"Why is Muammar Gaddafi like Captain Ahab?"
The Wall Street Journal, 20 October 2011

CAPTAIN Ahab, with his false leg, with his seething anger that drives him until he drowns: he will never die. He is an unforgettable character within the pantheon of American novels.

It is not clear why Herman Melville chose as the title of his novel not the name Ahab, but Moby Dick. He also does not introduce the figure of the captain of the whaling ship early on. Th