，给你们发红包。。
原标题：见者有份 | 在书单里落灰的《白鲸》。欢迎监督，今年读不完，给你们发红包。


Moby Dick, novel by Herman Melville, published in London in October 1851 as The Whale and a month later in New York City as Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. It is dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne. Moby Dick is generally regarded as Melville’s magnum opus and one of the greatest American novels. 
1851年10月，赫尔曼·梅尔维尔的小说《白鲸》在伦敦出版。一个月后在纽约问世，名为《白鲸》或《鲸》。本书谨献给纳撒尼尔·霍桑。《白鲸》是梅尔维尔的代表作，也是美国最伟大的小说之一。
Plot Summary 内容简介
Moby Dick famously begins with the narratorial invocation “Call me Ishmael.” The narrator, like his biblical counterpart, is an outcast. Ishmael, who turns to the sea for meaning, relays to the audience the final voyage of the Pequod, a whaling vessel. Amid a story of tribulation, beauty, and madness, the reader is introduced to a number of characters, many of whom have names with religious resonance. The ship’s captain is Ahab, who Ishmael and his friend Queequeg soon learn is losing his mind. Starbuck, Ahab’s first-mate, recognizes this problem too, and is the only one throughout the novel to voice his disapproval of Ahab’s increasingly obsessive behavior. This nature of Ahab’s obsession is first revealed to Ishmael and Queequeg after the Pequod’s owners, Peleg and Bildad, explain to them that Ahab is still recovering from an encounter with a large whale that resulted in the loss of his leg. That whale’s name is Moby Dick. The Pequod sets sail, and the crew is soon informed that this journey will be unlike their other whaling missions: this time, despite the reluctance of Starbuck, Ahab intends to hunt and kill the beastly Moby Dick no matter the cost.
“请叫我以实玛利”是《白鲸》著名的叙述性开场。就像圣经中的主人公一样，《白鲸》的叙述者也是一个被排斥的人。以实玛利向读者讲述了捕鲸船“裴廓德号”的最后一次航行。在一个充满苦难、美丽和疯狂的故事中，读者会看到许多人物，其中一些名字都带有宗教共鸣。裴廓德号的船长是亚哈。以实玛利和他的朋友季奎格很快发现 亚哈已经失去理智。 亚哈的大副斯达巴克也意识到这一问题，他是全书唯一一个对亚哈的疯魔举动提出异议的人。裴廓德号的船主法勒和比勒达告诉以实玛利和季奎格， 亚哈在与一条大鲸的缠斗中失去了一条腿，到现在还没有完全康复。这是文中第一次解读 亚哈疯魔个性的形成。大鲸的名字叫做莫比·迪克。裴廓德号启航了，船员们很快得知，这次的捕鲸之旅将不同以往：这一次，无视斯达巴克的反对， 亚哈决意捕杀凶残的莫比·迪克，不惜任何代价。 
Ahab and the crew continue their eventful journey and encounter a number of obstacles along the way. Queequeg falls ill, which prompts a coffin to be built in anticipation of the worst. After he recovers, the coffin becomes a replacement lifeboat that eventually saves Ishmael’s life. Ahab receives a prophecy from a crew member informing him of his future death, which he ignores. Moby Dick is spotted and, over the course of three days, engages violently with Ahab and the Pequod until the whale destroys the ship, killing everyone except Ishmael. Ishmael survives by floating on Queequeg’s coffin until he is picked up by another ship, the Rachel. The novel consists of 135 chapters, in which narrative and essayistic portions intermingle, as well as an epilogue and front matter.
亚哈和船员继续他们多舛的旅程，并在沿途遇到一些阻碍。季奎格病倒了，为以防万一，他们打了一口棺材。季奎格康复后，这口棺材成了救生船，又救了以实玛利的命。一名船员预言了 亚哈的死亡，可他仍视若无睹。莫比·迪克出现了。 亚哈的裴廓德号与莫比·迪克大战三日，直到这条大鲸毁了整艘船，除以实玛利外，所有人都命丧大海。以实玛利靠着季奎格的棺材飘在海面，直到另一艘船瑞秋号将他救起，才得以幸存。小说共有135章，其中叙事性和散文性的部分混合在一起，包括前言和结语。 
Interpreting Moby Dick 解读《白鲸》
Moby Dick can sustain numerous, if not seemingly infinite, readings generated by multiple interpretative approaches. One of the most fruitful ways to appreciate the novel’s complexity is through the names that Melville gave to its characters, many of which are shared with figures of the Abrahamic religions. The very first line of Moby Dick, for instance, identifies Ishmael as the narrator; Ishmael was the illegitimate son of Abraham and was cast away after Isaac was born. There are a number of other Abrahamic names in the book as well, including Ahab—who, according to the Hebrew Bible, was an evil king who led the Israelites into a life of idolatry. 
