Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life - Softcover

Melville, Herman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140430709 ISBN 13: 9780140430707

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 1972

Synopsis

Set in the paradise of a South Sea island, "Typee" is a combination of fact and fiction. The tale is a distortion of the life of the Typees and foreshadows the metaphysical precoccupations in Melville's later work with its depiction of the evil and mystery lurking beneath the idyllic setting.

About this title

From the Publisher

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From the Back Cover

Typee (1846) is the first 'romance' of the semi-autobiographical account of life in the Marquesas Islands in the 1840s. A blend of personal experience and the narratives of explorers and missionaries, it influenced many later writers on the Paciflc, including Robert Louis Stevenson and Jack London. Melville himself deserted from a whaling ship in the islands and lived for four weeks among the inhabitants, observing and recording their way of life. Typee points up the wonders, the dilemmas, the 'fatal impact' of European encounter with the peoples of the Pacific. This edition offers an introduction that considers the book from a post-colonial perspective, and detailed annotation of Melville's allusions.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 1972
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140430709
• ISBN 13: 9780140430707
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368
• Editor: Woodcock George