"It is the hideous texture of a cloth that should be woven from ship cables and jibs. A polar wind blows through it and birds of prey hover over it." So Melville wrote about his masterpiece, one of the greatest works of imagination in literary history. In part, Moby-Dick is the story of a mysteriously compelling madman who pursues an unholy war against a creature as vast, dangerous, and unknowable as the sea itself. But more than an adventure novel, more than an encyclopedia of whaling history and legend, the book can be seen as part of its author's lifelong meditation on America. Written with wonderfully redemptive humor, Moby-Dick is also an in-depth investigation of character, faith, and the nature of perception.