Readers like you keep news free for everyone.
More than 5,000 readers have already pitched in to keep free access to The Journal.
For the price of one cup of coffee each week you can help keep paywalls away.
Alamy Stock Photo
# Test Yourself
Quiz: How much do you know about Moby-Dick?
Would you share a bed with Queequeg?
THIS WEEKEND MARKS 170 years since Moby-Dick was first released in the United States.
Herman Melville’s iconic novel is widely regarded as one of the most important works of American literature and it’s opening sentence is among the most famous ever written.
The book drew on Melville’s own experience on whaling ships and was also inspired by the fate of the doomed whaleship Essex, which was sunk by a whale in 1820.
But how much do you know about the book?
Call me…
Ishmael
On the line
By your name
Maybe
Why did Ishmael decide to go on a whaling voyage?
Wikimedia Commons
He had little or no money in his purse
He had nothing particular to interest him on shore
It was a way he had of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation
He found himself growing grim about the mouth
It was a damp, drizzly November in his soul
All of the above
Who interrupted Ishmael when he was asleep at the inn?
Captain Ahab
Queequeg
Starbuck
Stubb
"Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian."
Alamy
True
False
Was Queequeg actually a cannibal?
He was
He was not
Where did the whaling ship launch from?
Wikimedia Commons
Nantucket
Manhattan
Boston
Baltimore
What was the ship’s name?
The Jerobaom
The Rachel
The Pequod
The Samuel Enderby
Why was Captain Ahab obsessed with Moby Dick?
Alamy
The whale killed his wife
The whale bit off his leg
He loved eating whale meat
He wanted the whale’s oil
What was Ahab’s prosthesis made from?
Timber
Iron
Leather
A whale’s jawbone
The whale in the book is based on a real albino whale named Mocha Dick who survived dozens of skirmishes with whalers in the Pacific.
True
False
What species of whale was Moby Dick?
Alamy
Blue whale
Humpback whale
Sperm whale
Gray whale
Who was the only crewmember to survive after Moby Dick destroyed the ship?
Alamy
Ahab
Ishmael
Starbuck
Queequeg
What became of Captain Ahab?
Moby Dick swallowed him whole
Moby Dick dragged him to his death in the sea
Starbuck shot him to end the revenge mission
He returned to Nantucket and found peace
Finally, the American musician known as Moby is the great-great-great nephew of Herman Melville.
Alamy
True
No. You’re pulling my (whale jawbone) leg
Alamy
You scored out of !
Moby-Dick
You are undefeated.
Alamy
You scored out of !
Queequeg
You put in a great shift.
Alamy
You scored out of !
Ishmael
You survived!
Alamy
You scored out of !
Captain Ahab
You were probably your own worst enemy.
Alamy
You scored out of !
Moby
Stick to the music.
COMMENTS (25)