 |
 |
|
|
|
> Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life (Modern Library Classics) |
|
|
|
| |
see larger picture
|
|
Author:
Herman Melville
By Modern Library
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price: $12.95
Our Price: $7.42
|
|
|
|
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.3
EAN: 9780375757457
ISBN: 0375757457
Label: Modern Library
Manufacturer: Modern Library
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: 2001-06-12
Publisher: Modern Library
Release Date: 2001-06-12
Studio: Modern Library |
|
|
|
Product Description
Melville's first and most popular novel during his lifetime, Typee is a provocative and lively account of his exploits in the exotic South Seas during the early 1840s, where he journeyed as a young sailor. This edition includes notes on the text.
|
|
Life among beautiful cannibals, 2009-01-11
Although Typee is based on his own experiences in the South Pacific, Melville's popular work is wonderful adventure fiction. Disillusioned with months at sea on a whaling boat Tommo/Melville jumps ship with his friend Toby on the island of Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas archipelago of what is modern day French Polynesia. They are quickly captured by the Typee tribe who carry a murderous and cannibalistic reputation but are surprised to find that they are treated with respect and hospitality by their captors. However, it is soon apparent that the Typee, for reasons that are not clear, have no intention of letting them go for they are shadowed everywhere and under constant surveillance by groups of villagers. Toby makes an early escape with the intention of summoning help for Tommo who is being nursed for a serious leg wound by the fair-skinned beauty, Fayaway. When his friend fails to return Tommo reluctantly acquiesces to his situation. His subsequent anthropological observations are not dry text but a humorous and fascinating glimpse into an inscrutable world where the jollity, sensuality and general indolence of the villagers are lights year away from the puritanical and Protestant New England of Tommo's/Melville's own background. Some of the customs and practices have survived to this day and the words are still in use (recognisable despite Melville's esoteric spelling) as Marquesan is spoken in preference to French throughout the islands. (Some years later the people of Nuku Hiva were to be converted to Catholicism and it must have come as a shock to them to discover that they had been praying to the wrong idols for the previous two millennia.) Although the attitudes of the day were apparent in places - `Kory-Kory, though the most devoted and best-natured serving-man in the world, was alas! a hideous object to look upon' - Melville compares the natural beauty of the many of the Typee, both men and women, most favourably with the over-preened, coiffured dilettantes of the `civilised' world. With the sumptuous Fayaway and devoted Kory-Kory, he passes the days in sloth, lying around, eating, and swimming. He is effectively in a `golden jail'. As months pass, though, he becomes gloomy at his isolation and inability to meaningfully converse with the villagers and, when he makes a gruesome discovery, he develops a dreadful foreboding as to the possible outcome for his captivity. The novel closes with tension and drama.
Today, the village of Taipivai (River Taipi) is as tranquil a place as one could imagine, with the villagers enjoying a pace of life barely changed since Melville's time 170 years ago. Highly recommended to all who enjoy old-fashioned adventure and those who are interested in the history and culture of Pacific island communities. A second book, the less well-known Omoo, continues the author's South Seas escapades.
Contaminating contact with the white man, 2008-06-05
1841. A young man of 23 is looking for adventure, he signs a contract on a New England whaler and travels to the South Pacific. Life on the ship is not what he expected, the captain is a tyrant, the life is a bore, food is terrible. The ship reaches the Marquesas after 15 months, with no commercial success so far and the prospect of another few years of the same. The islands have just been occupied and claimed by the French. What one knows of the locals is full of horror: cannibals! But also of delight: the women! On arrival in the harbour, a fantastic party with the best orgy since 15 months is happening. But nothing can distract our hero from his plan: jump ship, wait for its departure, then look for another way home. He finds a companion for the desertion and does it. Then follows an account of 4 months among the cannibals -- while in reality it lasted only 1 month. This is a fictionally embellished travel and adventure story. 5 years later, a book is published. It will be Melville's first and most successful book during his lifetime. From here on, it went down for him.
The book lets us observe one of the great American writers in his initiation phase. A future ancestor of Conrad and O'Brian, two of my addictions. I wonder why I bypassed him for so long, with the exception of the Whale, which I read 30 years ago. And loved.
Typee gives you an adventure account in exotic surroundings, told in often surprisingly fresh language, but totally free of any scientific pretension: few observations on flora, fauna or geology, but a lot of romantic landscaping. Young Melville was no Maturin.
