Herman Melville has 17 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 30 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4★ across 686 ratings. The most-rated is Moby Dick.
Moby Dick
Summary
The outcast youth Ishmael, succumbing to wanderlust during a dreary New England autumn, signs up for passage aboard a whaling ship. The Pequod sails under the command of the one-legged Captain Ahab, who has set himself on a monomaniacal quest to capture the cunning white whale that robbed him of his leg: Moby-Dick. Capturing life on the sea with robust realism, Melville details the adventures of the colorful crew aboard the ship as Ahab pursues his crusade of revenge, heedless of all cost.
Public Domain (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Moby-Dick
Summary
Its famous opening line, "Call me Ishmael," dramatic in its stark simplicity, begins an epic that is widely regarded as the greatest novel ever written by an American. Labeled variously a realistic story of whaling, a romance of unusual adventure and eccentric characters, a symbolic allegory, and a drama of heroic conflict, Moby Dick is first and foremost a great story. It has both the humor and poignancy of a simple sea ballad, as well as the depth and universality of a grand odyssey. When Melville's father died in 1832, the young man's financial security went too. For a while he turned to school-mastering and clerking, but failed to make a sustainable income. In 1840 he signed up on the whaler, Acushnet, out of New Bedford, Massachusetts. He was just 21. A whaler's life turned out to be both arduous and dangerous, and in 1842, Melville deserted ship. Out of this experience and a wealth of printed sources, Melville crafted his masterpiece.
©1987 Recorded Books, LLC. (P)1987 Recorded Books, LLC.
Moby Dick
Summary
"Call me Ishmael." Thus starts the greatest American novel. Melville said himself that he wanted to write "a mighty book about a mighty theme" and so he did. It is a story of one man's obsessive revenge-journey against the white whale, Moby-Dick, who injured him in an earlier meeting. Woven into the story of the last journey of The Pequod is a mesh of philosophy, rumination, religion, history, and a mass of information about whaling through the ages. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
Public Domain (P)2005 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd.
Moby Dick (AmazonClassics Edition)
Summary
Featured title on PBS's The Great American Read in 2018 Ignoring prophecies of doom, the seafarer Ishmael joins the crew of a whaling expedition that is an obsession for the ship's captain, Ahab. Once maimed by the White Whale, Moby Dick, Ahab has set out on a voyage of revenge. With godlike ferocity, he surges into dangerous waters - immune to the madness of his vision, refusing to be bested by the forces of nature. An exhilarating whaling yarn, an apocalyptic theodicy, a tragic confessional, and a profound allegory, Moby Dick encompasses all that it means to be human - from the physical and metaphysical to the spiritual and emotional. Full of strange wisdom and wild digressive energy, it's a singular literary performance universally regarded as one of the great American novels. Revised edition: Previously published as Moby Dick, this edition of Moby Dick (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions.
Public Domain (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Billy Budd, Sailor
Summary
Written some 40 years after Moby Dick, Melville's Billy Budd is a moving tale of good versus evil. Set aboard a British navy ship at the end of the eighteenth century, a young, innocent sailor's charm and good nature put the men around him at ease. Ship life agreed with Billy. He made friends quickly and was well liked, which infuriated John Claggart, the ship's cold-blooded superior officer. Mutiny was a continual threat greatly feared by naval officers. Even minor offences were dealt with harshly to keep crews in their place, regardless of whether the accused was guilty or innocent. The envious Master-at-Arms becomes obsessed with the destruction of the 'Handsome Sailor' and torments the young man until his false accusations lead to an eventual charge of treason against Billy.
Public Domain (P)2000 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd.
Bartleby, the Scrivener
Summary
This is a short story about a lawyer with offices on Wall Street in New York City. He runs an advertisement for a scrivener, or professional copyist, for his office and Bartleby responds to his advertisement and comes to work for the lawyer. At first Bartleby appears to be a competent worker, but later he refuses to work when requested, repeatedly uttering the phrase "I would prefer not to." As Bartleby's behavior escalates, the lawyer is confronted with how he will handle and respond to this bizarre behavior. In 2001, the story was adapted into a movie titled "Bartleby".
©2018 Herman Melville (P)2018 AB Books
Moby Dick: or the Whale
Summary
Moby-Dick is widely considered to be the Great American Novel and a treasure of world literature. The story details the adventures of the wandering sailor Ishmael and his voyage on the whale ship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab. Ishmael soon learns that Ahab seeks one specific whale: Moby Dick, a ferocious, enigmatic white sperm whale. In a previous encounter, the whale destroyed Ahab's boat and bit off his leg. And Ahab intends to take revenge.
