Ahab's wife, or, The star-gazer
Subtitle: a novel
By: by Sena Jeter Naslund ; illustrations by Christopher Wormell.
Contributors: Melville, Herman, 1819-1891.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: William Morrow
Published: 1999
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 668
Subjects: Ship captains' spouses -- Fiction; Ahab, Captain (Fictitious character) -- Fiction; Women -- Massachusetts -- Fiction; Whalers' spouses -- Fiction; Nantucket Island (Mass.) -- Fiction
Genres: Fiction.
Other titles: Ahab's wife; Star-gazer
Description: "Inspired by a brief passage in Moby-Dick, Sena Jeter Naslund has created an entirely new universe. In the "soprano voice" whose absence critics lamented in Moby-Dick - the strong, intelligent voice of a woman whose life is dominated by the sea - Naslund tells many stories. She narrates a family drama, as the child Una is sent away to live in a lighthouse by her mother in order to protect her from the physical and emotional blows of her religion-mad father.

She spins a romantic adventure, as Una finds early passion with a sailor and, disguised as a cabin boy, runs away to sea to encounter disasters, murder, romance of virtually every variety, and, of course, the behemoths of the deep. She paints a portrait of a real, loving marriage, as through Una's eyes we see Ahab before the white whale takes his leg and sends him into madness.

Finally, she gives us a new perspective on the American experience, as the widowed Una makes a new life for herself in the company of Margaret Fuller, Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and others."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: A novel inspired by Herman Melville's Moby Dick.