Tracing the Round: The Astrological Framework of Moby-Dick
by John F. Birk
Category: Fiction

Tracing the Round represents a work of genuine scholarly innovation in the already well-trodden field of Melville studies. The author contends that Moby-Dick, far from being as sprawling and arbitrarily episodic as much conventional critical opinion has held, is in fact based explicitly on astrological and zodiacal symbolism and belief, which the author shows Melville to have been profoundly interested in throughout his life and writing career.The twelve-chapter work highlights, by means of close textual analysis, a cunningly disguised but nonetheless omnipresent web of correspondences, systematically matching all the individual characters, plot developments and patterns of symbolism and imagery within the novel to the astrological knowledge Melville was privy to. The author uses his familiarity with Melville?