Public Domain (P)2011 Trout Lake Media
Typee
Summary
Herman Melville is one of the greatest figures in literary history. His classic Moby Dick is generally considered the finest novel ever written by an American. Yet in Melville’s day, Typee was a far more popular book. Largely autobiographical, this classic adventure story is set in the South Seas, where a runaway sailor is captured by the Typees. Described as “a fierce and unrelenting tribe of savages," the islanders have no intention of letting their captive go.
Public Domain (P)2002 Recorded Books, LLC
Benito Cereno
Summary
Herman Melville wrote the 1855 novella Benito Cereno, a story about a revolt on a slaver ship, the San Dominick, off the coast of Chile in 1799. It is an adventure story which highlights the cruelty of slavery and the hopeless desperation that slaves experience. The tale begins when Captain Delano of the whaling ship Bachelor's Delight spots another ship approaching, floating listlessly with torn sails. Delano sends a boat to investigate, and a tale of horror unfolds about the mutiny on the San Dominick and the attempt of the mutineers to capture the Bachelor's Delight. An interesting feature of the novella is the way that Melville employs a third-person narrator to report Delano's opinions without any correction; on that account Benito Cereno has become a famous example of unreliable narration.
Public Domain (P)2019 Museum Audiobooks
Melvilles Reisen
Summary
Ein auf den Reisetagebüchern des großen Schriftstellers und Seefahrers basierendes Hörbuch, das ebenso viel über das Leben des Moby-Dick-Autors wie über seine Werke aussagt: Herman Melville hat drei große Reisen in seinem Leben unternommen, die ihn nach Europa, in das Heilige Land und in den vorderen Orient geführt haben und auf denen er so manch spannendes Abenteuer erlebt und die Welt kennengelernt hat.
©2002 SAGA Egmont (P)2021 SAGA Egmont
Vortoppmann Billy Bud
Summary
Auf den Ozeanen herrscht Krieg zwischen dem "Empire" und der "Grande Nation". Bei der Rekrutierung von Schiffspersonal gehen die Soldaten Ihrer Majestät nicht wählerisch vor und verpflichten jeden Mann, den sie in die Finger bekommen können. Als Glücksgriff hierbei erweist sich ein junger Bursche namens Billy Bud, der über Erfahrung auf einem Handelsschiff verfügt und aufgrund seiner physischen Stärke an Bord der "Indomitable" eine Karriere im Mannschaftsgrad beginnt. Seine blendende Erscheinung und seine offene sympathische Art verschaffen ihm die Spitznamen Baby Bud und "Hübscher Matrose". Billy erfreut sich allgemeiner Beliebtheit und Respekt, aber überdurchschnittliche Leistungen gehen Hand in Hand mit Neidern und Spöttern. John Claggert bezichtigt Billy vor Kapitän Vere der geplanten Meuterei, worauf Billy die Hand ausrutscht und er im Effekt Claggert mit einem Faustschlag niederstreckt, woran dieser stirbt. Es kommt zur Gerichtsverhandlung auf hoher See...
©2018 Aufbau-Verlag (P)2018 LILYLA Hörbuch-Editionen
Moby Dick
Summary
Die Jagd nach dem weißen Wal wird für Kapitän Ahab zu einer Lebensaufgabe und auch zu einem aufregenden Abenteuer auf Leben und Tod. Er ist besessen von einem einzigen Gedanken: Er will Rache üben an seinem Todfeind, Moby Dick, dem riesigen weißen Wal, der ihn zum Krüppel gemacht hat. Mit seinem Walfänger durchsegelt er die sieben Weltmeere.
©2018 Maritim Verlag (P)2018 Maritim Verlag
Typee
Summary
Originally published in Britain under the title, Narrative of a Four Months Residence among the Natives of a Valley of the Marquesas Islands, and therefore posing as non-fiction, Typee was Melville's first novel. It was published in 1846, five years before Moby Dick, and was the most popular of the author's works during his lifetime. The book is an idyll of four months among primitive South Sea islanders. However, the books also shocked its original audience with a truthful account of Polynesian tribal life, including their very liberal sexual practices. Typee won Melville great fame during his life and remains a favorite today.
