Herman Melville 
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale 

/’No man can ever feel his own identity aright except his eyes be closed; as if darkness were indeed the proper element of our essences, though light be more congenial to our clayey part. /’
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, by American author Herman Melville, is an 1851 novel. The book is the story by sailor Ishmael about the relentless search of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship Pequod, for vengeance on Moby Dick, the massive white sperm whale that bit off Ahab/’s leg at the knee on the ship/’s earlier voyage.