对《白鲸》的解读存在无限的可能性。通过理解梅尔维尔给各个人物起的名字来解读他对每个人物的理解，不失为一个欣赏本书复杂性的好方法。其中许多名字与亚伯拉罕诸教中的人物相同。《白鲸》正文第一行出现的叙述者的名字，以实玛利，就是亚伯拉罕的私生子，他在以撒出生后便被迫流浪。除此之外， 亚哈在《希伯来圣经》中也是将以色列人带入邪神崇拜的恶毒国王。 
Melville’s Ahab is obsessed with Moby Dick, an idol that causes the death of his crew. The ship that saves Ishmael, the Rachel, is named for the mother of Joseph, known for interceding to protect her children. It is Rachel, as depicted in the Book of Jeremiah, who convinced God to end the exile placed upon the Jewish tribes for idolatry. The rescue of Ishmael by the Rachel in Moby Dick can thus be read as his return from an exile caused by his complicity in Ahab’s idolatry of the whale. Melville’s use of these names grants his novel a rich layer of additional meaning.
梅尔维尔笔下的 亚哈对莫比·迪克扭曲地崇拜沉迷，也最终导致船员的丧生。这艘救了 以实玛利的船，名为瑞秋。瑞秋是乔瑟夫的母亲，以求情护子而闻名。正如《耶利米书》中所描述的那样，瑞秋说服上帝，不要因犹太人的偶像崇拜而判其流放。因此在《白鲸》中， 以实玛利因与亚哈一同“崇拜”大鲸而被放逐，瑞秋的解救等同于对他的召回。 梅尔维尔通过这些名字给他的小说增添了丰富的言外之意。 
The whale itself is perhaps the most striking symbol in Moby Dick, and interpretations of its meaning range from the Judeo-Christian God to atheism and everything in between. Between the passages of carefully detailed cetology, the epigraphs, and the shift from a hero’s quest narrative to a tragedy, Melville set the stage for purposeful ambiguity. The novel’s ability to produce numerous interpretations is, perhaps, the main reason it is considered one of the greatest American novels.
大鲸本身是《白鲸》中最瞩目的一个形象，人们对其的解读从犹太基督的神到无神论，各有各的观点。 梅尔维尔在那些详实的鲸类学知识、引用的格言，以及从英雄到悲剧的转换间，有意地进行了模糊处理。《白鲸》之所以能成为美国最伟大的小说之一，或许也正是因为在解读中存在的无穷无尽的可能性。 
Context And Reception 背景与感悟
Melville himself was well versed in whaling, as he had spent some time aboard the Acushnet, a whaling vessel, which gave him firsthand experience. He also did tremendous amounts of research, consulting a number of scientific sources as well as accounts of historical events that he incorporated into Moby Dick. In particular, the story of the Essex was one that fascinated Melville—and perhaps served as his primary inspiration for the novel. 
梅尔维尔自身就是捕鲸达人，他在高仕利捕鲸船上待过一段时间，给了他很多亲身经历。同时，他做了大量研究，查阅科学资料，并针对《白鲸》中出现的事件查找了大量文史资料。尤其，埃塞克斯号的故事吸引了梅尔维尔，也许也是他创作《白鲸》的主要灵感来源。
The Essex, a whaling vessel, was attacked by a sperm whale in 1820. The ship sank, and many of the crew members were either lost immediately or died of starvation as they awaited rescue for nearly eight months.
埃塞克斯号 捕鲸船于1820年被一头抹香鲸攻击。船沉了。多数船员或当场死亡，或在八个月的漫长等待救援的过程中饥饿致死。 
Melville also consulted the story of Mocha Dick, a famed whale who was, like Moby Dick, very white and aggressive and whose name was clearly an inspiration to Melville. Mocha Dick was often found off the coast of Chile in the Pacific Ocean, near Mocha Island. He lived during the early 19th century and became a legend among whalers. In 1839 a story about the whale was written in The Knickerbocker, which was likely the source of Melville’s discovery of Mocha Dick. Unlike Moby Dick, however, Mocha Dick was eventually killed and used for oil.
梅尔维尔还参考了 莫卡·迪克的故事。 莫卡·迪克和莫比·迪克一样，都是进攻性很强的白鲸。很明显， 莫卡·迪克也就是 梅尔维尔创作《白鲸》主人公的灵感来源。 莫卡·迪克 常出现在智利的太平洋海岸线附近，靠近莫卡岛。1839年，莫卡·迪克的故事被写入《尼克博克》。 梅尔维尔也正是在这里读到了白鲸的故事。不同于莫比·迪克，莫卡·迪克最终被杀，且用于制作鲸油。 
Melville befriended fellow author Nathaniel Hawthorne during the writing of Moby Dick, which led to him dramatically revising the narrative to make it more complex. The novel is dedicated to Hawthorne because of his impact on Melville and the novel.
梅尔维尔在创作过程中与作家纳撒尼尔·霍桑。也正因如此，《白鲸》在不断修改中不断增加其复杂性。本书致敬 霍桑，感谢他对 梅尔维尔和著作的影响。 
Once the novel was published, the public was unimpressed. It sold fewer than 4,000 copies in total, with fewer than 600 in the United Kingdom. It was not until the mid-20th century that the novel became recognized as one of the most important novels in American literature.
著作出版初期，并未收到公众的追捧。总发行量不到4000本，其中伦敦发行不到600本。直到二十世纪中叶，《白鲸》才被认定为美国文学中最重要的小说之一。 
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