I played the senses against imagination again in Chapter 16, “The Brightness of Brightness.” Blinded by lightning, Una uses imagination and memory to visualize reality. That evening, when Giles reads Wordsworth’s poems aloud, language makes vivid a world Una’s never seen: London at dusk, or a host of daffodils dancing beside a lake. Simultaneously, I had the pleasure of using language to make my reader see, although the pages of Ahab’s Wife present only ink on paper to the physical eye.
To balance the ascendancy of imagination over direct sensory experience depicted in “The Giant” and “Brightness of Brightness,” Una’s response to the waves breaking on the beach in Chapter 124, “To Siasconset,” is purely sensual. Because of her physical excitement at the sight and sound of the pluming waves and expanse of ocean, Una claims the seaside as the place to create a home.
I am surprised to see—just now—that the spiritual liftoff moment for the novel, Chapter 126, “Journey Toward the Starry Sky, In Present Tense” (a scene I had envisioned in the initial concept of the novel), has its necessary precedent in that joyful sun-spangled moment.
The father of American poetry, Walt Whitman, posed the question within a poem: “Do I contradict myself? Well then I contradict myself.” Part of the pleasure of writing this novel has been to have enough space and time in which to contradict myself, to embrace the ebb and flow, to seek a passionate balance.
—Sena Jeter Naslund
Reading Group Guide:
Discussion Points
Ahab’s Wife is a novel that invites the attention of reading groups. Along with this special-features-enhanced e-book edition, there is a trade paperback edition, published by Perennial. The questions below are but a starting point for the rich discussion that is likely to follow any group’s reading of this novel.
Ahab’s Wife takes place in the early nineteenth century. In what ways is Una’s story a product of the times in which she lives? In what ways are her experiences timeless?
Early on in Una’s life, her mother instructs her, “Accept the world, Una. It is what it is.” Does she?
In many ways, Ahab’s Wife is a spiritual journey. What are the forces that guide Una? What is her notion of her place in the universe and how does it evolve over the course of her lifetime?
Una writes: “Let me assure you and tell you that I know you, even something of your pain and joy, for you are much like me. The contract of writing and reading requires that we know each other. Did you know that I try on your mask from time to time? I become a reader, too.” Several times throughout this book, Una addresses the reader directly. What is the effect of this interchange? How do you participate and become a character in this novel?
Discuss Una’s relationship to the sea.
At the most painful time in her life, when she has lost her child and her mother, Una befriends Susan. Why is this relationship so important to Una? What is it that Susan teaches her? Compare and contrast their friendship to Una’s friendship with Margaret Fuller.
How do you react to Una’s cannibalism? Was she justified in doing what she does to survive? Is Giles more culpable because he himself makes the decision and executes the other shipmates? Or is he the most courageous of all because he takes it on himself to make a terrible decision and save those he loved?
Throughout Ahab’s Wife, Una makes reference to the works of great writers—Shakespeare, Keats, Homer, et al. What is the effect of drawing on these other books? How does it enhance, deepen, and expand Ahab’s Wife?
How does Una reconcile “the inevitable animal within” with her spiritual aspirations?
Why do you think that three out of Una’s four loves (Giles, Kit, and Ahab) go mad? Is this merely coincidence?
Throughout her life, Una explores the art of sewing. Although Maria Mitchell considers sewing to be an act and a skill that confines rather than liberates women, at one point Una supports herself with a needle and thread. Discuss the numerous ways in which images of mending, binding, and sewing inform the telling of this novel.
When Una is looking for icebergs on Ahab’s ship, she returns his trust “with silence on the subject of a white whale and all his massive innocence.” Has she betrayed Ahab? Why does she see the whale as innocent? After Ahab loses his leg and then his life, do you think she continues to see Moby-Dick as innocent?
“Beware the treachery of words, Mrs. Sparrow. They mean one thing to one person and the opposite to another,” Ahab tells Una. Why do you think Una finally finds her vocation to be working with words?
“Wondering what Margaret Fuller would say to such a distinction between spiritual and moral matters, I asked the judge if he thought there was a difference.” Do you think there is a difference?
