Moby Dick
by Herman Melville
Table of Contents
Key Facts
Title: Moby Dick, or The Whale
Author: Herman Melville
Original language: English
Type of book: Novel
Genre: Literary fiction, tragedy, epic
Written in: Massachusetts and New York City, 1850-1851
First published: 1851
Narrator: Ishmael, a sailor on Captain Ahab’s ship, the Pequod.
Point of view: First-person limited from Ishmael’s perspective. At times, Ishmael also presents the thoughts of other characters based upon his own speculations, in first-person or third-person. However, he is not an omniscient narrator.
Tense: Past
Set in: The Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, primarily aboard a vessel named the Pequod, during the mid-19th century (1830s or 1840s).
Sign up to continue reading Key Facts >