Moby-Dick or, The Whale

by Herman Melville

In Token of my admiration for his genius, this book is inscribed to Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Loomings

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago -- never mind how long precisely -- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore,

I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.

It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet;