r/mobydick • u/Tammuz2 • 5d ago

Any help here?

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I bought mobydick a year ago i did try to read it but i found it so hard

English is not my first language but i can read English book ok

So guys do you find it easy to read as English person

Or is it hard also on you

And is there any way that make it easier on me

I really wanna read it

This it my copy of it

31 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

13

u/PossibilityAgile2956 5d ago

2 pieces of advice: an annotated copy (powermobydick.com is good) can help clarify many of the references and things like nautical words. And it’s not plot heavy where 1 thing follows another. As a result if something isn’t grabbing you or is tough to get through, you can just skip it without getting completely lost

10

u/Livid-Department6947 5d ago

Skipping stuff is really bad advice for this book

1

u/PossibilityAgile2956 5d ago

Better than not reading at all. You can go back and fill in what you missed any time

5

u/Alyssapolis 5d ago

I agree it’s ill-advised to skip parts (if you want the full experience, which includes struggle and overwhelm), but I also agree it’s better to skip 1-2 chapters if you won’t read it otherwise. But my advice before that is to power through or put it down and pick it up again later.

Reading an abridged version on the other hand, better to not read it at all in that case.

1

u/Tammuz2 5d ago

Thank you 😉

10

u/ftmellville 5d ago

Try reading it out loud or listening to an audiobook while you read along. Let the waves of the words take you.

I do believe though that we're not always ready for all books at all times.

For me, it took me 10 years of trying yearly to read it before the book clicked for me. And I'm a native English speaker.

3

u/Tammuz2 5d ago

Thank you Maybe i need to read more books in old English first

5

u/melvillean 5d ago

Don’t go looking for books in Old English. That’s what Beowulf was written in and is incomprehensible to modern English speakers.

5

u/ftmellville 5d ago

Nah, it's not that old, it's just got dense sentences and a lot of nautical terminology. Let the sounds of the sentences wash over you.

1

u/NeptunesFavoredSon 5h ago

Moby Dick isn't written in an archaic form. The sentence structure is easy for an average native speaker. The vocabulary is on average a little challenging, not so much because it's archaic as because it's niche maritime. The genuine challenge for a native speaker is the poetics imvolved, with huge metaphors snd dense references to other works. Some older works and knowledge of literary history can help understanding these, but formally it's modern.

5

u/LaurenLovesLife 5d ago

I’m just curious, how far did you get before you stopped?

I first tried reading it when I was 16 and stopped on chapter three. There were just a lot of religious references I didn’t understand and I thought chapter three was very dense and boring.

I returned to it when I was 18 and found it much easier. I still didn’t like chapter three but after I got past that it was all much more engaging and it got easier and easier as I went.

1

u/Tammuz2 5d ago

I have read like 2 chapters but when im done i noticed that every line i go to the dictionary so after 10_15time it become so hard to remember the story Because this is something that leads to distraction. Then I give up on came here to ask for advice

4

u/FreshHotPoop 5d ago

Don’t worry, it’s hard for an English speaking native.

3

u/FortuneCookiiie 5d ago

English is my third language ,

I found MD very hard to read, but once I started, I got into the rhythm of it. if it helps you can find an audio book of it online and listen to it while following the text on your book. Take your time and enjoy it, it is not meant to be read fast in my opinion. If it is too hard, put it away and go back to it after sometime.

2

u/SnooPeppers3861 5d ago

A lot of people complain that it's about 1/4 plot and 3/4 whale facts, and that really bores them. I loved the whale facts! Each chapter is only like 3-5 pages long, so especially on the more difficult ones, I would read this read-along blog, understand the story, and understand some of the themes and references I missed. Sometimes reading the analysis took longer than the chapter itself. If I didn't understand the prose the first time, I'd reread it and it all started to make sense. The blog was so key, it really digs into the deeper meaning of the book: anti-capitalism, religion, epistemology (can we ever truly know anything), obsession, man vs nature, friendship and love. It's now in my list of all time favorite books.

2

u/henrythorough 4d ago

I always recommend to my students to read the hard copy along with the audiobook narrated by William Hootkins. It is one of the best audio book performances of all time! Never fails to entertain.

1

u/Tammuz2 3d ago

Thank you

2

u/trykedog 4d ago

It’s hard. It was probably a tough read even when it was written, but the archaic language makes it another level difficult. Especially for a nonnative speaker.

1

u/zlututubj 5d ago

Non-English speaker here, and I totally get how you feel. I used to read ebooks in Apple Books because it lets me tap a word and look up its meaning, which is better than using a paper dictionary. But for a book like Moby-Dick, the sheer amount of glossary (archaic/nautical/whaling) is daunting. powerbodydick.com is awesome imo. I built something similar, but it provides more functionality. For example, the glossary is color-coded by semantic category; the inlay pops up right where the word is. Give it a spin if you want to. My goal is to read the Arion Press edition eventually, because I love their illustrations.

https://www.betterreads.online/reader?bookId=moby_dick_se_1368kb&preview=1&chapter=i-loomings

1

u/trippingbilly701 2d ago

The Norton Critical Edition will help immensely.