Typee : a peep at Polynesian life. by Herman Melville (1846)

Melville, Herman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1523324856 ISBN 13: 9781523324859

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016

Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet from the American Renaissance period. Most of his writings were published between 1846 and 1857. Best known for his sea adventure Typee (1846) and his whaling novel Moby-Dick (1851), he was almost forgotten during the last thirty years of his life. Melville's writing draws on his experience at sea as a common sailor, exploration of literature and philosophy, and engagement in the contradictions of American society in a period of rapid change. The main characteristic of his style is probably pervasive allusion, reflecting his written sources. Melville's way of adapting what he read for his own new purposes, scholar Stanley T. Williams wrote, "was a transforming power comparable to Shakespeare's".

Review:

"Attractive editions, clear type, good introductions and annotations."--Barbara Packer, UCLA
"An excellend edition. Blair's deeply informed introduction and notes lend contextual substance necessary to an historically aware appreciation of Typee."--Lawrence Howe, Roosevelt University
"Ideal teaching edition because of the splendid notes, bibliographies and chronologies."--Robert Regan, University of Pennsylvania
"Attractive editions, clear type, good introductions and annotations."--Barbara Packer, UCLA
"An excellend edition. Blair's deeply informed introduction and notes lend contextual substance necessary to an historically aware appreciation of Typee."--Lawrence Howe, Roosevelt University
"Ideal teaching edition because of the splendid notes, bibliographies and chronologies."--Robert Regan, University of Pennsylvania
"Attractive editions, clear type, good introductions and annotations."--Barbara Packer, UCLA
"An excellend edition. Blair's deeply informed introduction and notes lend contextual substance necessary to an historically aware appreciation of Typee."--Lawrence Howe, Roosevelt University
"Ideal teaching edition because of the splendid notes, bibliographies and chronologies."--Robert Regan, University of Pennsylvania

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.