Ishmael signs aboard the whaler Pequod and discovers that her captain has no interest in filling the hold: Ahab means to hunt the white whale that took his leg, and has bound the crew to that purpose. Around the chase Melville builds an encyclopaedia of whales and whaling, sermons, soliloquies and digressions. Published in 1851 to poor sales, and now regarded as one of the central works of American fiction.
Public domain in the EU (author died 1891). Source: Project Gutenberg.