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Moby-Dick  By  cover art

Moby-Dick

By: Herman Melville
Narrated by: Frank Muller
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Publisher's summary

Its famous opening line, "Call me Ishmael", dramatic in its stark simplicity, begins an epic that is widely regarded as the greatest novel ever written by an American. Labeled variously a realistic story of whaling, a romance of unusual adventure and eccentric characters, a symbolic allegory, and a drama of heroic conflict, Moby Dick is first and foremost a great story. It has both the humor and poignancy of a simple sea ballad, as well as the depth and universality of a grand odyssey.

When Melville's father died in 1832, the young man's financial security went too. For a while he turned to school-mastering and clerking, but failed to make a sustainable income. In 1840 he signed up on the whaler, Acushnet, out of New Bedford, Massachusetts. He was just 21. A whaler's life turned out to be both arduous and dangerous, and in 1842, Melville deserted ship. Out of this experience and a wealth of printed sources, Melville crafted his masterpiece.

Public Domain (P)1987 Recorded Books, LLC.

Critic reviews

"Master narrator Frank Muller makes the most of his astonishing theatrical talents and vast experience to perform this tale of extraordinary drama. Muller uses emphasis and pauses to bring clarity to the visual depictions of life on the high seas, as seen by the doe-eyed Ishmael as he is led by the maniacal Captain Ahab. Listeners will hear the depth of emotions in Muller's voice as he paints the stark and shattering visuals of this classic story of revenge and, ultimately, survival." (AudioFile magazine)

Featured Article: The 20 Best Classic Audiobooks to Listen to Again and Again


Classics are known for their timeless quality, their ability to endure through generations and still hold something significant for the modern listener—whether it’s commentary on a long-gone era or an ageless tale of adventure. In this roundup, each story is paired with an exceptional, show-stopping narrator who takes the tale to new heights. While you may have read some of these stories, you’ve certainly never heard them quite like this.

What listeners say about Moby-Dick

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

I Had No Idea Melville Was So Funny

I put off Moby Dick for a long time due to an experience in high school with Billy Budd. I didn't think I wanted to read this one, but was eventually swayed by some friends. Thankfully! Moby Dick's a thrilling adventure story full of depth and gravity and horror. It certainly earns its reputation as an American Classic. What surprised me, though, was how funny Melville is. I didn't realize he had such a sense of humor.

Muller's reading is, of course, a benchmark of excellence. He made this story come alive for me in ways I didn't think it could. I'm so glad I finally decided to give this one a chance.

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124 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

It's a classic, you just have to accept that.

First, the story. It's been described by enough reviews that I can't add to it, so I'll just say that about a quarter of the story is some of the best action sequences and intricate character interactions you will ever read even compared to modern writers, and about three fourths of the story is exposition about whaling and whales and the culture of 19th century whalers that is fascinating, educational, critical to the story, and not always easy to stay awake through.

Second, the reader. If you've heard Frank Muller read Stephen King, forget that. He is completely different in this. He is vivid, crisp, and quick, and that is a lifesaver in this work. Even in passages about whales and their classifications, he maintains a lively inflection that might help you through it.

If you've ever tried and failed to read Moby Dick, try this reading of it. If you still can't get through it, give it up. This is the best chance you have, and yes, it is well worth it to do so.

I gave it a five because it is a tremendous reading of a classic, moreso than any judgement about the classic itself. I love it, but it's not Dan Brown, for better and worse.

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102 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Muller is e3xceptional

I have learned to seek out the books read by now deceased Frank Muller, and found Moby-Dick because I thought it would be challenging enough to bring out his best. Indeed it does. I had read the book myself a couple of times, more or less because I thought an educated man needed to. Now that I have heard Muller's interpretation I can see the greatness of the book. No women in it, of course. Muller does women better than any other male reader.... Don't miss this. Also the books he read by Cormac McCarthy. His loss is a great one to the book world.

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77 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

An American Classic!

The narrator does good job with this epic, though a bit cliche. How else do you characterize the voices of sea dogs other than what you already expect? Otherwise, a gripping and poetic story, full of subdued (and therefore more humorous) jabs at Christian society and the customs of the age. It is sometimes difficult to follow the tangents into deep descriptions of the whale (especially considering how far marine biology has come), but the payoff is in the plethora of one-liners that zing into timelessness. Not having read the book previously, I was amazed at how many references are made to this book in pop culture. Some are obvious, others not so much. Either way, this book has enough to keep you interested to the finish and the narrator keeps the characterizations enlivened so that the result is an entertaining and fecund experience.

