Herman Melville

Stung by the critical reception and lack of commercial success of his previous books, Herman Melville became obsessed with the difficulties of communicating his vision to readers. That sense of isolation lies at the heart of these later works. "Billy Budd, Sailor" is the story of an innocent young man unable to defend himself against a wrongful accusation. The other selections include "Bartleby," "The Encantadas," "Benito Cereno," and "The Piazza."...

Captain Ahab takes his crew on a mission to find Moby Dick, the great white whale that crippled him. But while they relaxed on the surface, Moby Dick was thundering towards them, charging up from a thousand feet below. The speeding whale smashed into the hull of one boat and carried it forty feet into the air. It burst into a cloud of wood chips and broken, bloody men. Lodging into the sea, Ishmael signs up for a voyage on the whaling ship Pequod....

A bedtime story of a whale hunt inspired by the classic tale of the hunt for Moby Dick, here with a new twist. Deep in the dark ocean, Mighty Moby lurks. Up above the ocean waves, a one-legged captain pursues the whale he clashed with long ago.

An abridged retelling of the adventures of a young seaman when he joins the crew of the whaling ship Pequod, led by the fanatical Captain Ahab in pursuit of the white whale Moby Dick.

Men in the French Foreign Legion, escaping some personal or legal entanglement, can leave their lives behind and take on a new identity. In an outpost in Djibouti, the men of the Legion yield to the rigid discipline and unvarying routine of life within it. When new recruit Sentain saves the life of a fellow soldier, brooding taskmaster Sgt. Galoup sets out to destroy him. The film observes how power functions among men, and considers the consequences...

"In Globetrotting, Duncan Minshull, the UK's "laureate of walking," brings together the work of more than fifty walker-writers who have traveled the world's seven continents by foot. From the 1500s to the present day comes a memorable band of explorers and adventurers, scientists and missionaries, pleasure-seekers and literary drifters recalling their experiences and asking themselves a compelling question--why travel this way in the first place?"--Amazon.com....