Sometimes fact is better than fiction. It can be more unbelievable, more appaling, more unnerving. This kind of thing just can’t be made up.
Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (Dover Giant Thrift Editions)
is a well-known work of fiction which has engrossed readers for more than a century. But, perhaps, it gets better. Melville’s story was inspired by the real-life events of the Essex sailing crew from Nantucket 1819-1820, familiar to all the whaling industry in that time. It is a story of a whaling ship sunk far in the Pacific Ocean by a vengeful sperm whale. But where Melville’s story ends, the real adventure for members of the Essex had only begun.
Through In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
, Nathaniel Philbrick recounts the journey of the crew through their own historical accounts–journals, sea logs, published books. Philbrick weaves together the unimaginable story of being lost at sea for three months, covering 3,000 miles of open sea. Winner of the National Book Award and named to the New York Times Bestseller list, this is an engrossing nugget of U.S. history.
