Except for at a few old whaling ports such as Nantucket and New Bedford, the story of the Essex was known, if it was known at all, as the story that inspired the climax of Moby-Dick. Why do you believe the tale of the Essex needed retelling? Why is it important to tell now?Ī.

“Nathaniel Philbrick’s admirable telling of the Essex story gains its power from his adherence to the simple brutal facts…all this Philbrick shows with a clarity and an economy that in no way slows his narrative, but lends it an awful, mounting inexorability… with verve and authenticity, sure to become again whiat it has been from its earliest whisperings – a classic tale of the sea.” - THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE “A book that gets in your bones…Philbrick has created an eerie thriller from a centuries old tale… Scrupulously research and eloquently written… It would have earned Melville’s admiration.” - THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW “Fascinating… One of our country’s greatest adventure stories…when it comes to extreme, In the Heart of the Sea is right there at the edge.” - THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Philbrick relishes words and language, and skillfully uses them to carry the reader into cubby-holes of darker causes and effects.” - ANNIE PROULX, IRISH TIMES Much of the literary excellence of In the Heart of the Sea likes in its fine and introspective passages…. And for all his erudite knowledge applied to the complexities of human behavior, Philbrick does not neglect to note the random twists of fate that make or ruin a life. “Philbrick has elevated the adventure of the Essex to a rich and disturbing study of the secret root-tangles of how and why things happened as they did…. Winner of the 2000 National Book Award Winner for Non-FictionĤ0 Weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List

In the heart of the sea philbrick