Typee
by Herman Melville
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Read in December, 2007
A man flees the confines his shipbound life as a sailor and ends up living with cannibals. Mostly alone with the savages—who turn out to be more mysterious than savage, and sometimes beautiful—he observes first-hand how society looks when freed from the onus of labor-intensive survival. Written at a time when primitives were still being actively civilized, the narrator questions the benefit of what christians and traders, often by force, had brought.
Right at the beginning of the book is a ...more
Right at the beginning of the book is a ...more
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Read in March, 2008
I'm working on filling in some of the gaps in my reading of nineteenth century American lit. I've taught Moby-Dick and several short novels, like Benito Cereno and Billy Budd, for years, but I have never read Melville's early novels. This isn't really a novel so much as an embellished memoir, and it's interesting to see how Melville's real experiences shaped his later literary (and more fictional) books.
Because it is not really a novel, don't expect plot or character development. It's jus...more
Because it is not really a novel, don't expect plot or character development. It's jus...more
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Read in January, 2008
After months of reading Stephen King and books about music, turning to Melville is a real jolt. The verbose 19th century prose has probably doubled the length of this story, but that's part of the charm. I've needed Webster's a few times with this one. Melville's adventures in the South Pacific land him on the Marquesas Islands, after jumping a whaling ship with a shipmate. He recounts in extreme detail the island exploration, fear of cannibalism and the culture of the the Typee natives. Ty...more
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Read in February, 2005
If you're not planning on taking a Melville class soon, and if you are too honest to admit that you totally enjoyed reading Moby Dick on your own, then start with this book. I had no idea Typee existed before I took a Melville class, and it is not surprising as it would be a bit like reading a Hemingway novel about an inner-city basketball star. But if you can see how that might not be too far-fetched, then you should be able to appreciate this action story set in a lonely Polynesian island re...more
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Read in January, 2006
From Typee I was able to gather about a five page list of words Herman Melville weaved into his south seas lexicon and which were way over my head (i.e. arcana=secret, disinter=to bring from obscurity into view, oleaginous=having qualities of oil;smarmy;unctuous)! Melvilles exciting journey in the Marquesas during which time he lives with a cannibal tribe for four weeks was a great tale filled with bold narrative and wity commentary on the "barbarism" of the "savage" tribe Ty...more
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Read in November, 2006
recommends it for:
someone stranded on a desert island
i started reading typee while laying in a hammock on the cliffs of san elijo state beach, with the san diego ocean breeze blowing through my hair. i put it down and quickly forgot about it once i got back into the city and the weather cooled down, but i finished it a few months later, sitting in a rooftop bar in phnom penh, with the stifling, muggy air around me being circulated by gigantic fans from all corners of the room, and a singapore sling on the table next to me. this is not winter rea...more
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Listened to this recently in audio version from LibriVox (www.librivox.org). A vividly told and well-observed first-person account of Melville's time among a preindustrial South Sea islander society that had minimal contact with the West. Part polemic, part adventure story, part amateur ethnography. The book that made Melville famous, before he blew his reputation on "Moby Dick." I was disappointed to learn later that much of it was made up.
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A good example of some fine yet oft-neglected Melville. Here, his storytelling is equally competent and fluid, but there is much less metaphysics and moralizing to wade through compared to Moby Dick (which, I assume, will be most readers' point of reference). Points off for the anthropological bent, whose condescending comparison of "civilized man" and "heathen man" will strike most modern readers as absurd.
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Two young sailors get marooned in the Marquesas. Their various adventures are recounted in the novel. It deals with times and places that are now lost, due to the opening up of the world even though the Marquesas are still relatively undeveloped). Stevenson criticised Melville for romanticising the Marquesas, but isn't that the purpose of the novel? This is a romantic account, but worthwhile nevertheless.
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Read in January, 2001
I read this back in college. It was a fascinating portrait of Polynesian life and a society we would consider primitive or savage. It also has the most realistic portrayal of cannibalism I've ever seen. It does get a bit bogged down in how wonderful the islands are and such, but still, it's a superb piece of writing.
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Read in October, 2006
Sure he took some liberties with the story - that's why it's fiction and not a "memoir". And yet, the great themes he would wrestle with forever are in here, waiting to be explored in greater depth later. A little sluggish at times, but a great first attempt.
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Read in September, 2007
A bit slow in the middle, but this is a gorgeous, paradoxical indictment of Western economic and religious missions in mid-19th century Polynesia. Many of Melville's recurring themes are here in germ form. Fascinating and complicated.
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Read this before taking a first-class trip to Tahiti and Hiva Oa for an article I co-wrote. Never laughed so hard! Beyond entertaining. Rekindled my most uncensored, unselfconscious sense of humor.
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Read in January, 2005
I was captivated by Melville's portraits of the colliding of worlds in the 1850s pacific. Multiple beautiful island cultures, bombarded by missionaries, and unscrupulous opportunists. Fascinating.
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این اثر ملویل با ترجمه ی پرویز داریوش در همین سال های اخیر در ایران چاپ و منتشر شده است.
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This is a kickass, very interesting book. Reading it though you wouldn't guess what a weird brilliant monster Melville would later turn out to be.
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Max's review was too good for me to compete with. Let's just say I was the one who took this book out the library and put it into his hands.
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I actually prefer Typee to Moby Dick any day of the week. Its about Polynesian islands from the perspective of Melvilles whaleing days.
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Read in October, 1997
Melville is one of my favorites.
new MelvilleNovel() = Encyclopedia + travel_guide + biblical_commentary;
...roughly speaking.
new MelvilleNovel() = Encyclopedia + travel_guide + biblical_commentary;
...roughly speaking.
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The plot moves about as fast as molasses but it was nice to enjoy Melville's wit again.
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