Q: Did you read Moby-Dick in order to make this candle? I've heard it's pretty long.

A: I read Moby Dick in high school, and I think I remember it pretty well. 

Q: Does it smell like a whale?

A: It smells exactly like a whale. As Herman Melville noted in Chapter 94, whales sometimes smell "literally and truly, like the smell of spring violets." So that is what this candle smells like. (If you think whales DON'T smell like spring violets...just how is it that you know what whales smell like, anyhow?!)

Q: Is the wax boat on the candle's surface based on Melville's highly detailed description of the Nantucket whaler Pequod?

A: Yes, sure.

Q: Moby-Dick is famously exhaustive in its descriptions of whales and whaling. How did Melville learn so much about whaling?

A: He worked on whaling vessels around the world for four years before writing Moby-Dick. This is just one example of Melville doing more research for Moby-Dick the novel than we did for the Moby-Dick the candle.

Q: What is your favorite part of Moby-Dick?

A: Well, Chapter 1 is the part I've read the most times, so let's say Chapter 1.