Open Culture:
Three years ago, Plymouth University kicked off Moby Dick The Big Read, promising a full audio book of Herman Melville’s influential novel, with famous (and not so famous) voices taking on a chapter each
We’re glad to say the project, created out of a 2011 conference by artist Angela Cockayne and writer Philip Hoare, has reached its successful conclusion. And they’ve certainly called on an impressive roster of celebrity readers: Stephen Fry, Neil Tennant, Fiona Shaw, Will Self, Benedict Cumberbatch, China Miéville, Tony Kushner, John Waters, Simon Callow, Sir David Attenborough, even Prime Minister David Cameron. Pulitzer Prize winning poet Mary Oliver finishes off the whole project, reading the Epilogue.
All 135 chapters are available to be listened to in your browser, downloaded on iTunes, streamed on SoundCloud, or even heard as a podcast. However, do check them out online, as each chapter comes with a work of art each created by 135 contemporary artists such as Matthew Barney, Oliver Clegg, and Matthew Benedict. The project is a mammoth undertaking befitting such a monumental book, and if you’ve never read it this just might be the way to go.
I’m not a huge fan of audio books but I’m definitely going to download and listen to this. Thanks very much to my friend Moeskido for the link.
I’ve listened to about 3/4 of this. Highly recommended.
To be clear, all I did was retweet a post by a former coworker. But you’re very welcome, Shawn.
My sixth-grade class had to read this book. I fell behind and never finished it.
Great offering. At West Point 1956-1959 I taught English to Cadets. “Moby Dick” was an assigned book. While many cadets ‘got’ the symbolism of this great Epic – many others never ‘got it.’ In fact all my career as an Army officer graduated cadets whom I had as students, gave me a hard time with their claim that Moby Dick was NOT a symbol of good versus evil, but it was ONLY a good ‘Fish Story”!
Had this oral audio book been available a few more minds might have learned it better, than just by reading in print.