Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life

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!

Melville's famed magnus opus, "Moby Dick" should not be tackled without this adequate introduction to his work and dazzling literary adroitness. Do not have any apprehensions animated by a seemingly simplistic or bromide plot, for once a reader foreign to Melville's work grasps the exquisite prose and sincere romanticism ingrained in all of his novels, you're soon to become a captive of it's pages bound by an aroused imagination. Soon to learn the fame and notoriety surrounding Herman Melville is certainly not without reason and like many noble literary giants that have gone before us, his masterpieces withstand the test of time deservingly of the title, "Classic." The quixotic idea of emerging as a castaway on a dissolute tropical island hidden from the world, deep in paradise with only the company of an exotic but mysterious native people should not deter you from believing "Typee" is of any similarity to other inferior postdating stories of the like. Melville combines a brilliantly adventurous travelogue accompanied by earnest philosophical reflections balancing it all out with anthropological observations of the Island's primitive peoples, as well as recollections of his own home. This famed novel was an ebullient endeavor during it's day which hints the emprise of such modern films as "Castaway" while engrossing the empathy of multiculturalism found in "Dances With Wolves." It is feasibly the first accurate portrait painted of South Pacific life through the eyes of a Westerner, influencing many travelogues to follow focusing on the region in the same fashion of Stevenson and Becke. Numerous editions have been published since the original. The Penguin Classics Edition provides an introduction by author John Bryant who puts the story into context and Melville's conclusion of the supporting character's fate, written two years prior to the first edition in "Sequel: The Story of Toby." When first published in 1846, "Typee" was an immediate hit. Readers of the era in the US and even in Europe already knew to expect stupendous things from the then obscure author. This is exemplified by the book's quantum leap to stardom. The original draft was submitted to be published in New York but was rejected supposedly because it was "too fantastic" to be true. The apparent fact that after more than a century and a half of being published readers still have an appetite for Melville's original work, must persuade even the most discriminating of literary tastes of the caliber of his writing. Do not be deceived by the age of "Typee." You needn't be a diehard classical literature enthusiast nor scholar to appreciate this very readable, gracefully written novel. Which is contrary to the sometimes unfathomable rhetoric of the bygone antebellum era. It remains still just as amusing and captivating to readers today. "Typee" was the first of a trilogy of autobiographical novels set in the South Pacific dealing with Polynesian life. Readers of the author's

(This review is based on the Library of America edition) Melville's first book - and you can call it a novel, because it is - is quite an impressive work. I have to admit that during my reading of it, I didn't know how much was non-fiction and how much was fiction. In the case of a non-fiction book, I would have been rather astonished by Melville's work. But the fact is that this isn't a non-fiction book, and that as a reader you should think more of a literary work. But do not be sad! For what Melville does remains awesome. The book begins like a novel; the narrator seeks to escape his whaler and remain some time on one of the Marquesan Islands. After numerous adventures, he's eventually caught by the Typees, and from that point on, the book becomes close to an anthropological study of the exotic habits of the tribe. Melville is very insightful and witty, and more often than not, funny. His prose is rich and wonderful. A pure pleasure to read. "Typee" is a peek at some kind of long lost Eden, where no one has to work for a living - fruits can be plucked any time - and where there seems to be no evil. The Typees all have perfect beautiful skin, due to countless bathings during the day, and they're seldom seen to either cause or receive any harm. However, things aren't so dream-like, and the narrator is constantly haunted by the ghost of cannibalism, especially as he has no clear idea of why his captors detain him and yet treat him kindly. The author manages to produce some very interesting comparisons between the exotic "savages" and the Western Man, and this reminds me of many a sociologic book. Society, culture, humanity, all of these - and more - are considered from a very unique perspective in "Typee". Life among the cannibals, in an Eden of sorts, that is, in short, what the novel is about. Excellent read from a master of literature.

Herman Melville's "Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life" tells the story of a white sailor who lives for a time among the Typees, a native people of a Pacific island. According to a "Note on the Text" in the Penguin Classics edition, this book first appeared in 1846 in no less than four different editions."Typee" is a marvelous story of cross-cultural contact. It is also a fascinating glimpse at a pre-industrial culture; Tom (known as "Tommo" to the Typees) describes in detail the food, dress, tattooing, physiology, musical instruments, architecture, warfare, religious practices, and social customs of the Typees. The book is full of vividly portrayed characters: the gentle beauty Fayaway, the "eccentric old warrior" Marheyo, the talkative "serving-man" Kory-Kory, and more.Melville's prose style in "Typee" is irresistible: the writing is fresh, lively, and richly descriptive. There is a satirical thrust to much of the book. And there is a lot of humor; at many points I literally laughed out loud. Such scenes as the description of a wild pig's frustrated efforts to break open a coconut really showcase Melville's comic flair.A major theme of "Typee" is that of the "noble savage" (Melville actually uses the term). The narrator often wonders whether Typee life is in some ways better than Western life, and is quite critical of the work of Christian missionaries among Pacific Island peoples. The book is richly ironic, as Melville's narrator reflects on the problematic nature of cross-cultural observation: "I saw everything, but could comprehend nothing" (from Chapter 24)."Typee" is more than just a colorful travelogue or a philosophical reflection; it is also a genuinely exciting and suspenseful adventure story. Melville's story of a visitor to a strange alien world curiously anticipates a major theme of 20th century science fiction; thus a novel like Ursula K. LeGuin's "The Left Hand of Darkness" would make a fascinating companion text. Also recommended as a companion text: "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass," another 19th century American classic which casts a critical light on Eurocentric Christianity.

The earlier reviewers said much of what I wanted to say, and for the most part, said it better. I'll try not to repeat them. One of the fascinating things about this book is how Melville could go back and forth from describing the Typee people as the world's happiest, living the best lives, to his own perspective that to become one of them would nevertheless be a most horrible fate. Near the end of his sojourn with them, their tatoo artist-priest becomes increasingly insistent upon tatooing the lids of Melville's eyes, but it is not the imagined physical pain of this that terrifies Melville: it is the fear that he will lose all ties to Western Civilization, which, almost in the same breath, he so effectively criticises. As an American school teacher in rural East Africa, I often noticed this love-hate relationship to our own culture among my fellow volunteers. Like Melville, we almost all "went native" and tended to see the best in the Africans' lifestyle. Like him, we constantly contrasted it with Western Civilization, and found the primitive life the clear winner. And yet, like Melville, we nearly all came home. In my case, when I did, I found that, after two years, American faces looked ugly, overstressed and mean compared to the African faces I had been looking at. Yet I stayed home, and they gradually started to look better. I was initially depressed by the filth, the environmental degradation, the aimlessness of so many lives back here in the developed world. I suspect this might have been Melville's experience too, and part of what drove him back out to sea time and again. And yet, in the end, home is home, and we all come back. You should read this book. Much of it, at least, is fast paced, exciting, educational, and profoundly thought provoking. Despite its rough edges, it may have been Melville's most imortant work. I'll let you know after I finish his sequel: Omoo.