Moby-Dick: A Norton Critical Edition

Shipping took a while; might be a combination of factors such as distance and/or covid-19 strain on the mail system.Book is really nice! Great to have a ton of supplementary material all in the same book. I recommend this edition for people who want to learn all those cool extra details and essays about the classics without going through a whole English course on it!

This edition of Moby Dick is supposed to be great, but Norton Critical offers a sad edition of this great classic.The printing causes eye strain for me and the paper is so thin that I can read words from a page or two behind the page I’m currently reading.Seriously, consider purchasing Moby Dick from a different publisher.

THE CRITICAL EDITIONAs Melville scholar Hershel Parker says, "[f]or anyone who wants to know Herman Melville and 'Moby-Dick,' this third Norton Critical Edition is the fullest storehouse of factual riches, and, just as important, of incitements to the appreciative imagination" (xv).Edited by Parker, the NCE3 includes:1) a preface and several essays by Parker,2) annotation in the form of footnotes to the text,3) a helpful glossary of nautical terms,4) 158 pages of "Contexts" for the author and the novel, and5) 128 pages of "Criticism," with reviews and assessments from 1851, to the 1920s revival, to today.THE READING COPYEverything above makes the NCE3 well worth reading if you are seriously interested in "Moby-Dick." Of course if used for a class, it may be mandatory for instructors and students. However, as a reading copy of the novel it is not ideal.The book is 706 pages, and of that only 410 pages are the text of the novel. The edition I recently read, the  Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition , is 625 pages long. So this text is only two thirds as long, and the typeface is only two thirds as large. Of course having the annotation handy as you read is a plus.On balance I would recommend another edition for a reading copy, and the NCE3 as a supplement. Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition

"Moby-Dick," the Third Norton Critical Edition edited by Hershel Parker, the foremost Melville scholar, is a leviathan of a Melvillean treat and brings Melville into the 21st century. Melville wrote in "White Jacket..." " the books that prove most agreeable, grateful and companionable are those we pick up by chance here and there... those that pretend to little, but bound by much." There is so much added to this superb third edition of "Moby-Dick," including the splendid portrait of Ahab on the cover by Oleg Dobrovolski.In the well-written preface, Hershel Parker clearly indicates how the different Norton editions published in 1967, 2001 and 2017 addresses the times and issues of their publication dates. Parker describes why Melville means so much more to us today then he did to his contemporaries and how our vision of Melville has changed from 1967 such as global warming, the extinction of species and human overpopulation. Parker mentioned that Chapter 105 "... Will He Perish?" of Moby-Dick" is read differently today. No longer do we believe as Melville did "we account the whale immortal in his species."Of course the book contains the authoritative text pioneered by Parker and Harrison Hayford. In this case with numerous added notes. Then Hershel Parker has written a new chapter, "Glimpses of a Melville as a Performer." This section clearly shows the talented Melville as a debater, actor, raconteur, lecturer and a master storyteller thru the eyes of his contemporaries. One of my favorite chapters that appears in all editions deals with whaling and whale craft with nautical terms and the well-illustrated whaling industry section.There is so much new and important material in this third edition. Highly recommended is reading the "Melville Revival 1879-1927."In conclusion it was exciting to read the new rich material in this third edition. Anyone interested in Melville, "Moby-Dick" or reading this classic piece of literature for the first time, needs to have this latest edition on his or her bookshelf. The essays at the end by some of the outstanding Melville scholars are an enriching experience. Walter Bezanson, Harrison Hayford, Greil Marcus, Timothy Marr, Mary K. Bercaw Edwards, Wyn Kelley, Robert K. Wallace, Jonathan Letham and Robert Payne takes us on a voyage and comprehensively bring "Moby-Dick" into the 21st century by addressing the present generation. They cover such "Moby-Dick" topics as the character of Ishmael; the reading and rereading of the book; the "Moby-Dick" in popular culture; the surprising proliferation of "Moby-Dick" public reading marathons; its influence in the arts and even a discussion of the song of whales. This is truly a "mighty book" on "Moby-Dick." When you read this volume, you will have a whale of a time!

UPDATED: I received a new copy from amazon yesterday and the missing pages were not missing. The original must have been a printing issue, but was not caught and placed in circulation. The footnotes is just a NCE style, I have looked at others. But even with this edition, some of the pages are not printed well. Some pages the printing is almost so light it is very difficult to read?This is a review of the Norton Critical Edition, 3rd edition of Moby-Dick. When I got the book it seemed a little thin for Moby-Dick, but the Norton editions pages are super thin, so I really did not think too much of it. Then I started reading, out of curiosity I turned to the back of the book and noticed that the last two chapters were missing! The book went from page 396 to 429. Another thing that seems strange to me is the footnote numbering, when it gets to 9 it renumbers back to 1? So the only footnotes are numbered from 1 - 9, then they restart over, even in the middle of a chapter?The novel itself is amazing, but this edition has major problems and from Norton? That was really surprising. I have added a picture showing the missing pages.