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67 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent Narration kept me afloat

This was my second attempt to assail the infamous white whale. The first time I was a mere landlubber of some twenty years. Now I'm seasoned old salt (at least of the literary seas) of two score and six. That alone may have made some difference. I also listened to it as an audio book this time. I'm sure that helped, keeping me focused when my eye might have wandered. In any case, I loved it. This narrator was perfect, neither over nor under dramatic, able to represent all the varied types of chapters well.

What I remembered was that, after an engaging beginning, the book became a slog. And it is assuredly a challenging book. I still found it so. It took me a solid month to read, even on summer vacation when I have much more time to read than life normally affords me.

Not only is it nearly as big a tome as Moby Dick is a whale, it changes tone from chapter to chapter. Sometimes it seems a comedy with a snarky narrator entertaining us with portraits of whalers and their lives. Sometimes it seems an erudite study of the creatures and ways of the sea. Sometimes it seems a philosopher's meanderings through an inner seascape, searching for morality and meaning. Sometimes it seems a Shakespearean tragedy on a rolling seawater soaked stage. I can see why it wasn't an insta-hit when it was new, especially if you'd come to it as a fan of Melville's more straightforward sea adventure stories.

My love might also be because 2017 has been my year for poetry. I was sucked in completely by the language, losing myself in gorgeous descriptive passages, wonderful word play, and compelling metaphors. I wore out my bookmark button marking striking passages. And they weren't all in the "plot" chapters. Beautiful language and deep thoughts abound in the "whaling" chapters, too. At times, I could hear echoes of Whitman, Coleridge, Irving, Poe, Darwin, Hawthorne. It seems Melville's masterwork taps into that romantic flowing zeal of the 1800s that marked so many of the works of the era.

I'm glad I came back to this book and gave it another chance. Sometimes, perhaps, it's not about the book itself, but about whether it's your time for reading it.

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46 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Renewed appreciation

My attention span as a reader has decreased over the past decade - thanks, Internet - but I was thrilled to have "Moby Dick" read to me by Frank Muller, who did a great job. I knew I loved this book when I was younger, despite all my failed attempts to re-read as an adult. I'd rank it right up there in my top 10, and put it on my list of "difficult books worth reading" (which includes "Ulysses," "Gravity's Rainbow," "Under the Volcano," "The Sound and the Fury" and more).

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

I felt totally swept up in this world

I liked this book in its print form, a lot. But I have to say that the audio version is even better. Frank Muller is an absolute genius. He can do everything -- from a Nantucket innkeeper, to all of the various accents on board the Pequod, and even the dialect of a freed slave. I hope I can find more of his work.

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42 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Depends on your literary tastes

Frank Muller, may he rest in peace, could make the phone book entertaining if he read it aloud. This book is no different in that it's outstandingly read. However, the plot is very very slow. The language is artful and the themes are interestingly explored. The world of the 18th/19th century shipping culture is vividly presented, but if you're not a fan of a literary genre that prizes style of presentation over brisk plot movement and character development, you may not enjoy this book very much.

For example, at one point Melville goes on for over an hour about the color white. The prose of this section is arful, and that can be enjoyable if you like that sort of thing, but not otherwise. It took me a while of starts and stops to finish this one, but I'm glad to have Muller's work, even if the writing was not my cup of tea.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A Pleasure!

My preference is almost always the interior narrator: the voice in my head when I am reading silently to myself, and I have read this book so many times--and yet Muller does a wonderful job with the voice of Ishmael, street-wise, ship-wise, and philisophical, truly rendering the epic drama and poem of Moby Dick. Moreover, I think the lined poems, the songs, the epigrams, dialogs and monologues, those "extra" parts of the narrative, all seem welded into the story by Muller's reading. Really great!

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    5 out of 5 stars
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I Had No Idea Melville Was So Funny

I put off Moby Dick for a long time due to an experience in high school with Billy Budd. I didn't think I wanted to read this one, but was eventually swayed by some friends. Thankfully! Moby Dick's a thrilling adventure story full of depth and gravity and horror. It certainly earns its reputation as an American Classic. What surprised me, though, was how funny Melville is. I didn't realize he had such a sense of humor.

Muller's reading is, of course, a benchmark of excellence. He made this story come alive for me in ways I didn't think it could. I'm so glad I finally decided to give this one a chance.

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15 people found this helpful