"I prefer not to," he respectfully and slowly said, and mildly disappeared.

Academics hail it as the beginning of modernism, but to readers around the world--even those daunted by Moby-Dick--Bartleby the Scrivener is simply one of the most absorbing and moving novellas ever. Set in the mid-19th century on New York City's Wall Street, it was also, perhaps, Herman Melville's most prescient story: what if a young man caught up in the rat race of commerce finally just said, "I would prefer not to"?

The tale is one of the final works of fiction published by Melville...

Classic / British English
Moby Dick is the most dangerous whale in the oceans. Captain Ahab fought him and lost a leg. Now he hates Moby Dick. He wants to kill him. But can Captain Ahab and his men find the great white whale? A young sailor, Ishmael, tells the story of their exciting and dangerous trip.

-It's true. It's all true for Moby-Dick. He's a killer, he's a fury, he's an angel of hell. Why if the white whale could talk he'd talk like Ahab.-
Nantucket. 1851. Center of a whaling industry that transformed blubber into the oils and candles that lit the world. It's there that a schoolmaster called Ishmael arrives to ship on a whale-boat. He enrolls under Ahab, Captain of the Pequod - a man bent on destroying the white whale that lost him his leg. Certain the destruction of his nemesis will slake his thirst; Ahab's single-minded pursuit of Moby-Dick consumes Ishmael, the crew...

A story of the war between man and mammal, in which the author explores his obsessions with good and evil, love and solitude, speech and silence, using his technical knowledge of sailing and the sea to tell a story which is at once minutely realistic and powerfully symbolic.

Largely ignored in his own time, Melville has emerged today as one of the leading American novelist of the 19th century. This volume stands with the Everyman collection of complete stories by Poe, Kafka and Hemingway. It is introduced by John Updike. '

Melville's tale of the whaling industry, and one captain's obsession with revenge against the Great White Whale that took his leg. Classics Illustrated tells this wonderful tale in colorful comic strip form, providing an excellent introduction for younger readers. Also includes theme discussions and study questions.

This volume, published by Melville Press in conjunction with his historical museum in the Berkshires, MA, is the first time all of these short works have appeared in a separate dedicated volume. They reflect a softer side to Herman Melville. In 1890, aged 71, Herman Melville was secretly writing what would become his greatest book, BILLY BUDD, SAILOR. Not even his wife knew about this work. At the same time he was writing a collection sweet, sentimental nature poems as a gift for her; it would be his parting gift as he died before they could be published. His poems about Arrowhead and the...

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. The young sailor Ishmael befriends a tattooed Polynesian harpooner named Queequeg, and finds himself aboard the Pequod, which is captained by the obsessive Captain Ahab. Not long after the voyage has begun, Ahab tells the crew about his secret plot to hunt down the whale that crippled him on a previous voyage, Moby Dick. The crew of the Pequod are also after as much sperm oil as their ship can carry, and the account of the crew's years-long pursuit of the White Whale is interspersed with detailed and...