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Moby Dick
#1
I just finished rereading this, and it's still great. Some of the language is a bit difficult (rather like some of Hawthorne's) but Melville spins some great metaphors. And it has a lot of interesting information about sailing and whaling. Plus there are some funny bits. Admittedly it is dark, but since a main theme is existential tragedy (i.e., you will someday die) that is to be expected.
the hands that guide me are invisible
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#2
Just reread this again. It just keeps getting better. Melville's musings are the best part, not the plot or the whaling descriptions. 

This time I had a companion book - Dive Deeper: Journeys with Moby Dick by George Cotkin. He has one chapter for each chapter of Melville's book. Some are focused on the contents of the chapter in Moby Dick, some take off from there to go elsewhere, rather like Melville's writing. (In my opinion Melville does to the 19th century novel form something like the Grateful Dead does to the song form.) It was interesting to read the criticism he brings in. Oddly, no one that he quotes or mentions says anything about what I consider to be a central point: that Stubb and Ahab are opposite figures. He also introduced me to the art of Matt Kish, who did a series of pictures for every chapter of the book.
the hands that guide me are invisible
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