MOBY-DICK(ISBN=9780679405597)

　　From School Library Journal
　　Grade 5 Up-Opening with the classic line, "Call me Ishmael," the narrator's New England accent adds a touch of authenticity to this sometimes melodramatic presentation. The St. Charles Players do a credible job on the major roles, but some of the group responses, such as "Aye, aye Captain," sound more comic than serious. This adaptation retains a good measure of Melville's dialogue and key passages which afford listeners a vivid connection with the lengthy novel. Background music and appropriate sound effects enhance the telling of the story about Captain Ahab's obsessive pursuit of the malevolent white whale. The cassettes are clearly marked, and running times are noted on each side of the tapes. Announcements at the beginning of each side and a subtle chime signal at the end make it easy to follow the story, but a stereo player must be used to hear some dialogue. The lightweight cardboard package is inadequate for circulation. Done in a radio theatre format, the recording does a nice job of introducing the deeper themes of the book and covering the major events. For school libraries that support an American literature curriculum, this recording offers a different interpretation of an enduring classic.
Barbara Wysocki, Cora J. Belden Library. Rocky Hill, CT
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

　　(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) "As a revelation of human destiny it is too deep even for sorrow," was how D.H. Lawrence characterized MOBY-DICK. Published in the same five-year span as "The Scarlet Letter," "Walden," and "Leaves of Grass," this great adventure of the sea and the life of the soul is the ultimate achievement of that stunning period in American letters.

　　HERMAN MELVILLE (1819-1891) was born in New York. Family hardships forced him to leave school for various occupations, including serving as a cabin boy on a ship to Liverpool in 1839, a voyage that sparked his love for the sea. A shrewd social critic and philosopher in his fiction, he is considered an outstanding writer of the sea and a great stylist who mastered both realistic narrative and a rich, rhythmical prose.

　　In this production of Herman Melville's tale of a tragic whale hunt, narrator Anthony Heald not only creates vivid characterizations--Captain Ahab's gruff mania, Starbuck's doubtful sensitivity, the prophet Elijah's visionary shakiness--he also dramatizes the many moods of the Pequod crew and the mercurial ocean itself. Heald's voice has the range of a piano, and he uses it like a virtuoso. In one minute his reading can move from slow and languid, reflecting a dreamy day at sea, to alert and brisk, evoking the suspense of a whale sighting. Heald's voice bristles dryly with humor or sinks with dread--a range necessary to tell this complex story of a man's obsession with conquering an enigmatic white whale. --AudioFile