Moby-Dick
Herman Melville
Moby-Dick
Melville's novel of 1851 draws on the same whaling voyage on the Acushnet, the ship he deserts at the start of Typee.
Read our takeTypee
Herman Melville
Typee
Two young sailors desert their whaler in the Marquesas Islands and walk into the valley of a people feared as cannibals.
- 1846
- 368
- Exuberant
- Atmospheric
- autobiographical
- episodic
- sensual
- funny
About Herman Melville
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeHerman Melville's first book tells how he and a shipmate deserted a whaling ship at Nukuheva, in the Marquesas Islands, in the summer of 1842. They climb inland, half starving, and come down into the valley of the Typee. The Typee treat the narrator as an honoured guest, but they will not let him leave. He enjoys the valley and grows more and more afraid of it. John Murray published the book in London in 1846, and Wiley and Putnam published it in New York.
The story, in more detail
The book is based on Melville's own time in the Pacific. He sailed on the whaler Acushnet, which reached the Marquesas in the summer of 1842, and deserted her there with a shipmate.[1] In Typee the ship is called the Dolly. Arthur Stedman, who edited the 1892 edition, explains that the Dolly was really the Acushnet.[2]
Melville arrived at a moment of history. Rear-Admiral Du Petit-Thouars had just taken the Marquesas for France. He reached Nukuheva with his flagship, the Reine Blanche, on 31 May 1842.[1] The opening chapters of Typee describe the French warships in the bay and mock the admiral's "prudent conduct."[2]
The narrator stays in the valley with Toby, his shipmate, and then alone. The islanders call him Tommo. He describes their houses, food, dances, tattooing and religion. He also argues that the white man, with his wars and his cruel punishments, is "the most ferocious animal on the face of the earth."[2]
Some readers doubted that Toby had ever existed.[2] His real name was Richard Tobias Greene. The book told him that Melville had survived, and the two men found each other again.[1] Melville added a sequel, The Story of Toby, signed "New York, July, 1846."[2]
The full plot
"Six months at sea!" the book begins. The whaler Dolly has been cruising the Pacific for sperm whales and has run out of fresh food. She anchors in the bay of Nukuheva, where French warships are already lying. The narrator is sick of the ship and its harsh captain, and decides to desert.[2]
He and Toby, a moody young shipmate, slip away when their watch is given a day ashore. They climb into the mountains, where it rains and they have almost nothing to eat. The narrator's leg swells up painfully. At last they see a valley below them. The valley belongs either to the friendly Happar or to the Typee, who are feared all over the island as cannibals.[2]
The valley is Typee. The chief, Mehevi, welcomes them. They are lodged in the house of an old man, Marheyo. His son Kory-Kory is told to look after the narrator, and carries him around on his back. A young woman named Fayaway becomes the narrator's closest friend.[2]
When boats are reported in the bay, Toby goes down to the beach with the islanders, promising to bring help. He never comes back. The narrator is left alone. He swims, smokes, eats and watches festivals. Women are forbidden to ride in canoes, but the priests are persuaded to make an exception for Fayaway.[2]
One day in the canoe, Fayaway unties her cloth robe and holds it up to the wind like a sail. But the narrator notices that the Typee will not let him walk towards the sea. A tattoo artist named Karky keeps chasing him, wanting to tattoo his face. Mehevi wants it done too.[2]
How it ends — spoilers ahead
Then he catches sight of three smoked human heads kept in his house, and one of them is a white man's. After a battle with the Happar, he lifts the cover of a canoe and sees the fresh bones of a human skeleton. He is now desperate to escape.
Word reaches the valley that a boat has come to the bay. The islanders argue about whether to let him go. Old Marheyo says the only two English words the narrator taught him, "Home" and "Mother". Kory-Kory carries him down to the beach.
Karakoee, a Hawaiian sailor who is allowed to visit every valley, has come in a whaleboat from an Australian ship, and is trying to buy the narrator's freedom. The narrator breaks free and reaches the boat. As they row away, the one-eyed chief Mow-Mow swims after them. The narrator strikes him with a boat-hook.
