Mardi and a Voyage Thither: Volume Three

by Herman Melville

Book Overview

Presented as narratives of his own South Sea experiences, Melville's first two books had roused incredulity in many readers. Their disbelief, he declared, had been "the main inducement" in altering his plan for his third book, Mardi: and a Voyage Thither (1849). Melville wanted to exploit the "rich poetical material" of Polynesia and also to escape feeling "irked, cramped, & fettered" by a narrative of facts. "I began to feel . . . a longing...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0810116901
• ISBN13: 9780810116900
• Release Date: October 1998
• Publisher: Northwestern University Press
• Length: 681 Pages
• Weight: 0.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

The World is Not Enough! A Voyage to the Nutty Middle Ground

Apologies and thanks to a previous reviewer (1999), from whom I borrowed the idea of the 'nutty middle ground' between Typee and The Whale. What a whale of a book! what a mess! what great fun! Typee and Omoo were , well, non-fictional accounts of young Melville's travels in the South Pacific. He wrote in the Mardi foreword, that nobody believed him, so he made up some fiction and was sure to be believed this time. Not likely. The book was a flop in the commercial sense, like all future Melville books would be. What an idiot the market can be. The 'story': the hero of the 2 previous adventure tales takes off from an island on a small whaling ship, to go home, and true to his personal tradition, runs away from it, with a fellow sailor in a whaling boat. (The fact that he actually steals the boat in the process, not to mention breaks his contract, seems irrelevant to the young man.) They meet a small and nearly deserted ship, take it over, find an odd couple on it, Samoa and Annatoo, have adventures with them sailing the ship, lose the ship and Annatoo, then the 3 men are again on the boat, they meet some natives in a prao, save a beautiful virgin from human sacrifice. She turns out to be a kind of goddess, so the hero has to promote himself to play in the same league, then they land on the island group called Mardi, and the story gets very long and tedious, but never quite stops being fun. Mardi is supposed to mean the 'world', by the way. See the allegoric meaning? The structure of the short chapters (nearly 200 of them) helps to maintain momentum. The chapters are half way to Moby Dick: some are plain story telling, some are ruminations on God and the World, some are observations of nature, some are the mystical phantasies of the South Seas mythology that M. created for the purpose of this book. And it is a collection of aphorisms, that would make the visit worth while on their own. The whale's brain enlightens the world. Death has a mouth as black as a wolf's. He looked infernally heartless. He who hates is a fool. Yet some dislikes are spontaneous. Some revelations show best in twilight. One of my AFs said that nothing prepares the reader of Typee and Omoo for the Melville of later years. I would add, that Mardi already breaks the barriers. Sometimes he comments on his own text in the text: e.g. ...which sentence reads like a pattering of hailstones. If you can, don't read it without access to Google, otherwise the constant allusions to the world of history and literature make you lose a lot of the contents (unless you are an encyclopedia yourself). P.S. and not to forget, greetings to the hermit goats that they spotted on the island of Massafuero. Wherever that is, if it is anywhere.

Azzageddi speaks

Mardi is Melville's 3rd book. His first two (Typee and Omoo) were briskly-selling, somewhat fictionalized travelogues of his actual adventures in the South Pacific. Mardi was meant to be another such adventure story, but partway in it takes a sudden turn into fantasy, by venturing into a fictional (and apparently enormous) archipelago of myriad pseudo-Polynesian cultures. Like the Odyssey (or like planets in Star Trek), each island is a place to explore some philosophical/political point from our real world. In fact, during the final 3rd of the sprawling book, these islands become mirrors of our own world's nations, and Melville's criticism of America, especially slavery on the eve of the Civil War, is fascinating. However, Mardi is one of Melville's weakest books. It suffers greatly from a lack of unification, and from serious pacing problems. It can be viewed as a first, muddy attempt at Moby-Dick. But the mud contains so many nuggets of pure gold that I still give it 4 stars. The character Babbalanja (and his demon, Azzageddi) is one of the best in all of Melville's work, and many of the philosophical conversations are worth reading, not least because of the humor that Melville incorporates into them. Unfortunately, this first attempt to write something unique resulted in the derailing of Melville's career, which never really got back on track. He followed it up with two rather conventional (and to him, boring) novels which again drew upon his past as a sailor, before he created his masterwork, Moby-Dick. Unfortunately, none of these nor later books sold well, and after those first two books, Melville was never able to make a living as a writer. But that just shows that even the greats can write bombs, and that numbers of copies sold does not equal quality.

