''Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life'' is American writer
Herman Melville
Herman Melville (Name change, born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American people, American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance (literature), American Renaissance period. Among his bes ...
's first book, published in 1846, when Melville was 26 years old. Considered a classic in
travel and adventure literature, the narrative is based on Melville's experiences on the island
Nuku Hiva
Nuku Hiva (sometimes spelled Nukahiva or Nukuhiva) is the largest of the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas country of France in the Pacific Ocean. It was formerly also known as ''Île Marchand'' and ''Madison Island''.
Herman M ...
in the South Pacific
Marquesas Islands
The Marquesas Islands (; french: Îles Marquises or ' or '; Marquesan: ' ( North Marquesan) and ' ( South Marquesan), both meaning "the land of men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in th ...
in 1842, supplemented with imaginative reconstruction and research from other books. The title comes from the valley of
Taipivai, once known as Taipi.
''Typee'' was Melville's most popular work during his lifetime; it made him notorious as the "man who lived among the cannibals".
Background
![Richard Tobias Greene](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Richard_Tobias_Greene.jpg)
From the beginning there were questions about Melville's romantic tale. The London publisher
John Murray wanted reassurance that Melville's experiences were first-hand before he included the book in the ''
Home and Colonial Library
The ''Home and Colonial Library'' was a series of works published in London from 1843 to 1849, comprising 49 titles, by John Murray III. He founded it, as a series of cheap reprints, original works and translations, slanted towards travel literatur ...
'' series, which was nonfiction by or about foreigners in exotic places. Warm but sometimes skeptical reviews also challenged Melville's account.
![Melville's Desertion from the Acushnet](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Melville%27s_Desertion_from_the_Acushnet.png)
Not long after the book's publication, however, many of the events described were corroborated by Melville's fellow castaway,
Richard Tobias Greene ("Toby"). Researchers later discovered an affidavit from the ship's captain that corroborated that Melville and Greene did indeed desert the ship on the island in the summer of 1842.
''Typee'' can be seen as a kind of proto-anthropology. Melville continually admits vast ignorance of the culture and language he is describing while also trying to bolster and supplement his own experiences with wide reading and research. He also employs hyperbole and humor. Starting in the 1930s, scholars in the
Melville revival
Herman Melville (Name change, born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American people, American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance (literature), American Renaissance period. Among his bes ...
questioned Melville's account. For instance, the length of stay on which ''Typee'' is based is presented as four months, and this was an exaggeration of Melville's actual stay on the island. There is also not a lake where Melville might have gone canoeing with Fayaway.
Critical response
![Fayaway](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Fayaway.jpg)
''Typee''s narrative expresses a great deal of sympathy for the so-called savages, and even interrogates the use of that word, while focusing the most criticism on European marauders and various missionaries' attempts to evangelize:
It may be asserted without fear of contradictions that in all the cases of
outrages committed by Polynesians, Europeans have at some time or
other been the aggressors, and that the cruel and bloodthirsty
disposition of some of the islanders is mainly to be ascribed to
the influence of such examples.
hevoluptuous Indian, with every desire supplied,
whom Providence has bountifully provided with all the sources of
pure and natural enjoyment, and from whom are removed so many of
the ills and pains of life—what has he to desire at the hands of
Civilization? Will he be the happier? Let the once smiling and
populous Hawaiian islands, with their now diseased, starving, and
dying natives, answer the question. The missionaries may seek to
disguise the matter as they will, but the facts are incontrovertible.
''
The Knickerbocker
''The Knickerbocker'', or ''New-York Monthly Magazine'', was a literary magazine of New York City, founded by Charles Fenno Hoffman in 1833, and published until 1865. Its long-term editor and publisher was Lewis Gaylord Clark, whose "Editor's Ta ...
'' called ''Typee'' "a piece of
Münchhausenism." New York publisher
Evert Augustus Duyckinck
Evert Augustus Duyckinck (pronounced DIE-KINK) (November 23, 1816 – August 13, 1878) was an American publisher and biographer. He was associated with the literary side of the Young America movement in New York.
Biography
He was born on Novemb ...
wrote to
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion.
