New Novel 'The Whale' Shows Herman Melville And Nathaniel Hawthorne In Love

"Call me Ishmael!" We all know the famous beginning of one of the greatest American novels... "Moby-Dick," of course.

But how much do we know about the passion that spurred Herman Melville to write the strange and gory novel? And how much do we have to guess?

Novelist Mark Beauregard makes a few educated guesses in his new novel, "The Whale: A Love Story." In it, he writes that it was the relationship between Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne — the famed American novelist who wrote "The Scarlet Letter" and "The House of Seven Gables" — that made "Moby-Dick" so charged with passion.

Mark will be speaking at the Harvard Book Store Monday at 7 p.m. and at Papercuts J.P. Tuesday at 7 p.m. 

Mark Beauregard, novelist and writer. He tweets @MZBeauregard.