Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, the Whale (1851)
Herman Melville’s tale of the Great White Whale and the crazed Captain Ahab who declares he will chase him “round perdition’s flames before I give him up” has become an American myth. Even people who have never read Moby-Dick know the basic plot, and references to it are common in other works of American literature and in popular culture, such as the Star Trek film The Wrath of Khan (1982).
Herman Melville’s tale of the Great White Whale and the crazed Captain Ahab who declares he will chase him “round perdition’s flames before I give him up” has become an American myth. Even people who have never read <em>Moby-Dick</em> know the basic plot, and references to it are common in other works of American literature and in popular culture, such as the Star Trek film <em>The Wrath of Khan</em> (1982).