Customer Reviews

Typee: A Romance of the South Sea

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I found this book in the ship's library while sailing the South Pacific. Read this while visiting Nuku Hiva so I enjoyed it more because I was there and could visit the places. Based on on Melville's experiences while captured there after jumping ship escaping a bad tempered sailing captain. Though a fictionalized tale, there is no doubt Melville had first hand knowledge. He had empathy for the "noble savages" and disliked what the missionaries had done to the island. This book is available for free as a Kindle download.

Typee attempts to be two things, an adventure story, and an anthropological commentary. In my opinion, it fails at both. The two purposes basically interfere with each other. As an adventure, the story does not satisfy a modern reader. It was a sensation when it first came out, due to the shock value of an exotic culture. So far, so good, even today.

But the story plods along, with very little happening in the middle section. The first few chapters develop nicely, while the climax is rushed. The middle half of the book is a raw description of native life with no story motion whatsoever. That would be okay if the cultural business was illuminating. It is not. Melville constantly presents strange native customs with no explanation whatsoever. A frequent conclusion runs like "I never figured out what that was all about."

So the inconclusive cultural commentary would be okay if the story moved along. As it is, neither purpose is realized, making the book a tantilizing, mundane puzzle.

Having said all that, I did enjoy the book because I'm a sucker for this sort of setting, especially from "early" sources. Melville did live out something like what he described. So I am conflicted. I suppose that romantics like me, and scholars will enjoy and learn from Typee, while casual readers looking for a classic will be "underwhelmed".