Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I . A Note to Readers
II. Etymology
III. Extracts
IV. Moby-Dick
V. Acknowledgements
VI. Notes

About the Author

George Cotkin is Professor of History at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

Reviews

"[An] entertaining companion to Moby-Dick." --Publishers Weekly, selected as a "Pick of the Week"
"Delving beneath the huge cultural shadows cast by Melville's work, Cotkin reveals how many great writers, including Faulkner, Auden, and Masefield, have found inspiration in Melville's novel. Cotkin also scrutinizes cinematic and television adaptions of Melville's book, from the John Barrymore film, The Sea Beast, in 1926 to the Star Trek fantasy, The Wrath of Khan, in 1982. Even the playful treatment given Moby-Dick themes
in Peanuts cartoons receives scrutiny! The 135 chapters may drift about as chaotically as the flotsam left when the Great Whale smashes the Pequod, but this flotsam has been pried from the depths, and it will thrill Melvilleans."
--Booklist
"The book works so well because it is both serious and seriously entertaining...this new companion is as affable as it is smart." --The Boston Globe
"This is one grand intellectual adventure--an adventure in reading that parallels Ishmael's own astonishing journey. Moby-Dick is, of course, the masterpiece at the center of American Literature. It's a gigantic whale of a novel, and George Cotkin has done a marvelous job of bringing its many glittering aspects before us. I can't imagine a more timely, entertaining, or--indeed--illuminating book." --Jay Parini, author of The Passages of H.M.: A
Novel of Herman Melville
"Dive Deeper is a pleasure to read and the truest portrait of Moby-Dick in American life and letters yet produced." --David Dowling, author of Chasing the White Whale: The Moby-Dick Marathon; or What Melville Means Today

"[An] entertaining companion to Moby-Dick." --Publishers Weekly, selected as a "Pick of the Week" "Delving beneath the huge cultural shadows cast by Melville's work, Cotkin reveals how many great writers, including Faulkner, Auden, and Masefield, have found inspiration in Melville's novel. Cotkin also scrutinizes cinematic and television adaptions of Melville's book, from the John Barrymore film, The Sea Beast, in 1926 to the Star Trek fantasy, The Wrath of Khan, in 1982. Even the playful treatment given Moby-Dick themes in Peanuts cartoons receives scrutiny! The 135 chapters may drift about as chaotically as the flotsam left when the Great Whale smashes the Pequod, but this flotsam has been pried from the depths, and it will thrill Melvilleans." --Booklist "The book works so well because it is both serious and seriously entertaining...this new companion is as affable as it is smart." --The Boston Globe "This is one grand intellectual adventure--an adventure in reading that parallels Ishmael's own astonishing journey. Moby-Dick is, of course, the masterpiece at the center of American Literature. It's a gigantic whale of a novel, and George Cotkin has done a marvelous job of bringing its many glittering aspects before us. I can't imagine a more timely, entertaining, or--indeed--illuminating book." --Jay Parini, author of The Passages of H.M.: A Novel of Herman Melville "Dive Deeper is a pleasure to read and the truest portrait of Moby-Dick in American life and letters yet produced." --David Dowling, author of Chasing the White Whale: The Moby-Dick Marathon; or What Melville Means Today

Using the same chapter titles as Moby-Dick, Cotkin (history, California Polytechnic State Univ.) takes the reader on a creative but random journey of quirky associations generated by his reading of Melville's novel. More often than not, however, his discussions have little to do with the content of Melville's chapters and simply use the titles as jumping-off points for his own ruminations. In "Cutting In" (Melville's chapter of the same name covers stripping a whale's blubber), Cotkin discusses how various publishers have "cut in" to the original novel, removing half its length, even eliminating the famous three opening words in some editions. Too often, Cotkin's explorations go far afield. His chapter "The Pequod Meets the Virgin" focuses on the connection between the name of the first mate, Starbuck, and the chain of coffee shops. For "The Chase-First Day," in which Ahab and his crew encounter the ferocity of Moby-Dick, Cotkin chooses to discuss the 1955 heavyweight championship fight between Archie Moore and Rocky Marciano. -VERDICT Since there seems no rationale for what any given chapter here discusses, the book does little to help the serious reader "dive deeper" into Melville's work. On the other hand, readers who enjoy trivia and tangents may appreciate this book.-Anthony J. Pucci, Notre Dame H.S., Elmira, NY (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.