Moby Dick is a novel by American author Herman Melville, published in London in October 1851 as The Whale and a month later in New York City as Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. The novel recounts the voyage of the Pequod, a whaling vessel whose captain, Ahab, is obsessed with finding the white whale Moby Dick.
The novel is dedicated to Melville’s friend and fellow writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Moby Dick is generally regarded as Melville’s magnum opus and one of the greatest American novels.