A strange allegorical tale of the South Seas

Although on its surface it appears to be a travelogue like his first two books (TYPEE and OMOO), MARDI is actually much more than that: it's a commentary on the age in which it was written, it's a quest story, it's an allegory, it's a love story. It's about many strange things and is not an easy book to follow, mainly because of Melville's use of allusions and digressions. Like Joyce's ULYSSES it almost requires a guide to help interpret what's in the book. As always with Melville its strength is in its language: the descriptions that are almost like poetry and the "borrowings" from favorite authors such as Shakespeare and Swift. Basically, the story involves a shipwreck in the South Pacific, an attack by native islanders, and the falling in love of the narrator (Taji) with one of the native woman (Yillah). The make their way to the island of Mardi where they live happily for a while, until Yillah disappears. Taji searches for her throughout the islands with some companions; during this search they discuss many topics (here Melville satirizes life in America and England - slavery, politics, Indian policy, the war with Mexico, and also the failures of Christians to follow the love of Christ), until they find Yillah on an island transformed into a handmaiden. Implored to stay there with her, Taji decides to sail on in his endless quest for . . . truth? The novel sold poorly during Melville's day (the London publisher lost money on it), with the public put off by its utter strangeness. Language lovers will appreciate this novel, however, and perhaps those who enjoy interpreting symbols and allusions. Not an easy book, but worth the effort to get a better picture of what Melville was all about as a great novelist.

The Many Marvels of Mardi

Anyone who loves Moby Dick and is looking for another Melvillean challenge, buy a copy of "Mardi and a Voyage Thither". Alas! many marvels await thee whosoever has the time and fortitude to muse through this early Melville Masterpiece! Reading this novel is like watching Melville's genius grow, while you voyage through his mystical, metaphysical world. The following are some excerpts of what to expect on this joyous journey:"We are off! The courses and topsails are set: the coral-hung anchor swings from the bow; and together, the three royals are given to the breeze, that follows us out to sea like the baying of a hound. Out spreads the canvas -- alow, aloft -- boom-stretched, on both sides, with many a stun' sail; till like a hawk, with pinions poised, we shadow the sea with our sails, and reelingly cleave the brine." "But how fleeting our joys. Storms follow bright dawnings. -Long memories of short-lived scenes, sad thoughts of joyous hours -how common are ye to all mankind. When happy, do we pause and say - "Lo, thy felicity, my soul?" No: happiness seldom seems happiness, except when looked back upon from woes. A flowery landscape, you must come out of, to behold." "For there is more likelihood of being overrated while living, than of being underrated when dead. And to insure your fame, you must die." "My cheek blanches white while I write; I start at the scratch of my pen; my own mad brood of eagles devours me; fain would I unsay this audacity; but an iron-mailed hand clenches mine in a vice, and prints down every letter in my spite. Fain would I hurl off this Dionysius that rides me; my thoughts crush me down till I groan; in far fields I hear the song of the reaper, while I slave and faint in this cell. The fever runs through me like lava; my hot brain burns like a coal; and like many a monarch, I am less to be envied, than the veriest hind in the land." "Of the highest order of genius, it may be truly asserted, that to gain the reputation of superior power, it must partially disguise itself; it must come down, and then it will be applauded for soaring...that there are those who falter in the common tongue, because they think in another; and these are accounted stutterers and stammerers." "The catalogue of true thoughts is but small; they are ubiquitous; no man's property; and unspoken, or bruited, are the same. When we hear them, why seem they so natural, receiving our spontaneous approval? why do we think we have heard them before? Because they but reiterate ourselves; they were in us, before we were born. The truest poets are but mouth-pieces; and some men duplicates of each other;" "Faith is to the thoughtless, doubts to the thinker.""Some joys have thousand lives; can never die; for when they droop, sweet memories bind them up.""Now, I am my own soul's emperor; and my first act is abdication! Hail! realm of shades!" -- and turning my prow into the racing tide, which seized me like a hand omnipotent, I darted through. Churned in foa

Stunning and poetic.

Mardi, the forgotten child ,is yet entirely singular and needs to be read by those who have fallen under the spell of Melville. An encyclopaedic romp through an almost fantastical landscape of isles and warriors; Melville attempts to pull off one the most extraordinary acts of metaphysical fiction ever. He doesn't quite rein it all in but the experience of reading Mardi is utterly disorientating in the best way. Coming after Typee and before Moby Dick, it is somewhat of a nutty middle ground. The anthropological concerns of Typee are stretched to the limit. Like the stars in the sky, Mardi is vast; (the word is Polynesian for the world)--and as full of wonder.