Google doodles for Herman Melville’s Moby Dick

One of the most iconic books to have ever been written was Moby Dick by Herman Melville. This book was first published in 1851 and is believed to be one of the Great American Novels and is also recognized as a treasure of world literature. Google has paid tribute to the book by creating a doodle to celebrate the 161st anniversary of Melville’s enigmatic whale Moby Dick.

Google has prepared two separate doodles to honour the novel and each representation captures the essence of the book. The first one that is portrayed on Google’s home page shows the ship being piloted by Captain Ahab and his sailors. The mysterious and ferocious white sperm whale is shown in the background.

The sperm whale at the back

At first sight, you really can't see the huge whale, which is a nod to the elusiveness Moby Dick. But if you look at the image hard enough you can see the eye of the whale and the water that spurts out of the its blowhole making the ‘L’ in Google logo, which is seen in the sky at the back and this illustration captures the enigma of Moby Dick beautifully.

The second doodle is featured in the search page of Google where the whale takes dominance in the logo. This time Google takes the shape of the whale gliding peacefully on rough seas.

Herman Melville, born in the 19th century was an American novelist and short story writer along with being an essayist and poet. Though he had a range of literary works, Melville was widely known for Moby Dick and was the first writer to have his pieces collected and published in the Library of America.

Moby Dick or The Whale was first published in 1851 and this day celebrates its 161st anniversary. Moby Dick is about a sailor known as Ishmael on a whaling ship called the Pequod with Ahab as the Captain. The book has many iconic characters, each of whom play an important role in the story line and have varied personalities.

In the book, Ishmael learns that Ahab is out to seek an enigmatic sperm whale, Moby Dick in order to seek revenge. Captain Ahab has been hunting Moby Dick because in a previous encounter, this mysterious whale had destroyed his ship and had bit off his leg.

The book contains large sections that have been mostly been narrated by Ishmael that have nothing particularly to do with the story line of the book but rather has a lot of focus on the whaling business.

The book was first published by Richard Bentley in London on October 18, 1851 and has been classified as American romanticism.

When the book was first published, it received mixed reviews but Moby Dick later on went to be considered as a part of the Western Canon.