Moby-Dick, or, The WhaleMoby Dick is an 1851 novel by Herman Melville. The story tells the adventures of the wandering sailor Ishmael and his voyage on the whaling ship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab. Often considered the embodiment of American Romanticism, Moby Dick was first published by Richard Bentley in London on October 18, 1851 in an expurgated three volume edition titled The Whale, and later as one massive volume, by New York City publisher Harper and Brothers as