Typee

It's the bicentennial of the birth of Herman Melville, and before the year slipped away I wanted to read something by him. I read his magnum opus, Moby Dick, years ago, so after downloading his complete works on Kindle (only $2.99!) I figured I'd start at the beginning, with his first book, Typee.

Published in 1846, it was the most popular of Melville's works during his lifetime, and was party based on his own experiences in the Marquesas Islands. It was a sensation because the narrator, Tom, spends several months with cannibals. The subtitle is A Peep At Polynesian Life, and thus the book is as much an anthropological treatise as an adventure.

Tom is a sailor on a whaling ship and when his ship docks at the Marquesas he decides he's had enough of ship life and goes AWOL, along with Toby, whom he recruits for the adventure. They head up a mountain, and then come down the other side, not sure if they are going into the domain of the Happar, who are thought to be good natives, or the Typee, known for being cannibals. "Typee or Happar? A frightful death at the hands of the fiercest of cannibals, or a kindly reception from a gentler race of savages?" It turns out to be the Typee, but they assure Tom that they will not eat him--they only do that to conquered enemies.

Tom recuperates from a leg injury, Toby disappears, and while Tom enjoys his time with them he realizes they do not intend on letting him go--they follow him everywhere. I guess there really is too much of a good thing, and Tom eventually escapes.

Much of the book is description of the appearance and habits of the Typee. There is a long section on breadfruit, their primary sustenance, and on the their polygamy, on the concept of taboo, and on tattooing (Tom resists a facial tattoo, so agrees to one on his arm). I imagine spiking sales of the book were detailed descriptions of the females, such as this one: "Her hair of the deepest brown, parted irregularly in the middle, flowed in natural ringlets over her shoulders, and whenever she chanced to stoop, fell over and hid from view her lovely bosom. Gazing into the depths of her strange blue eyes, when she was in a contemplative mood, they seemed most placid yet unfathomable; but when illuminated by some lively emotion, they beamed upon the beholder like stars." It being 1846, there was nothing explicit, but Tom does note: "Bathing in company with troops of girls formed one of my chief amusements."

What is most remarkable about the book is Melville's understanding and tolerance of another way of life. He calls them savages, yes, but adds: "The term ‘Savage’ is, I conceive, often misapplied, and indeed, when I consider the vices, cruelties, and enormities of every kind that spring up in the tainted atmosphere of a feverish civilization, I am inclined to think that so far as the relative wickedness of the parties is concerned, four or five Marquesan Islanders sent to the United States as Missionaries might be quite as useful as an equal number of Americans despatched to the Islands in a similar capacity."

He goes on to write: "The hospitality of the wild Arab, the courage of the North American Indian, and the faithful friendship of some of the Polynesian nations, far surpass anything of a similar kind among the polished communities of Europe."

While Typee isn't as rollicking an adventure as I thought it would be, it was fun to read.