Una’s narrative plunges back in time, leaps ahead, and loops over itself again. Different sections are told through other characters’ perspectives and through their letters. How does the narrative structure itself enact some of Una’s beliefs about the world?
The alternate title of this book is The Star-Gazer. Why do you think Sena Jeter Naslund chose to have an alternate title at all? What meanings does it hold?
Ahab’s Wife or, The Star Gazer
“Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last.”
This is destined to be remembered as one of the most-recognized first sentences in literature—along with “Call me Ishmael.” And Una Spenser, the transcendent hero at the center of Ahab’s Wife may well become every bit as memorable as Ahab.
Inspired by a brief passage in Moby-Dick, Sena Jeter Naslund has created an entirely new universe—an epic-scale, enthralling, and compellingly readable saga, spanning a full, rich, eventful and dramatic life. In the “soprano voice” whose absence critics lamented in Moby-Dick—the strong, intelligent voice of a woman whose life is dominated by the sea—Naslund tells many stories. She narrates a family drama, as the child Una is sent away to live in a lighthouse by her mother, in order to protect her from the physical and emotional blows of her religion-mad father. She spins a romantic adventure, as Una finds early passion with a sailor, and, disguised as a cabin boy, runs away to sea to encounter disasters, murder, romance of virtually every variation, and of course, the behemoths of the deep. She paints a portrait of a real, loving marriage, as through Una’s eyes we see Ahab before the White Whale takes his leg and his sanity. Finally, Sena Jeter Naslund gives us a new perspective on the American experience, as the widowed Una makes a new life for herself in the company of Margaret Fuller, Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and others.
Ahab’s Wife is not a pastiche, sequel, or exploitation. It is transformative, rather than derivative. Sena Jeter Naslund has thoroughly imbibed the spirit of Herman Melville, and that spirit permeates every page of her novel. But great as her debt to Melville may be, Ahab’s Wife stands alone, intact and vital for any reader. Inspired by a masterpiece, Ahab’s Wife is a legitimate masterwork in its own right.
The vision that informs this magnificent novel is so complete, the nineteenth-century voice so eloquent and sure, one feels the author hasn’t so much written this book as lived it. She has fallen in love with this world, this woman’s life, and her book evokes that same connection in the reader. From the opening line, and the spellbinding first scene, you will know immediately that you are in the hands of an eloquent and masterful storyteller, and in the company of an endlessly fascinating heroine. You will want to immerse yourself in this world—a realm easily entered, enchanting, and fulfilling—and spend time indulging in one of the consummate human pleasures: reading a brilliantly written, vibrant, uplifting, and deliciously enveloping novel—a bright book of life.
Praise for Sena Jeter Naslund’s Ahab’s Wife or, The Star-Gazer
“Naslund has quilted a life for her heroine that meticulously stitches together many of the important issues of the period, including slavery, women’s rights, and the crisis of religious belief.”
—Newsday
“Ambitious, powerful, heartbreaking, and tran
scendent at once, Una Spenser’s tale of a life fully lived gives us what we crave: a compelling story beautifully told. This is a great American novel.”
—BRET LOTT, author of Jewel
“An intense treat, powerfully written, Ahab’s Wife is one of the best contemporary novels I have read in years.”
—BOUISE ERDRICH
“A deliciously old-fashioned bildungsroman, adventure story, and romance…with a suspenseful, affecting, historically accurate, and seductive narrative…Una is an enchanting protagonist: intellectually curious, sensitive, imaginative, and kind…. A splendid novel that amply fulfills its ambitious purpose, offering a sweeping yet intimate picture of a remarkable woman who both typifies and transcends her times.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Naslund has taken less than a paragraph’s worth of references to the captain’s young wife from Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick and fashioned from this slender rib not only a woman but an entire world…. That Naslund is unstintingly reasonable, empathetic and kind should not, however, blind one to the fact that she is, in the most non-aggressive way, rewriting American history, revising American literature and critiquing traditional masculinity…. Her Una is a deep and wayward creature, undaunted by convention, whose descriptions are dense with a languid and sensual interest in the world.”
—New York Times Book Review
“Beautifully written…Naslund’s novel is filled with rich and original writing, from an author who has chartered new waters for women’s characters in fiction. Ahab’s Wife is a wondrous accomplishment.”