He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...
that "it is a lively and pleasant book, not over philosophical perhaps." In 1939, Charles Robert Anderson published ''Melville in the South Seas'' in which he elaborated on a number of Melville's likely sources in supplementing his work and also documented the existence of an affidavit from the Captain of the Acushnet. If the date provided by Captain can be considered accurate, Anderson concludes that Melville's stay in the "Typee Valley" part of the island would have been merely "four weeks, or possible eight weeks at the most." However, in trying to determine the end date of Melville's stay, Anderson primarily relies on Melville's own internal accounts of various events, for instance that he was rescued from the valley on a "Monday." In summing up his view of ''Typee'', Anderson writes:
For the general student of Melville, the detailed analysis and verification of these matters... probably reveals an accuracy scarcely to be expected. Without hesitation it can be said that in general this volume presents faithful delineation of the island life and scenery in precivilization Nukahiva, with the exception of numerous embellishments and some minor errors...
All of the initial back and forth which Melville experienced regarding the factuality of ''Typee'' may have had a chastening effect on him, as Anderson considers his next work, the book's sequel ''Omoo'', "the most strictly autobiographical of all Melville's works." But this second book also seems to have met with some skepticism, so that for his third book ''Mardi'', Melville declares in the preface that he has decided to write a work of fiction under the supposition (half-joking) he might finally be believed:
Not long ago, having published two narratives of voyages in the Pacific, which, in many quarters, were received with incredulity, the thought occurred to me, of indeed writing a romance of Polynesian adventure, and publishing it as such; to whether, the fiction might not, possibly be received for a verity: in some degree the reverse of my previous experience.
Publication history
''Typee'' was published first in London by
John Murray on February 26, 1846, and then in New York by
Wiley and Putnam
G. P. Putnam's Sons is an American book publisher based in New York City, New York. Since 1996, it has been an imprint of the Penguin Group.
History
The company began as Wiley & Putnam with the 1838 partnership between George Palmer Putnam and ...
on March 17, 1846. It was Melville's first book, and made him one of the best-known American authors overnight.
The same version was published in London and New York in the first edition; however, Melville removed critical references to missionaries and Christianity from the second U.S. edition at the request of his American publisher. Later additions included a "Sequel: The Story of Toby" written by Melville, explaining what happened to Toby.
Before ''Typee''s publication in New York, Wiley and Putnam asked Melville to remove one sentence. In a scene in Chapter Two where the ''Dolly'' is boarded by young women from Nukuheva, Melville originally wrote:
Our ship was now given up to every species of riot and debauchery. Not the feeblest barrier was interposed between the unholy passions of the crew and their unlimited gratification.
The second sentence was removed from the final version.
The discovery in 1983 of thirty more pages from Melville’s working draft manuscript led Melville scholar John Bryant to challenge earlier conclusions about Melville's writing habits. He describes the versions of the draft manuscript and of the “radically different physical print versions of the book,” which amount, Bryant concludes, to “one grand, hooded mess.” Since there is no clear way to present Melville’s "final intention," his 2008 book offers a “fluid text” that allows a reader to follow the revisions. made what he called “an exciting new perspective on Melville’s writing process and culture.”
The inaugural book of the
Library of America
The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published over 300 volumes by authors rangi ...
series, titled ''Typee, Omoo, Mardi'' (May 6, 1982), was a volume containing ''Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life'', its sequel ''
Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas'' (1847), and ''
Mardi, and a Voyage Thither'' (1849).
See also
*''
Last of the Pagans
''Last of the Pagans'' is a 1935 MGM film based on the Herman Melville novel ''Typee'' (1846).
The film was shot on location in Tahiti.A Director of a Tropical Film Has A Visitor's Usual Odd Experiences: Dick Thorpe Discovers All Strange Phenome ...
'', a 1935 film adaptation of ''Typee''
*''
Enchanted Island'', a 1958 film adaptation of ''Typee''
References
Editions
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* Hathi Trus
*
* Hathi Trust Open Acces
HERE
Bibliography
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* Nelson, Randy F. (1981). ''The Almanac of American Letters''. Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann, Inc.
* .
* .
External links
''Typee'' 1846 first edition, scanned book via
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
, other later editions available.
*
Herman Melville's''Typee'': A Fluid Text Edition edited by John Bryant (University of Virginia Press).
*Th
Classics Illustrated comic bookat the
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
{{Authority control
1846 American novels
American novels adapted into films
Marquesan culture
Novels by Herman Melville
Marquesas Islands
Novels set in Oceania
Novels set on islands
French Polynesia in fiction
Novels republished in the Library of America
Nautical novels