The Moby Dick Big Read offers everyone an easy and fun way to enjoy a classic...one chapter at a time read by different voices. One of the selections was read by Margaret Guroff, who also created the Power Moby Dick website which includes a closely annotated text as well as links to related sites. "Our souls are like those orphans whose unwedded mothers die in bearing them: the secret of our paternity lies in their grave and we must there to learn it." (p. 1053) "Top-heavy was the ship as a dinnerless student with all Aristotle in his head." (p. 1045) Israel Potter, it does include remarkable portraits of Benjamin Franklin and John Paul Jones and proves, beyond a doubt, that the United States began neglecting their war veterans before they'd become a nation. Typee, Omoo, and Redburn are charming, full of good spirits and adventure. White-Jacket is overshadowed by its plea for the reform of naval discipline. Mardi which stands with The Pickwick Papers and Don Quixote as a kind of crazy-quilt of observation, opinion, and writing styles, is very enjoyable. Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. His first two books gained much attention, though they were not bestsellers, and his popularity declined precipitously only a few years later. By the time of his death he had been almost completely forgotten, but his longest novel, Moby Dick — largely considered a failure during his lifetime, and most responsible for Melville's fall from favor with the reading public — was rediscovered in the 20th century as one of the chief literary masterpieces of both American and world literature.