—Seattle Times
“A grand romance…rich…lush.”
—Boston Globe
“What really brings Ahab’s Wife to life are the intensely realized characters…Captain Ahab himself is one of Naslund’s best creations. Una too is brilliantly conceived…a powerful tale that steps to one side of Melville’s fatalistic epic and offers us a lyrical gaze at fictional events that make up an American classic.”
—Houston Chronicle
“This book is packed with heartbreaking struggle and richly imagined characters…. Naslund hasn’t just written a female version of Moby-Dick: she creates a world of complex characters learning to interact compassionately with each other in the face of nature’s recalcitrance and their own.”
—Christian Science Monitor
“Richly realized…. Never less than engrossing.”
—Wall Street Journal
“What Naslund has accomplished in Ahab’s Wife is nothing short of an epic. The novel soars, but is grounded by the details that make it so compelling and utterly readable…. By investing her with a burning curiosity, an admirable intellect and an essential goodness, Naslund has made Una an unforgettable heroine, worthy of Melville’s legacy, but able to stand alone in her own right…Ahab’s Wife is a brilliant novel and complex and uplifting read.”
—Chattanooga Times
“Naslund pulls off a literary tour de force with Ahab’s Wife .”
—Miami Herald
“Peopled with a rich array of fictional, mythic, and historical characters, this ambitious novel is a kind of Technicolor dream quilt that turns Moby-Dick inside out and stitches it back together…. Harrowing, poignant, and comical by turns, Ahab’s Wife is an audacious romp through mid-nineteenth-century New England history that is amply informed by both scholarship and imagination.”
—LAURIE ROBERTSON-LORANT, author of Melville: A Biography
“An exhilarating novel…Naslundhas created a heroine who will charm modern-readers…. The story is relentlessly romantic, an enchanting companion to tuck into bed with…Ahab’s Wife is an exceptional feat, both faithful to the original and capable of standing on its own.”
—Oregonian
“The year’s single most absorbing reading adventure.”
—Raleigh News & Observer
“[Ahab’s Wife] is a beautifully written and very moving tale that is difficult to put down. Like Melville’s book, Ahab’s Wife demonstrates an intimate knowledge of both the sea and the human heart.”
—Baltimore Sun
“Following in the footsteps of a literary giant is an ambitious undertaking, but it’s one that Naslund pulls off here with aplomb. Told in lyrical prose and laced with astute observations about human nature, Una’s story is engrossing, and she is a remarkably compelling and admirable figure.”
—Denver Post
“Atmospheric and ardent, with plenty of period detail and literary beauty, Ahab’s Wife is a sweeping success.”
—Porstmouth Herald (N.H.)
About the Author
Sena Jeter Naslund is a native of Birmingham and winner of the Harper Lee Award. She is Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Louisville; program director of the Spalding University brief-residency MFA in writing; and 2003 Vacca Professor at the University of Montevallo, Alabama. Her published works are Four Spirits; Ahab’s Wife or, The Star-Gazer; The Disobedience of Water; Sherlock in Love; The Animal Way to Love; and Ice Skating at the North Pole.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
By Sena Jeter Naslund
Four Spirits*
Ahab's Wife or, The Star-Gazer*
The Disobedience of Water
Sherlock in Love
The Animal Way to Love
Ice Skating at the North Pole
*Available from HarperCollins e-books
Credits
Cover design by Richard Aquan
Cover photograph: Reflection upon a Wreck at ’Sconset, Nantucket, Mass., by Baldwin Coolidge; courtesy Peabody Essex Museum
Copyright
A hardcover edition of this book was published in 1999 by William Morrow and Company, Inc.
AHAB’S WIFE. COPYRIGHT © 1999 BY SENA JETER NASLUND.
Illustrations. Copyright © 1999 by Christopher Wormell.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
“E-Book Extras.” Copyright © 1999, 2003 by Sena Jeter Naslund.
EPub © Edition JUNE 2003 ISBN: 9780061983696
First Perennial edition published 2000.
20 19
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Contents
List of Illustration
Extracts
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
&
nbsp; Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Ahab's Wife Page 80