Define Books Supposing Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer
| ISBN: | 0060838744 (ISBN13: 9780060838744) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Captain Ahab, Frederick Douglass, Una Spenser, Kit Sparrow, Giles Bonebright |
| Setting: | United States of America |
| Literary Awards: | Orange Prize Nominee for Fiction Longlist (2001), Book Sense Book of the Year Award Nominee for Adult (2000), Alabama Author Award for Fiction (2001) |
Sena Jeter Naslund
Paperback | Pages: 704 pages Rating: 4.03 | 42204 Users | 2646 Reviews
Be Specific About Epithetical Books Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer
| Title | : | Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer |
| Author | : | Sena Jeter Naslund |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 704 pages |
| Published | : | August 2nd 2005 by William Morrow Paperbacks (first published September 22nd 1999) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Historical. Historical Fiction. Literature. Adult Fiction. Novels. Literary Fiction |
Chronicle During Books Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer
A magnificent, vast, and enthralling saga, Sena Jeter Naslund's Ahab's Wife is a remarkable epic spanning a rich, eventful, and dramatic life. Inspired by a brief passage in Moby Dick, it is the story of Una, exiled as a child to live in a lighthouse, removed from the physical and emotional abuse of a religion-mad father. It is the romantic adventure of a young woman setting sail in a cabin boy's disguise to encounter darkness, wonder, and catastrophe; the story of a devoted wife who witnesses her husband's destruction by obsession and madness. Ultimately it is the powerful and moving story of a woman's triumph over tragedy and loss through her courage, creativity, and intelligence.Rating Epithetical Books Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer
Ratings: 4.03 From 42204 Users | 2646 ReviewsAppraise Epithetical Books Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer
Captain Ahab was not my first husband nor my last.Oh come on. Of course I had to quote the first line.This book is derived from a single, glancing reference in Moby-Dick to the beautiful young woman Captain Ahab has married. This is Una Spencers story, in her own words. The book is massive, complex, written as a companion, a tribute, an argument, a twentieth-century female response to a nineteenth-century male book. Its couched in the Moby-Dick style, from the choppy chapters to the capital RThis book is traveling from Canada to Brazil, following to Sweden and then back to Canada. There are not enough words to describe such wonderful book, one of the best books I read recently. The author has a lyrical way of writing and we are strongly immersed into the story.
Take my advice: read the first 100 pages of this (can't give you a really accurate count, unfortunately), and then stop, STOP, FOR THE LOVE OF GOODNESS, STOP, before the main character gets on the ship, or at least midway through, and you will be so much happier that you did, although you will forever wonder what happened and then end up disregarding my advice. That's way before Ahab even enters the story, but c'est la vie, poppet.Written with lovely prose, and with an extensively wandering
Ick. I hated this book. I felt that the author was basically living out her own fantasy of being adored by these historical and fictional men. I mean, she even finds a way to work in Hawthrone and Emerson having a crush on her. It's the kind of book where the heroine stands on the deck of ships (or ports, or lighthouses) with her hair blowing in the wind a lot. All men want her. She survives great hardship with her noble spirit intact. And she has an intelligent, sensitive soul that is
The first portion of this book was fascinating and well-written. Naslund's imagining of the details of the ill-fated travels of Captain Ahab and his wife are picturesque, with just the right gothic touches thrown in to lend horror where horror should be.I liked the main character and was rooting for her... until the return to the States after the grotesque voyage that sent Ahab over the edge.For some reason, Naslund chose to focus on the literati and cognoscenti of the era instead of simply
I just moved to an ocean-side city in Eastern Massachusetts, so this book was a fun companion to this time of settling in near the sea.I have to agree with the reviewers who faulted this book for following the "strong, beautiful woman that all the men fall in love with" trope and for its "Forest Gumpian" qualities. The novel definitely suffers from ridiculous levels of coincidence where the heroine's life touches that of far too many famous 19th century figures ("Oh, I was walking in the woods
This book is about Nantucket, one of the most wondeful places on this earth! If you are one of the people who could NOT get through Moby Dick by Melville, here is the same story seen through the eyes of Ahab's wife. While Moby Dick is impossible to get through, this book you cannot put down! A wonderful story. The book is full of historical facts relevant to the 1800s, whaling and Nantucket. Yopu will fall in love with Nantucket, and the story is marvelous.
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