Herman Melville

Based on Melville's own experiences, the novel explores the fascinating and often harrowing world of a naval fighting ship, the Neversink. The ship becomes for Melville a microcosm of America itself; its hierarchy, social divisions, and cruel practices suggest larger injustices, including slavery.

A failed mutiny lands the narrator in a Tahitian jail where he and his companion, Doctor Long Ghost, are treated with curiosity and kindness. After their eventual release, the two embark on a series of adventures as they work at odd jobs, view traditional rites and customs on the island, and contrive an audience with the Tahitian queen. Thought-provoking, humorous glimpses of a vanished 19th-century world in the South Seas.

Contains short fiction from the nineteenth-century American novelist, and features his unfinished novella entitled "Billy Budd, Sailor," along with the "Piazza Tales," which includes "Bartleby," "The Bell-Tower," and others; and includes a brief biography of the author.

The young hero jumps ship with a mate and spends four months with the islanders known as Typee - the 'eaters of men.'

Brings together Melville's four famous late novellas.

The various prose sketches here reprinted were first published by Melville, some in Harper's and some in Putnam's magazines, during the years from 1850 to 1856. "Hawthorne and His Mosses," the only piece of criticism in this collection, is particularly interesting viewed in the light of Melville's friendship with Hawthorne while they were neighbors at Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The other sketches cover a variety of homely subjects treated by Melville...