And I Only Am Escaped Alone To Tell Thee

[filkertom]

Today's the birthday of Herman Melville, who wrote a bunch of good stuff, but is best known for two works which have changed a lot of worlds: Billy Budd, which was made into an opera by Benjamin Britten; and Moby-Dick, one of the greatest adventure novels and psychological profiles of all time, except for that part in the middle where it stops dead for a hundred pages to talk about whaling.

There is an ass-kicking musical of Moby-Dick (the original cast album of the whole show, to my mind the best, is available here).

And, of course, without Moby-Dick, this would never have been the same.

What single novel has changed your life the most? In my case, without question, it's The Lord of the Rings, although Dune is right up there.