Feh. It sprawls from Nantucket all the way out to the Pacific on a whaling ship, where it meets the white whale. OK, sure there's some scenery along the way, but this is not a "sprawling novel". Good grief.
And "touches of genius" is way off, too. Its genius is the unity and focus of its conception. BTW, I "reread" it at the beach in my 40's. My constant thought was, "How can they expect high school kids to read this stuff?"
My constant thought was, “How can they expect high school kids to read this stuff?”
I’ve read it twice, planning on a third. Believe it or not it is an easy read, not a lot of “high dollar” words.
I would rather read MOBY DICK several times than that awful SILAS MARNER once.