Thursday, March 6, 2014

1939 Albert and Charles Boni, MOBY-DICK

We purchased this volume late last year. There was some discussion about it, since there is another copy in the collection. Here  However, the other volume has a nice blue cover with silver type and decoration, so we thought that this issue is an example of the continuing drag the depression placed on the economy in the late 1930's. Here the printer forgoes the silver. Yet the three gulls are still lovely.
Chapter LVI
From the ship, the smoke of the torments of the boiling whale is going up like the smoke over a village of smithies; and to windward, a black cloud, rising up with earnest of squalls and rains, seems to quicken the activity of the excited seamen.

Life is full of black clouds, some pass quickly, and other linger. Here a black cloud calls the seamen to action, whether from excitement and anticipation, or from anxiety, we are not told.