Herman Melville

Typee Herman Melville

The very first work by acclaimed author Herman Melville, Typee is a book of travel literature based on the writer's adventures around the islands of the South Pacific.

Although ostensibly a factual account of what he encountered, Melville peppered the entire text of Typee with significant imaginings as to the environment and the lay of the exotic lands he wandered. The nature of the natives and their practices - including that of cannibalism - was also exaggerated. Melville himself admitted to having drawn on existing sources, as well as his colourful imagination, during chapters where his memory started to fail him. In spite of this, his book was praised for its depiction of distant lands and peoples.

During Melville's lifetime, Typee was his most widely read work for its exoticism and tone of adventure. The cultural accounts of the natives struck a chord with the Victorian audience, cementing the young author's popularity. For the most adventurous and daring readers, the hitherto unheard of islands would become a destination of interest owing to the stunning sights Melville described.

However, recognition came at the price of significant notoriety - Melville would become widely referred to as the Westerner who went to live among the cannibals. This reputation overshadowed his other works of fiction, which became highly popular - eventually eclipsing Typee's own renown - after his death.