Listen to an excerpt from Melville’s “Moby Dick” [Harper Audio] below.
