Typee (1846; in full: Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life) is American writer Herman Melville's first novel, partly based on his actual experiences as a "beachcomber" in the South Pacific Marquesas Islands. It was Melville's most popular work during his lifetime; for 19th century readers his career seemed to go downhill afterwards, but during the early 20th century it was seen as just the beginning of a career that peaked with Moby Dick (1852). Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, essayist and poet. ... The beachcombing lifestyle was one originally adopted in the South Pacific during the eighteenth and ninetheenth centuries by Europeans who deserted ship to live with Polynesian peoples of the region. ... National motto: Mau‘u‘u ha‘e iti Official languages French, Tahitian Political status Dependent territory, administrative division of French Polynesia Capital Tai o Hae Largest City Tai o Hae Area 1,274 km² ( 492 sq. ... Moby-Dick[1] is an 1851 novel by Herman Melville. ...

At first Typee provoked disbelief among its readers until two years after its publication the events were corroborated by Melville's fellow castaway, Richard T. Greene,^[1] who appears in the story as the character Toby. Until the 1930s, it was seen as factually based tinged with romance, when Robert S. Forsythe and Charles R. Anderson exploded the myth^[2] showing there were no factual sources available to verify the details of the story. It is now generally accepted that Melville exercised his artistic license so much that Typee is properly considered a work of fiction: the three week stay on which he based his story is extended in the narrative to four months, and he drew extensively on contemporary accounts by Pacific explorers to add cultural detail to what might otherwise have been a straightforward story of escape, capture and re-escape. For other meanings of Pacific, see Pacific (disambiguation). ...

Critical opinion on Typee is divided. Scholars have traditionally focused attention on Melville's treatment of race, and the narrator's portrayal of his hosts as noble savages, but there is considerable disagreement as to what extent the values, attitudes and beliefs expressed are Melville's own, and whether Typee reinforces or challenges racist assessments of Pacific culture. The issue of class also plays an important role, albeit largely subliminated, with Tommo (as the natives call the narrator) struggling to assert his identity as a member of the working class in a society where work, in the modern capitalist sense, is unknown. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A section of Benjamin Wests The Death of General Wolfe; Wests depiction of this Native American has been considered an idealization in the tradition of the Noble savage (Fryd, 75) In the 18th century culture of Primitivism the noble savage, uncorrupted by the influences of civilization was considered... 1. ... Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. ... The term working class is used to denote a social class. ...

In the final analysis, it is certain that Typee delineates a crisis of identity, whether racial or economic: much as he enjoys his sojourn, Tommo is terrified of being permanently absorbed into native society. Much attention has been given to Tommo's fears that he will become a victim of cannibalism, although this fear runs in the face of much evidence (he is not, after all, eaten). Melville does claim, however, to have caught the natives eating an inhabitant of one of the neighboring valleys on the island. The natives who have captured Melville reassure him that he will not be eaten, although he does state that he believes that the only thing preventing him from being eaten is an infection in his leg, for which his friend Toby is allowed to leave in search of a cure, so Melville can be healed and then eaten. Cannibalism in Brazil in 1557 as alleged by Hans Staden. ...

Typee is one of the first and arguably the most intelligent contemporary account of Western and Polynesian cultural interaction in the nineteenth century Pacific, and provided many later writers (such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Louis Becke and Jack London) with the themes and images that came to symbolise the Pacific experience: cannibalism, cultural absorption, colonialism, exoticism, eroticism, natural plenty and beauty, and a perceived simplicity of native lifestyle, desires and motives. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Western World. ... Polynesians settled the vast Polynesian triangle by 700AD Polynesian culture refers to the aboriginal culture of the Polynesian-speaking peoples of Polynesia and the Polynesian outliers. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis (Balfour) Stevenson (November 13, 1850 – December 3, 1894), was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer, and a leading representative of Neo-romanticism in English literature. ... Jack London, probably born John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916)[4][5][6] was an American author who wrote The Call of the Wild and over fifty other books. ... See colony and colonisation for examples of colonialism which do not refer to Western colonialism. ...

Versions

First published in England, by a publisher who believed it to be factually based. Same version published in the US. But critical references to missionaries and Christianity were censored in the second US edition. Later additions included a "Sequel: The Story of Toby" written by Melville explaining what happened to Toby (although this, also, has never been factually verified).

The inaugural book of the critically acclaimed Library of America series was a volume containing Typee, Omoo, and Mardi, published on May 6, 1982. The Library of America is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. ... Omoo was Herman Melvilles sequel to Typee, and, as such, was also nonfiction. ... Mardi was Herman Melvilles third book, and his first pure fiction work (while featuring fictional narrators, his previous novels were heavily autobiographical). ...

References

1. ^ Editor's Introduction by Ernest Rhys, in Typee, A Narrative of the Marquesas Islands, by Herman Melville, Everyman's Library 1907/1949
2. ^ Forsythe, "Herman Melville in the Marquesas", Philosophical Quarterly, 15/1 (Jan 1936), 1-15. Anderson, Melville in the South Seas (1939).

Ernest Percival Rhys (July 17, 1859 – May 25, 1946) was an English writer, best known for his role as founding editor of the Everymans Library series of affordable classics. ... Everymans Library is currently a series of reprinted classic literature published by Alfred A. Knopf (a division of Random House) in the United States, and Weidenfeld and Nicolson in the United Kingdom. ...

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Typee

• Typee, available freely at Project Gutenberg
• Typee, online at Ye Olde Library
• Free audiobook from LibriVox
• Typee Fluid Text Edition at the University of Virginia Press
• Free typeset PDF ebook of Typee and other Melville novels optimized for printing, plus extensive Melville reading list