The Whale at 175

Moby-Dick was published in New York on 14 November 1851 and called a failure. A hundred and seventy-five years later it is the book most readers own and never finish. This is a short way in: twelve of the great chapters, one a day, from Loomings and the one bed at the Spouter-Inn to Father Mapple's sermon, the oath on the quarter-deck, the whiteness of the whale, the try-works burning at midnight, Ahab's tear in the calm before the end, and the three days of the chase. Nothing is rewritten and nothing is cut inside a chapter: each day is Melville's own, whole. The cohort finishes on 14 November, the anniversary itself. Readers who want the whole voyage will find the 136-day read-along waiting, and every one of these chapters is a day of it.

Read one big book alongside other readers, a day at a time. Cohorts set off on the date above.