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Moby-Dick Reviews Archive

Browse all 125 known contemporary reviews of Moby-Dick from 1851–1852, plus key revival-era criticism. The most complete collection online.

🇬🇧 London Globe and Traveller favorable
“All honour and praise to Fenimore Cooper... He has left a worthy successor in the person of Herman Melville, whose new work, 'The Whale,' is perhaps the raciest thing of the kind that was ever produced. Melville does not merely skim the surface, he dives into the deep unfathomed main. We smell and taste the brine in every page. His ink must be the black liquor of the cuttle-fish, and his pen drawn from the wing of the albatross. 'The Whale' is a very great performance. ”
— October 20, 1851
🇬🇧 London Morning Herald favorable
“For vigour, originality, and interest, has never been surpassed. ”
— October 20, 1851 — earliest known review
🇬🇧 London Morning Post favorable
“'The Whale,' by Herman Melville, just published, is perhaps the most extraordinary work that has appeared in England for a very great many years. The novelty of the materials — the poetical, combined with the practical nature of the author — the wild impetuous grandeur of his scenes — the impulsive force and vigour of his language — these make up one of the most fascinating books that was ever read. Melville is a star, and of no ordinary magnitude in the literary firmament. ”
— October 20, 1851
🇬🇧 London Morning Post favorable
“All who know the power of this most original and graphic author will anticipate a work of rare interest and entertainment. ”
— October 16, 1851 — advance notice
🇬🇧 London Morning Advertiser favorable
“[Melville’s] new work is full of brilliant descriptions, which display great powers of invention... His style is always good, and often admirable; fertile in conception, ingenious construction, playful fancy, and an unusual power of enchaining the interest, and rising to the verge of the sublime — all these are possessed by Herman Melville, and exemplified in these volumes. ”
— October 24, 1851
🇬🇧 London Globe favorable
“High philosophy, liberal feeling, abstruse metaphysics popularly phrased, soaring speculation, a style as many-coloured as the theme, yet always good and often admirable; fertile fancy, ingenious construction, playful learning, and an unusual power of enchaining the interest, and rising to the verge of the sublime. ”
— October 24, 1851 — excerpt from the Morning Advertiser review
🇬🇧 London John Bull favorable
“Who would have looked for philosophy in whales, or for poetry in blubber? Yet few books which professedly deal in metaphysics contain as much true philosophy and as much genuine poetry as the tale of the Pequod’s whaling expedition... It is not a mere tale of adventures, but a whole philosophy of life, that it unfolds. ”
— October 25, 1851
🇬🇧 Bell's Weekly Messenger favorable
“Sprightly in composition, amusing in anecdote, and sparkling for its wit, are epithets which every one must apply to these volumes after giving them a careful perusal. ”
— November 1, 1851
🇬🇧 Illustrated London News favorable
“Herman Melville's last and best and most wildly imaginative story, 'The Whale.' ”
— Angus Bethune Reach, November 1, 1851
🇬🇧 London Weekly Times & Echo favorable
“The early chapters, though containing but little adventure, are by far the best, and relate to topics that are, for the most part, fresh to English readers. Mr. Herman Melville there appears in his strongest point — sketching of character. ”
— November 2, 1851
🇬🇧 London Leader favorable
“A strange, wild, weird book, full of poetry and full of interest. ”
— November 8, 1851
🇬🇧 London Morning Post favorable
“Despite its occasional extravagancies, it is a book of extraordinary merit. ”
— November 14, 1851
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Moby-Dick Annotated Edition

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The annotated edition of Moby-Dick gives you everything you need to finally get Melville's masterpiece:

  • ✅ Complete, unabridged text — every word of the original 1851 edition
  • ✅ Hundreds of explanatory footnotes — no more Googling every other page
  • ✅ Historical context — the Essex disaster, Nantucket whaling, Melville's life
  • ✅ Literary analysis — chapter-by-chapter commentary on themes and symbols
  • ✅ Victorian vocabulary — obsolete words and nautical terms defined inline
  • ✅ Biblical & literary references — every allusion traced to its source

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