Moby Dick's resonant first and last lines

Moby Dick

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Everyone knows this novel's famous opening line:

Call me Ishmael.

And, of course, its equally famous closing line:

And I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

Well, I am here to tell you that you are wrong. The true opening is as follows:

The pale Usher -- threadbare in coat, heart, body, and brain; I see him now. He was ever dusting his old lexicons and grammars, with a queer handkerchief, mockingly embellished with all the gay flags of all the known nations of the world.

But even that is prefaced by these words of etymology supplied by . . . oh, you'll get it on your own:

Etymology.

(Supplied by a Late Consumptive Usher to a Grammar School.)

And the true closing words are these:

It was the devious-cruising Rachel, that in her retracing search after her missing children, only found another orphan.

And that's the truth!