June 29, 2019 - Chapter Forty-five


Once again, a chapter of this novel offers a challenge in terms of narratology. Here, in a chapter in which the narrator seeks to assure the reader that the depictions of sperm whales are realistic, we are told of several documented cases of whales being repeatedly encountered by the same crews, as well as ships being destroyed by same. In the case, the narrator cites at length Langsdorff’s Voyages, an early 19th century travelogue. The quoted passage mentions a Captain D’Wolf.

Then, we get this: “I have the honor of being a nephew of his. I have particularly questioned him concerning this passage in Langsdorff. He substantiates every word.” Apparently, our narrator is Melville himself, since D’Wolf was in fact married to Melville’s paternal aunt. I’m reminded in this case of one of those moments in Slaughterhouse-Five in which Vonnegut emerges from an otherwise third-person narration to identify himself as a former POW. It’s jarring there, and it is here as well.

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