There is a lot of ethnology, the description of the people, their village and life takes a lot of space, so does the process of miscommunicating between the two white runaways and the tribe. As a matter of fact, not much verbal communication happened, the hero spent most of his time in a kind of fog: what was his status? was he a guest? a captive? a friend? was he destined for BBQ? Only half way through the story does he meet briefly a man who speaks some English, and it becomes clear that he is indeed a captive, but to what purpose is not clear.
He does reflect on the religion of the tribe, as observed by him in the practices of rituals, and concludes that the information spread by missionaries in the US is exaggerating wildly as far as the practices of paganism are concerned. Self-serving, obviously.
He takes a strong position against the morality of our civilization as opposed to the noble naked savages that he gets to know: the white civilized man is the most ferocious animal on the face of the earth, he concludes.
He was a bit in love with fair Fayaway, no doubt.
More Melville to follow here!
Another Handsome Edition from Heritage, 2008-11-23
Heritage's 1963 edition of Melville's Typee -- a sand-colored slipcase contains the hardcover book, bound in textured cloth with a three-color design. 24 Covarrubias color illustrations. Introduction by Raymond Weaver. Melville's Preface. 409 pp.
 Documentary-like story of life in an uncivilized paradise, circa 1850., 2010-03-15
Much of this first novel of Melville's reads more like a documentary than an adventure novel. This story of Tommo's time as a prisoner to the Typee savages (mirrored after Meliville's own experiences with a Tahitian tribe) isn't the most exciting book you'll read. Most of it is actually taken up by detailed descriptions of the (imaginary?) Typee tribes-people, their customs, habits, ect. Because it is based on real experiences, it is somewhat difficult to determine what is fiction and what is really true of Pacific-Islander life. In-depth descriptions of how food is processed, how clothing is made, and how island life is organized ring true, while a few parts of the book, like the beauty of the people and their habitually lazy lifestyles, seem exaggerated.
Melville's writing style reminds me of Jules Verne. The mundane tone used to describe (in great detail) people, objects, and occasions is very similar to what you get in Verne's novels (think Five Weeks in a Balloon). Also similar is the constant but dry and never-distracting humor always just beneath the surface, helping to make this otherwise lengthy-feeling descriptive work entertaining to read. Admittedly, there aren't the same sort of intense life-and-death situations here, but the tone and descriptive writing certainly have similarities to Jules Verne's style.
This book is most well-known for its poignant social commentary. The unfavorable comparisons of Western society to the stress-free life of the islands, and the condemnation of the corrupting influences of military and religious 'civilizing' influences on tribal people might have been offensive or enlightening to some in the 1850's, but seem like nothing original today. The unrefined, unashamed, and unladylike behaviour of the Polynesian women may have shocked readers at the time of publishing, but today, while lovely, it doesn't cause consternation.
I wouldn't recommend this book for the thrill seeker, or adventure lover. Only for those interested in the early work of Herman Meliville or a documentary-like story from the 1850's about life in an uncivilized tropical paradise.
Herman Melville - Typee (1846), 2009-05-05
What I gather from some of the reviews here is that because Melville wrote some complex novels later in his career, some people will probe and muse upon everything he writes until some deep meaning or intent can be wrung out of it. I'm sure many academics in the world of publish-or-perish have concocted quite extravagant analyses of books such as 'Typee' in order to keep their jobs.
From a more sensible vantage point, while Melville certainly evolved into a more complex writer, there's no reason to believe he intended writing a 'deep' or symbolic book with 'Typee'. 'Typee' was his first book, and it became an immediate success because of its colorful handling of Melville's experiences among the inhabitants of Polynesia. End of story.
Melville's account is what would today be classified as 'narrative fiction', meaning he took his actual experiences and molded them slightly to communicate a larger idea he had in mind. With 'Typee', Melville's larger idea is the comparison of civilization and savagery. His conclusion is that so-called savages - like Typees - are in many ways superior to their civilized counterparts. Great message, but it doesn't make this book something you can dwell on for days or analyze to death.
Most readers will find Melville's writing pretty crisp, especially given the time he was writing and the time we're reading. His theme and his approach make 'Typee' far more readable than a straight travelogue but less exciting than an adventure novel. Bottom line, this is a good read. While the plot is rather thin, Melville's digressions into the culture of the Typee are really the point of the book and he doesn't stick to any subject long enough for you to get bored. On the contrary, his observations are very interesting especially given that he had no way of understanding or explaining much of what he saw.
Read 'Typee' for what it is and enjoy it as so many people have before. Take away the message Melville intended, which I promise you will not need to be especially sharp or penetrating to tease out. Please don't make 'Typee' out to be a piece of esoteric literature (like 'Moby Dick') when it clearly is not.
|
|
|
|
| |