Public Domain (P)1984 Jimcin Recordings
The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade
Summary
Herman Melville’s novel The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade (1857) is a comedy of masquerades and a blend of allegory, cultural satire, and metaphysics. The book portrays a confidence man who sneaks on board a Mississippi steamboat on April Fool's Day, and sets out to defraud his fellow passengers. He rapidly assumes various guises and the pleasure of trickery seems more important than the monetary gain. Each person is forced to confront that in which they believe. The text includes satires of 19th-century literary figures like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allan Poe, while exploring themes of sincerity, identity, morality, religiosity, materialism, irony, and cynicism. Many literary critics place The Confidence-Man on a par Melville's Moby Dick and Bartleby, the Scrivener as a precursor to 20th-century literary preoccupations with existentialism, nihilism, and the absurd.
Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks
Herman Melville: Selected Stories
Summary
Herman Melville, known primarily for his epic Moby Dick, also wrote a number of equally incisive, but much shorter stories. This collection contains four of his best: "Bartelby the Scrivner", "Benito Cereno", "Jimmy Rose", and "The Fiddler".
Public Domain (P)1979 Jimcin Recordings
Alison Larkin Presents: Moby Dick and Two Poems by Herman Melville
Summary
Melville’s epic tale of one man versus a great white whale will delight Melville devotees as well as those who have yet to sail on this adventure in this mesmerizing new recording read by Jonathan Epstein. The mountain whose whale-like shape first gave Melville the idea of writing Moby Dick rests in the Berkshire Hills, Massachusetts, a short drive away from The Alison Larkin Presents recording studio. “I’d been longing to produce Moby Dick ever since I moved to Westeern Massachusetts,” says producer Alison Larkin, “but I wanted to wait to find the perfect actor first. Then, I found Jonathan Epstein.” At the end of the recording, Larkin interviews Jonathan Epstein and recording engineer Galen Wade about the experience recording the great novel. Jonathan Epstein is an acclaimed actor who has performed on and off Broadway, in London’s West End, and with the world-renowned Shakespeare & Company. Epstein is the two-time recipient of Boston’s coveted Elliot Norton Award.
Public Domain (P)2021 Alison Larkin Presents
Abenteuer-Box
Summary
Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist:
Der Waisenjunge Oliver Twist wächst unter den erbärmlichsten Bedingungen auf, die man sich vorstellen kann. Als er Hunger, Armut und Prügel nicht mehr erträgt, reißt er nach London aus, um dort sein Glück zu versuchen. Aber hier ergeht es ihm auch nicht viel besser: Er gerät in die Fänge einer Diebesbande, die ihn ausbeutet und zum Stehlen zwingen will. Doch Oliver trifft auch auf liebenswerte Menschen, die Mitleid mit ihm haben und ihm helfen. Und schließlich kommt Erstaunliches über seine Herkunft ans Licht!
Herman Melville: Moby DickGemeinsam mit dem Harpunier Queequeg heuert der Ich-Erzähler, der Matrose Ismael, auf dem Walfänger Pequod an. Dort erklärt Kapitän Ahab der Mannschaft das Ziel der Fahrt: Er will den weißen Wal "Moby Dick", der ihm einst das Bein abriss, jagen und erlegen. Die Mannschaft, aufgeheizt durch den charismatischen und wahnsinnigen Kapitän, schwört sich auf Ahab und dessen Ziel ein. Ahabs Gegenpart ist der erste Maat, Starbuck, ein kühner und erfahrener Seemann. Es kommt zu mehreren Konfrontationen zwischen Ahab und Starbuck. Nach langer Fahrt begegnet die Pequod östlich von Japan endlich dem Weißen Wal. Die Jagd auf ihn dauert drei Tage...
Robert Louis Stevenson: Die Schatzinsel:Der Jugendliche Jim Hawkins findet die vergilbte Karte einer Insel, auf der der Schatz des berüchtigten Piraten Captain Flint vergraben sein soll. Es wird eine Expedition ausgerüstet. Dafür wird auch Hawkins angeheuert, der als Schiffsjunge auf der "Hispaniola" mitreist. Doch die Männer um Kapitän Smollett sind nicht allein an Bord: Piraten haben von dem Schatz Wind bekommen und sich an Bord geschmuggelt. Es beginnt ein tödliches Wettrennen zwischen den Piraten um den einbeinigen Schiffskoch Long John Silver und den Freunden des Schiffsjungen Jim Hawkins.
(c)+(p) 2010 Buchfunk Hörbuchverlag