Before its 1919 "Melville revival", very few people would have been able to read Moby Dick, because gatekeepers would not have subsidized its availability. Moby

Before its 1919 "Melville revival", very few people would have been able to read Moby Dick, because gatekeepers would not have subsidized its availability. Moby Dick was a failure due to many chance events, such as reviews based on an unfinished version that did not include among other things the epilogue that explained Ishmael. What would make the novel as an art form dead or alive? Do you believe that the novels of the late-nineteenth century that enjoyed the most late-nineteenth readers are the same novels that influenced later writers the most, or the novels that had the most impact on people's thoughts 170 years later? Since it sounds like you are maybe not a regular book reader, my point may make more sense in the context of film. Go back 50 years, compare which movies earned the most, which were mentioned the most in the press of the time, and which ones won Academy Awards. Then if you think that says anything, compare that to which movies are considered important now, and you'll find that in fact none of those three metrics is more reliable than the others.