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In his riveting and critically acclaimed bestseller, Nathaniel Philbrick returns an epic tale -- the inspiration for Herman Melville's Moby Dick -- to it's rightful place in American history.
In the Heart of the Sea brings to new life the incredible story of the wreck of the whaleship Essex -- the inspiration for the climax of Moby-Dick. In a harrowing page-turner, Nathaniel Philbrick restores this epic story to its rightful place in American history.
In 1819 the 240-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage. Fifteen months later, in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, it was repeatedly rammed and sunk by an eighty-ton bull sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, made for the 3,000-mile-distant coast of South America in three tiny boats. During ninety days at sea under horrendous conditions, the survivors clung to life as one by one, they succumbed to hunger, thirst, disease, and fear.
In the Heart of the Sea tells perhaps the greatest sea story ever. Philbrick interweaves his account of this extraordinary ordeal of ordinary men with a wealth of whale lore and with a brilliantly detailed portrait of the lost, unique community of Nantucket whalers. Impeccably researched and beautifully told, the book delivers the ultimate portrait of man against nature. At once a literary companion and a page-turner that speaks to the same issues of class, race, and man's relationship to nature that permeate the works of Melville, In the Heart of the Sea will endure as a vital work of American history.
(This book is the basis of a 2015 film starring Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Ben Wishaw, and Brendan Gleeson, and directed by Ron Howard)
In his riveting and critically acclaimed bestseller, Nathaniel Philbrick returns an epic tale -- the inspiration for Herman Melville's Moby Dick -- to it's rightful place in American history.
In the Heart of the Sea brings to new life the incredible story of the wreck of the whaleship Essex -- the inspiration for the climax of Moby-Dick. In a harrowing page-turner, Nathaniel Philbrick restores this epic story to its rightful place in American history.
In 1819 the 240-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage. Fifteen months later, in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, it was repeatedly rammed and sunk by an eighty-ton bull sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, made for the 3,000-mile-distant coast of South America in three tiny boats. During ninety days at sea under horrendous conditions, the survivors clung to life as one by one, they succumbed to hunger, thirst, disease, and fear.
In the Heart of the Sea tells perhaps the greatest sea story ever. Philbrick interweaves his account of this extraordinary ordeal of ordinary men with a wealth of whale lore and with a brilliantly detailed portrait of the lost, unique community of Nantucket whalers. Impeccably researched and beautifully told, the book delivers the ultimate portrait of man against nature. At once a literary companion and a page-turner that speaks to the same issues of class, race, and man's relationship to nature that permeate the works of Melville, In the Heart of the Sea will endure as a vital work of American history.
(This book is the basis of a 2015 film starring Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Ben Wishaw, and Brendan Gleeson, and directed by Ron Howard)
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Review:
The appeal of Dava Sobel's Longitude was, in part, that it illuminated a little-known piece of history through a series of captivating incidents and engaging personalities. Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea is certainly cast from the same mold, examining the 19th-century Pacific whaling industry through the arc of the sinking of the whaleship Essex by a boisterous sperm whale. The story that inspired Herman Melville's classic Moby-Dick has a lot going for it--derring-do, cannibalism, rescue--and Philbrick proves an amiable and well-informed narrator, providing both context and detail. We learn about the importance and mechanics of blubber production--a vital source of oil--and we get the nuts and bolts of harpooning and life aboard whalers. We are spared neither the nitty-gritty of open boats nor the sucking of human bones dry.
From the Publisher:
By sticking to the tried and tested Longitude formula, Philbrick has missed a slight trick or two. The epicenter of the whaling industry was Nantucket, a small island off Cape Cod; most of the whales were in the Pacific, necessitating a huge journey around the southernmost tip of South America. We never learn why no one ever tried to create an alternative whaling capital somewhere nearer. Similarly, Philbrick tells us that the story of the Essex was well known to Americans for decades, but he never explores how such legends fade from our consciousness. Philbrick would no doubt reply that such questions were beyond his remit, and you can't exactly accuse him of skimping on his research. By any standard, 50 pages of footnotes impress, though he wears his learning lightly. He doesn't get bogged down in turgid detail, and his narrative rattles along at a nice pace. When the storyline is as good as this, you can't really ask for more. --John Crace, Amazon.co.uk
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- PublisherViking Press
- Publication date2000
- ISBN 10 0002572125
- ISBN 13 9780002572125
- BindingPaperback
- Edition number1
- Rating
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IN THE HEART OF THE SEA - The Epic True Story that Inspired MOBY DICK
Published by
Flamingo / HarperCollins. London. .
(2000)
ISBN 10: 0002572125
ISBN 13: 9780002572125
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Softcover
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Book Description Trade paperback edition. XVIII, 302 PP with 2 maps, 2 plans, 1 tail piece and 14 head pieces, plus 16 pages with 28 b/w illustrations. Pictorial soft cover. Remainder mark at bottom edge and a small crease on front cover, otherwise o/wise fine. 23.3 x 15.3. The sinking of the whaleship Essex by an enraged whale, far out in the Pacific, November 1820. Seller Inventory # 36467
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In the Heart of the Sea: The Epic True Story That Inspired Moby Dick
Published by
Flamingo, London
(2000)
ISBN 10: 0002572125
ISBN 13: 9780002572125
Used
Softcover
First Edition
Quantity: 1
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Rating
Book Description Softcover. Condition: Very Good. First Edition. First impression. Size: Octavo 8vo (standard book size). 302 pages. Text body is clean, and free from previous owner annotation, underlining and highlighting. Binding is tight, covers and spine fully intact. Pages are lightly toned throughout. Previous owner's signature in ink. Edges browned slightly. The book has been read and it may have some creases but is sound overall. The book is available and will be PACKAGED professionally, DISPATCHED promptly and a TRACKING NUMBER will be advised by Australia Post. The epic true-life story of one of the most notorious maritime disasters of the 19th century, which was the inspiration for Herman Melville's classic novel Moby Dick. The sinking of the whaleship Essex by an enraged sperm whale in the Pacific in November 1820 set in motion one of the most dramatic sea stories of all time: the twenty sailors who survived the wreck took to three small boats (one of which was again attacked by a whale) and only eight of them survived their subsequent 90-day ordeal, after resorting to cannibalising their mates.Three months after the Essex was broken up, the whaleship Dauphin, cruising off the coast of South America, spotted a small boat in the open ocean. As they pulled alongside they saw piles of bones in the bottom of the boat, at least two skeletons' worth, with two survivors - almost skeletons themselves - sucking the marrow from the bones of their dead ship-mates.The author uses a hitherto unknown diary of one of the survivors discovered in an attic in Connecticut in spring 1998. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilogram. Category: Ships & the Sea; Survival; United States; 19th century; ISBN: 0002572125. ISBN/EAN: 9780002572125. Pictures of this item not already displayed here available upon request. Inventory No: 9855. Seller Inventory # 9855
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