He is taken aboard the whaler Julia. He never learns what happened to Toby. The Story of Toby, added in 1846, tells how an old sailor called Jimmy talked Toby into leaving the island without him.
Themes and analysis
Melville's first book and first success
Melville wrote Typee at his mother's house in Lansingburgh, New York, after he came home from the sea. His brother Gansevoort, sailing to London as secretary of the American legation, took the manuscript to the publisher John Murray.
Murray paid £100 for the right to print a thousand copies. First he wanted to be sure that the book was a true account. He published it in two parts, on 26 February and 1 April 1846, as A Four Months' Residence among the Natives of a Valley of the Marquesas Islands.
Wiley and Putnam published the American edition in New York the same year, as Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life. By 1 January 1849 they had sold 6,392 copies. In 1849 Harper Brothers took the book over. They removed some of the passages missionaries had most objected to.
The missionaries had reason to object. In Chapter XXVI Melville writes that in Honolulu the native Hawaiians had been "civilized into draught-horses; and evangelized into beasts of burden."
The French in the Marquesas
In 1842 France set out to take the Marquesas first and then Tahiti. Rear-Admiral Du Petit-Thouars sailed with his flagship, the Reine Blanche, three frigates and three corvettes. He reached Fatu-Hiva, the southernmost island, on 26 April 1842, and the bay of Nukuheva on 31 May.
Typee gives the French a whole chapter. The narrator counts about a hundred French soldiers ashore at Nukuheva. He calls the admiral's campaign a "buccaneering expedition." Near the end, the hero of the rescue, Karakoee, is still wearing a green jacket given to him by an officer of the Reine Blanche.
Typee in French
Gallimard in Paris published the first French version in 1926. Théo Varlet translated it under the title Un éden cannibale, in the series Les Documents bleus. Three years later the Librairie des Champs-Élysées in Paris brought out Miriam Dou-Desportes's translation, under the title Typee.
In 1952 Gallimard published a new version, Taïpi, translated by Théo Varlet and François Ledoux.
Quotes from Typee
Six months at sea! Yes, reader, as I live, six months out of sight of land
the white civilized man as the most ferocious animal on the face of the earth.
a prettier little mast than Fayaway made was never shipped aboard of any craft.
civilized into draught-horses; and evangelized into beasts of burden.
Why we recommend it
An adventure with a real man behind it
Toby was Richard Tobias Greene, who read the book and wrote to say he was alive. Melville added his story as a sequel.
Paradise with a catch
The valley is beautiful and the people are kind, but the narrator is not allowed to leave. The tension builds slowly to a fight in the surf.
An early attack on colonial rule
Melville takes the side of the islanders against the French navy and the missionaries, and his publishers cut some of it.
The book that made Melville famous
Typee was his first book and his first success. Melville later complained to Nathaniel Hawthorne that he would go down to posterity as a "man who lived among the cannibals."
What this book explores
The people in its pages
Tommo
The narrator, a young American sailor who deserts his whaler. The Typee cannot say "Tom" and call him Tommo.
Toby
The narrator's shipmate and fellow deserter, moody and bold. Based on Richard Tobias Greene.
Kory-Kory
Marheyo's son, assigned to look after the narrator. Devoted, strong and heavily tattooed.
Fayaway
A young woman of the valley and the narrator's favourite companion.
Mehevi
The chief who welcomes the two sailors into the valley.
Marheyo
The kindly old man in whose house the narrator lives.
Marnoo
A handsome visitor from another part of the island who speaks some English and may travel anywhere.
Mow-Mow
A one-eyed chief of the valley.
Bring it to book club
- The narrator loves the valley and wants to escape it. Why can he not have both?
- Is the Typee's refusal to let him go kindness, suspicion or something else?
- Melville calls the white man the most ferocious animal on earth. How does the rest of the book support or undercut that?
- Why do you think the tattoo frightens him more than almost anything else?
- The book was sold as a true story. Does it matter how much of it happened?
