‘It’s about a whale’ Woody Allen famously remarked after speed-reading Moby-Dick in 20 minutes. Well, yes, it is, in much the same way that the Ring Cycle is about a piece of jewellery. It’s also about revenge, obsession, the force of nature, and, it almost goes without saying, the meaning of life.

Penguin Books Ltd | Paperback 720 pp. |ISBN: 9780142437247