Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas (Penguin Classics)

You may have heard of the author. This is one of his lesser-read works, although not the least read, that would be Clarel. Even though part of this novel takes place on a whaleship, and has preachers in high pulpits, a Maori, a negro cook, and uses the word gallied, it is quite different from Moby Dick.This novel is a straightforward first-person account of adventure by a sensitive, well-read sailor called consecutively Typee and Paul. He escapes from his previous novel (where he was called Tammo) to a whaleship, becomes a mutineer, is clapped in a Tahitian calabooza, and then released to explore the nearby island of Eimeo. He finds the farther he is from Western influence the happier are the natives. That's it.Two things stand out in this wisp of an adventure story. One is Melville's humor. "There was no absolute deformity about the man, he was symmetrically ugly." "About the eyes, there was no mistaking him; with a villainous cast in one, they seemed suspicious of each other." "The very men he flogged loved him as a brother, for he had such an irresistibly good-natured way of knocking them down, that no one could find it in his heart to bear malice against him."The other is Melville's prophetic outlook. He seems more like us, more at home in our liberal, tolerant, 21st century Obama democracy, than he does in his own era. This comes across when he laments the decimation of the Tahitian people from 200,000 at the time of Cook to barely 9,000 people in 1842; deplores the introduction of western commerce which left the Polynesians with nothing to do; and regrets the effort to civilize and christianize the natives which brought about "ignorance, hypocrisy and hatred of other faiths."I'll end with a digression. At times I felt insulted by the editor. Editors have to decide who is my audience? what should I assume they know? It would seem natural to believe that anyone bothering to read this book is culturally literate and is more likely to read literature than adventure tales. I would bet we're reading this book because we like Melville. However, this gal Edwards believes her audience knows NOTHING. As a result she wastes a good deal of ink correcting Melville's spelling, and needlessly explaining obvious things like what are casks, harpooners and pearl-oysters, where are Palermo and Cape Horn, who were Napoleon and Lord Nelson, and that Taurus is a constellation. It would have been better if she had followed the example of Beaver in Penguin's excellent 1972 edition of Moby Dick: maps of the Society Islands, a couple of diagrams of a whaleship indicating the technical names of its structure and sails, and notes that identify obscure technical terms, literary allusions and repeated themes.

Like everyone, I was familiar with Melville's 'Moby Dick', but only recently chanced upon a reference to 'Omoo' in Alan Moorehead's fabulous 'The Fatal Impact', an account of European and American impact (disastrous) on the Pacific islanders and Australian aborigines starting in the 1770s. I bought and just finished 'Omoo', which is a superbly written account of Melville's experiences around 1842 in Tahiti and other Polynesian islands, after deserting with half the other seamen from an English whaler. The book consists of 82 chapters, none more than 5 pages in length, which makes it easy to pick up and put down at leisure without losing the thread of the narrative. Melville's descriptions of the people and their customs and culture and history, and of the native flora and fauna, are vivid, illuminating and entertaining. The writing is crisp, and studded with bits of wry humor I didn't expect in a book written more than 150 years ago. This edition also contains an excellent introduction, and voluminous and very interesting footnotes explaining historical, cultural and linguistic terms found in the text itself. Apparently this book was both a critical and commercial success when first published, and justly so. It is far more readable than 'Moby Dick', and deserves far more attention than it has received in recent times. Highly recommended.

Solid and endearing novel. The seafaring aesthetic of Melville is very attractive and he paints pretty pictures of Polynesian scenes throughout the book.The subject matter is very commonplace. It’s a simple, anti-action novel in some respects.

Great read for the beach on a tropical island vacation! The short chapters are perfect for picking up and putting down.The writing and attitude - ironic, witty - seems very contemporary for a book from the 1840s. The fact that it is semi-autobiographical enhances the intrigue of the escapades. It helps if the reader has some knowledge of sailing. The sailing details are authentic and the end notes are helpful. A bit of actual South Seas history emerges from the early 19th century as you read. Great nook!

Okay for its time.

Cultural and religious artefacts are destroyed. Music and dancing is considered lascivious and is banned. A dress code is introduced and women must be chaste in both their clothing and demeanour. Names must be drawn from religious texts. Today we are familiar with the cultural barbarism of the Taliban but here I am talking about Christian missionaries in the South Pacific in the early nineteenth century. However, Melville's acerbic commentary on religious oppression was not popular in his home country and some of his observations were edited out. But it was not only the missionaries who were instrumental in the destruction of Polynesian traditions and culture as Europeans also brought measles, syphilis and new mosquito species. Then, to top it all the narrator of Omoo heard `a salute, which afterward turned out to be a treaty; or rather - as far as the natives were concerned - a forced concession of Tahiti to the French', a deceit which the French state 170 years on seems curiously and stubbornly reluctant to rectify.Polynesian woes notwithstanding, Omoo, which begins where Typee left off, lacks the pace and panache of Melville's better-known and more popular novel. Rescued from the Marquesas Islands by boat, Typee (the narrator, formerly Tommo in Typee) is involved in a mutiny and incarcerated on Tahiti before getting away to Moorea. The book, which mixes factual experiences with fanciful fiction consists largely of the narrators wanderings, observations and encounters with numerous characters on Tahiti and Imeeo (his spelling of Eimeo, now Moorea). Mercifully there are pages of explanatory notes in the Penguin classics version because once the `flying jib-boom snapped off like a pipe stem', and the `spanker-gaff came down by the run' I was getting a little seasick. It is better to stick to Typee.

Looks good, an excellent modern commentary but the footnote links do not work. This will prove a real nuisance.The footnotes really need to be sorted out in this kindle version for it to be of proper use. They do not link from text to note.

What can I say? It's a book and a good read.

il libro è arrivato nei tempi previsti. si tratta del secondo romanzo di Herman Melville, il meno letto e studiato dei suoi romanzi, ma un testo comunque interessante e importante. per certi aspetti è il primo on the road novel americano