Timeline
3 January 1841
Melville sails from Fairhaven, Massachusetts, on the whaler Acushnet.
31 May 1842
Rear-Admiral Du Petit-Thouars reaches the bay of Nukuheva to take the Marquesas for France.
Summer 1842
The Acushnet arrives at Nukuheva, and Melville deserts with Richard Tobias Greene.
December 1845
John Murray agrees to publish the manuscript in London.
26 February 1846
Murray publishes the first part of the book.
July 1846
Melville writes The Story of Toby after hearing from the real Toby.
1849
Harper Brothers take over the American edition and cut passages about the missionaries.
1926
Gallimard publishes Théo Varlet's French translation, Un éden cannibale.
1952
Gallimard publishes Taïpi, translated by Théo Varlet and François Ledoux.
Book editions
Paperback
- Paperback
- John Murray
- 1846
Hardcover
- Hardcover
- Wiley and Putnam
- 1846
- Paperback
- Penguin Classics
- 1996
- 9780140434880
Ebook
- Ebook
- Project Gutenberg
- 1999
Reader reviews
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Read our takeBenito Cereno
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Read our takeTypee: frequently asked questions
What is Typee about?
Two sailors desert a whaling ship in the Marquesas Islands and come down into the valley of the Typee, who are feared as cannibals. The narrator is treated as an honoured guest but is not allowed to leave, and the book ends with his escape.
Is Typee a true story?
The book is based on Melville's own desertion from the whaler Acushnet at Nukuheva in 1842. His companion Toby was a real shipmate, Richard Tobias Greene, who came forward after the book appeared.
When was Typee published?
In 1846. John Murray published it in London in two parts, on 26 February and 1 April, and Wiley and Putnam published it in New York.
Who is Fayaway?
A young woman of the Typee valley and the narrator's closest companion there. The best-known scene in the book is Fayaway using her robe as a sail in a canoe.
What does Typee have to do with France?
Melville arrived at Nukuheva just after Rear-Admiral Du Petit-Thouars had taken the Marquesas for France in 1842. The book describes the French warships in the bay and criticises the takeover.
Which edition has this ISBN?
ISBN 9780140434880 is the Penguin Classics paperback of 1996, edited with an introduction by John Bryant, 368 pages.
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References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document Typee, its publication, and its place in literary history.
2abcdefghijTypee: A Romance of the South Seas, with The Story of Toby and Arthur Stedman's 1892 introduction — primary text, Project Gutenberg ebook 1900
MemoirProject Gutenberg transcription, 1846Used forPrimary text with Arthur Stedman's 1892 introduction and The Story of Toby, for the plot, characters and quotations.
3Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life — Penguin Classics paperback, ISBN 9780140434880
WebsitePenguin Random House Library MarketingUsed forPublisher record for ISBN 9780140434880.
4Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life (Penguin Classics, ed. John Bryant) — Open Library edition record OL7354870M
WebsiteOpen Library, Internet ArchiveUsed forEdition record with the same ISBN, editor and page count.
5Un éden cannibale. "Typée", récit des îles Marquises, traduit de l'anglais par Théo Varlet (Paris: Gallimard, 1926; Les Documents bleus, no. 31) — catalogue record
Official recordBibliothèque nationale de France, 1926Used forCatalogue record for the first French translation.
6Typee, traduit de l'anglais par Miriam Dou-Desportes (Paris: Librairie des Champs-Élysées, 1929) — catalogue record
Official recordBibliothèque nationale de France, 1929Used forCatalogue record for the 1929 Paris translation.
7Taïpi, traduit de l'anglais par Théo Varlet et François Ledoux (Paris: Gallimard, 1952) — catalogue record
Official recordBibliothèque nationale de France, 1952Used forCatalogue record for Gallimard's 1952 version.
8Typee
MemoirHerman Melville, 1846Used forThe primary text represented by this page, used for descriptions of the work’s contents and for any quoted passages shown here.
i
Why these sources are here
The primary text is the baseline reference for every book page. Additional references document publication history, interpretation, and historical context where that evidence is available.
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