This edition of ""Moby-Dick"", released in honour of the book's 150th anniversary, is the authoritative text of one of the world's great adventure stories. A crew of whalers set out in pursuit of a fierce white whale. Their names ring through the canon of American literature: Ishmael, the narrator; Queenqueg, a South Seas harpooner; Starbuck, the sober and serious chief mate; and above all Captain Ahab, part Faust and part Job, leading them to the ends of the earth - and the destiny he will share with his foe. In ""Moby-Dick"", Melville set out to write ""a mighty book"" on a ""mighty theme"". This text of ""Moby-Dick"" is an Approved Text of the Center for Scholarly Editions (Modern Language Association of America).