Revenge! Desired by many. Sought by many. Brings certain disaster if pursued.

There are many factors that generate and nurture this thirst. The thirst for revenge.

Being a victim, helpless and unable to reciprocate an injustice fuels this desire more and makes it lasts long ... often lasts long enough to cause irrevocable damage to both sides.

What is life? Some would gladly risk their lives for the purpose of revenge. The fire which burns within, and only those who know what it is, know what they would risk, in order to accomplish this wonderfully relieving thing called revenge, or to get even.

Risk everything you've got, to take revenge. Risk your money, family, property, wealth, dignity, and honesty.

What does it matter if you risk your life? My life for yours, that is the spirit of revenge.

Risk somebody else's property, life, or whatever that is accessible to you. Blast your revenge at him, her and even It. Spare not man or beast ... or even fish!

Fish! Yes, that's it. This story is about the revenge that man attempts to take on a fish. Just a mere fish, but large. Large enough to sink a dozen ships.

The fish has a name, yes he's got a name, Moby Dick.

Captain Ahab was just like everyone. He had a job. Captain of a whaling mission. Captain of a whaler.

Whaling was a dangerous occupation, yet there were those brave enough to undertake the most dangerous of all occupations, just for knowledge, just for experience, just for kicks. But, this story is just of revenge.

Captain Ahab had a family like everyone. Captain Ahab had a mission statement like everyone. Captain Ahab had a foot unlike everyone. The other one was bitten off by Moby Dick on one of his whaling missions.

He swore to take revenge, Not aloud though. His opportunity to sail again came when the whaling season re-commenced. Captain of the Pequod. Captain Ahab set his sights on that big fish. I'll get you, you bastard, he kept muttering to himself.

Fortunately the owners of the ship that he was commissioned to lead were not within earshot. Otherwise Ahab would not have made it at all.

The command to weigh anchor was hardly heard by the rest of the crew than those who were connected to the task. They set sail full of hope.

Whaling brought adventure as well as wealth. Ahab set sail full of hope, to get even with that bastard of a fish.

Moby Dick, I'll get you even if I have to follow you right down to the depths of hell! Moby Dick, I'll show you who Ahab is! Moby Dick, your days are numbered. Ahab, yes none other than Ahab is after you.

The first view of Captain Ahab that the crew members had was weeks after they weighed anchor.

That day he announced that a gold coin was the prize for whoever who first spots a giant white whale. Ahab then nails the coin on to the main mast.

"Thar she blows!" yells the watch and every single boat is lowered and the chase begins.

This is a whaling crew, and when they do spot a whale they've got to catch it. This was not Moby Dick, just a whale. The experienced crew go after it and catch it.

Ahab stares ahead. When will it be? More whales are captured by the skilled crew and more does Ahab yearn. Revenge is his mission.

As fate had arranged it all, that gold coin found its way back to Ahab himself. For, it was he, who spotted that big white fish first.

The chase begins. Boats are lowered, and the head harpooner is none other than Ahab himself. A skilled whaler, skilled enough to captain a vessel exclusively for whaling.

The other harpooners have had their chances in previous catches. Each one of them satisfied that he was able to make some contribution.

Ahab leads now. Harpoon ready. You need immense strength to throw a harpoon several meters away, and you need immense skill to strike your target, and you need immense courage to be on board a vessel which requires that you undertake to do both, throw a harpoon as well as strike the target.

On board that ship were many who could throw a harpoon and hit an object like a coin dozens of meters away. That was the criterion required to board a whaler as a harpoonist.

Ahab leads, from the front. There he is, with harpoon in hand, linked with yards and yards of thick rope.

All you need is to throw the harpoon at the intended target, when it does strike the target, the jerk that indicates that this has happened tells the other crew members what the next step is.

They act not only by instinct but also by experience.

Whaling does need an experienced crew. Ahab had them. Ahab was experienced, conditioned, and brave too. Yet there was another force that drove him. Revenge.

This force drives its possessor like hell, on full throttle but also places obstacles in the possessor's line of vision. Reasoning and judgment can fade too and this will make any mission less likely to succeed as the error potential is increased.

Ahab's boat is now zeroing in on Moby Dick. Rowing around the whale, Ahab's judgment on positioning cannot be matched.

At last, the moment has come. The moment that Ahab has been waiting for a very long time ... for years and years. That very moment which will result in fulfilling the yearning of a lifetime.

A lifetime indeed. Dreaming, scheming, planning, and now nearing. The seconds have gone by. The countdown began when the boat was lowered.

An excited captain throws, with all his skills of judgment, and physical strength, and throws he does, the harpoon.

Strikes it does. The exact target? Not really, but it does strike that big white fish, and the harpoon, the very harpoon so sharp and so well maintained that Ahab even used it to shave with, penetrates the flesh of that big white fish.

Big enough to sink 12 schooners, Moby Dick reacts. Moby Dick lashes his tail furiously, the very first twitch of which smashes Ahab's boat to smithereens.

Then he heads for the main ship, the Pequod. How did he know that this was the very ship that had brought Ahab to his den?

There was only one survivor and it was he who wrote the book. Call him Eshmael.

... concluded

You have just read a review of what has been rated as one of the best novels of all time in the English language.

Moby Dick was written by Herman Melville, considered by literary critics as one of America's greatest authors.

Herman Melville was born in New York on the 1st of August 1819. His first voyage was on board a vessel bound for London. He had secured a job for himself as a cabin boy.

It was in 1841 that he set sail on a whaling ship, the Acushnet. He had later experienced many voyages on whaling ships as a harpooner.

The author of many works, Herman Melville also wrote another very popular bestseller, Typee.

Moby Dick was published in October 1851.

"Call me Eshmael," That's how the story starts. Eshmael was the sole survivor in the adventure involving the Pequod, Captain Ahab and the big white whale.