Moby Dick, or, The Whale - Evergreens (Herman Melville, Jay Parini (writer of foreword))

When the young Ishmael gets on board Captain Ahabs whaling ship, little does he suspect that the mission on which he is about to embark is the fulfilment of his masters obsessive desire for revenge on Moby Dick, a white whale who has already claimed countless human victims and destroyed many fleets. With some sinister crew members in their midst and the hazardous conditions of the sea to contend with, the expedition becomes increasingly dangerous the closer it gets to its quarry. One of the great American novels, if not the greatest, Moby Dick epically combines rip-roaring adventure, a meticulously realistic portrayal of the whaling trade and a profound philosophical disquisition on the nature of good and evil.