Omoo
Encyclopedia
Omoo: A Narrative of the South Seas is Herman Melville
's sequel to Typee
, and, as such, was also autobiographical. After leaving Nuku Hiva
, the main character ships aboard a whaling
vessel which makes its way to Tahiti
, after which there is a mutiny and the majority of the crew are imprisoned on Tahiti. The book follows the actions of the narrator as he explores Tahiti and remarks on their customs and way of life.
The novel was composed in 1846 and published in London and New York in the spring of 1847.
in London on March 30, 1847. In the U.S. a portion was printed on April 24, 1847, in The Literary world, with a complete edition released by the Harper Brothers on May 1 of that year.
Murray included both Typee & Omoo in his "Home and Colonial Library" which was marketed and sold as a collection throughout the British Empire. In it Melville was listed together with other well-known writers, an event that turned out to be an important watershed for both his sales and reputation. "Over the decades Melville's presence in the library insured the fame of his first two books with two or three generations of English readers all around the world."
Herman Melville
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....
's sequel to Typee
Typee
Typee is American writer Herman Melville's first book, a classic in the literature of travel and adventure partly based on his actual experiences as a captive on the island Nuku Hiva in the South Pacific Marquesas Islands, in 1842...
, and, as such, was also autobiographical. After leaving Nuku Hiva
Nuku Hiva
Nuku Hiva is the largest of the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. It was formerly also known as Île Marchand and Madison Island....
, the main character ships aboard a whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
vessel which makes its way to Tahiti
Tahiti
Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...
, after which there is a mutiny and the majority of the crew are imprisoned on Tahiti. The book follows the actions of the narrator as he explores Tahiti and remarks on their customs and way of life.
The novel was composed in 1846 and published in London and New York in the spring of 1847.
Background
In the Preface to Omoo Melville claimed to have written the novel "from simple recollection" strengthened by his retelling the story many times before family and friends. Yet a scholar working in the late 1930's discovered that Melville had not simply relied on his memory and went on to reveal a wealth of sources allegedly used in the composition of the novel. Later, Melville scholar Harrison Hayford made a detailed study of these sources and, in the introduction to a 1969 edition of Omoo, summed up the author's practice like this: "He had altered facts and dates, elaborated events, assimilated foreign materials, invented episodes, and dramatized the printed experiences of others as his own. He had not plagiarized, merely, for he had always rewritten and nearly always improved the passages he appropriated." Harrison showed that this was a repetition of a process previously used in Typee "first writing out the narrative based on his recollections and invention, then using source books to pad out the chapters he had already written and to supply the stuff of new chapters that he inserted at various points in the manuscript."Publication history
The book was published first by John MurrayJohn Murray (publisher)
John Murray is an English publisher, renowned for the authors it has published in its history, including Jane Austen, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lord Byron, Charles Lyell, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Herman Melville, and Charles Darwin...
in London on March 30, 1847. In the U.S. a portion was printed on April 24, 1847, in The Literary world, with a complete edition released by the Harper Brothers on May 1 of that year.
Murray included both Typee & Omoo in his "Home and Colonial Library" which was marketed and sold as a collection throughout the British Empire. In it Melville was listed together with other well-known writers, an event that turned out to be an important watershed for both his sales and reputation. "Over the decades Melville's presence in the library insured the fame of his first two books with two or three generations of English readers all around the world."