Moby Dick by Herman Melville The novel is a quasi-allegorical epic tragedy, if that makes much sense to those who haven't read it yet, and you must come to it ready to put yourself through such a monumental task as grappling with it. Ahab is the great madman pursuing his blasphemous goal, Ishmael the gentle searcher caught up in the terror and attractions of that purpose, and Moby himself the great mystery of evil and God and nature, "the monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies which some deep men feel eating in them till they are left living on with half a heart and half a lung". Hey, I could go on and on about this, about symbols and meaning and fate and evil and God and revenge and madness and hope. But what's the point? There are so many facets to this book, from farce to fate, that it would take me days to cover it all. If you want to read something great, this is what you should take in hand. By the way, the "message" of MD is extremely important in our day and age, in my opinion. This is not just an empty academic read, but a profound exploration of the meaning of life and the broadest, deepest questions of moral and spiritual purpose.