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xxiii, [1 blank], 634, [1 "Epilogue"], [1 blank] + [6] ad pp. (lacks final blank leaf). (8vo) 18.6x12 cm. (7¼x4¾"), rebound in 20th century full brown levant morocco, spine lettered & decoratively tooled in gilt, raised bands, gilt inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. First American Edition.

First American edition of one of the most important American novels of the 19th century. This edition follows the English edition ("The Whale") by a month and contains thirty-five passages and the "Epilogue" omitted in London. “[Melville's] great book, Moby Dick, was a complete practical failure, misunderstood by the critics and ignored by the public; and in 1853 the Harpers' fire destroyed the plates of all of his books and most of the copies remaining in stock [only about sixty copies survived the fire]... Melville's permanent fame must always rest on the great prose epic of Moby Dick, a book that has no equal in American literature for variety and splendor of style and for depth of feeling” (DAB). BAL 13664; Grolier, 100 American, 60; Sadleir, Excursions in Victorian Bibliography, p. 339.