Moby-Dick

William Hootkins, like a skilled conductor, creates a charmed reading that explodes with a symphony of contrasts. Oh, it starts easily enough with a certain playfulness of tone--Ishmael's surprise at Queequeg and the frothy bluster of Captains Peleg and Bildad. But the reader soon plunges into deeper seas. The almost childish voice of Ishmael, as if on a skylark, alternates with the later excitement of the chase. The enthusiastic study of the parts of the whale contrasts with the darker innuendos on God; the colorful excitability of Stubb butts up against the diabolic indifference of Ahab's Fedallah. Over all, the mad ruminations of Ahab himself, initially undervoiced, like a recurrent theme, build to a mounting crescendo. Hootkins, exercising perfect control, orchestrates all these voices into the symphonic whole that is Melville's dark masterpiece. P.E.F. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award 2006 Audie Award Winner (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

MOBY-DICK packs a lot of power into this abbreviated form. William Hootkins brings just the right combination of youthful zeal and ancient wisdom to this far-flung cast of characters. Hootkins is as comfortable as the adventure-seeking Ishmael, who makes the listener yearn for the high seas, as he is as the aboriginal Queequeg, who urges caution when not providing some much needed humor. Hootkins brings Captain Ahab to vivid life, giving voice to the character who has become the symbol of fanatical obsession as he hunts the giant white whale that devoured his leg. His quarry, the enigmatic Moby-Dick, is more a force of nature than a living thing. M.S. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine

There have been so many adaptations of MOBY-DICK--abridgments and retellings in print, films, and dramatizations, not to mention the recent unabridged recording from Naxos--that one has to demand that any new version have something unique to offer. This BBC dramatization, featuring F. Murray Abraham as Ishmael, doesn't really accomplish that. Part of the problem is the format--the novel may have a lot of deadwood, but conveying even its primary action in under three hours is impossible. The dramatization does use special effects judiciously, and, although all the New England whalers seem to speak with different accents, the script is well acted and the performance is entertaining, if not innovative. D.B. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

This adaptation of Melville's monumental classic retains many of its famous lines and scenes, giving the listener a sense of the endless search for the white whale while not actually going through it detail by detail. The actors bring in a variety of accents and voices that tell much about the characters: from Ishmael's salty New England accent to a fellow whaler's German accent to Queequeg's powerful tone. Sounds of the sea weave in and out of the story without overwhelming it, and the scenes in which the crew is out chasing whales are imbued with a sense of urgency and suspense. The St. Charles Players make MOBY-DICK palatable for a general audience. A.F. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine

Despite its flaws, Paul Boehmer's reading of MOBY-DICK merits our consideration and is worthy of acclaim. His odd pronunciation of some words (i.e., the unconventional way he accents syllables) is jarring. He renders some characters (Father Mapple, Bildad, Peleg) more vividly than others (Stubb, Flask, Starbuck, and strangely enough, Ishmael). It's difficult to avoid drifting when his Ishmael drones on, pseudo-scientifically, about whaling and the whale. But his Ahab makes it all worthwhile. Boehmer avoids the temptation to reduce the PEQUOD's captain to caricature and presents us with a figure of baleful majesty: simultaneously appalling and alluring. T.J.W. 2003 Audie Award Finalist (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine

This remastered 1975 recording should be called GREAT MOMENTS FROM MOBY-DICK for it gives us only some of that long novel's most famous passages. On side one, a youthful Keir Dullea essays the opening chapter. Untrained in the vocal technique appropriate to the text, he bravely substitutes sincerity and commitment, thus becoming a very credible Ishmael indeed. In contrast, George Rose postures soulessly through Father Mapple's turgid and moving sermon, sapping it of most of its power. The rest of the tape is a star turn for Charlton Heston. It reminds this reviewer of Cecil B. de Mille's direction to him during the filming of THE TEN COMMANDMENTS: "Moses didn't know he was a Biblical character." Heston does no more credit to Melville than to Moses, mugging so shamelessly that one is embarrassed for him. Y.R. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

In this production of Herman Melville's tale of a tragic whale hunt, narrator Anthony Heald not only creates vivid characterizations--Captain Ahab's gruff mania, Starbuck's doubtful sensitivity, the prophet Elijah's visionary shakiness--he also dramatizes the many moods of the PEQUOD crew and the mercurial ocean itself. Heald's voice has the range of a piano, and he uses it like a virtuoso. In one minute his reading can move from slow and languid, reflecting a dreamy day at sea, to alert and brisk, evoking the suspense of a whale sighting. Heald's voice bristles dryly with humor or sinks with dread--a range necessary to tell this complex story of a man's obsession with conquering an enigmatic white whale. R.L.G. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine