New Delhi: A white sperm whale looms on the background of the Google doodle for October 18 that commemorates the 161st anniversary of the publication of Herman Melville's landmark novel Moby-Dick.
Google's Moby-Dick doodle depicts a scene from the novel and shows Captain Ahab commandeering a whaling boat with a harpoon in his hands ready to strike at the enigmatic white sperm whale.
Moby-Dick is swimming and spouting in the rough sea has his eyes on the whaling boat. The water from the spout replaces the letter 'L' in the Google logo.
Moby-Dick, also published as The Whale was first published in three volumes by Richard Bentley, London on October 18, 1851. Harper & Brothers, New York, published the first American edition on November 14, 1851.
Opening paragraph of Moby-Dick:
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.
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