A+
What other grade would I give it? This is a titan, a monolith of literature, so culturally ingrained that trying to assign it a rating in 2026 feels inane. Melville is a master of language, intermixingly
and interpenetratingly
throwing around adjectives, verbs, and adverbs with aplomb; and making up words when he finds the dictionary insufficient to express what he's trying to say. He can describe anything from a warm bed to the salty froth of the ocean in a way that is intuitively clear yet has never occurred to me before, making you see ordinary things in a whole new light. You will read endless tangents about whale anatomy and you will enjoy them. Melville's depiction of whaling as the most ancient and noble of professions, with its roots traced back to Jonah, Hercules, and Vishnu, gives the novel a touch of irony now that the industry is banned nearly worldwide. This is basically a modern myth and tragedy.