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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.3
EAN: 9780143104926
ISBN: 0143104926
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 416
Publication Date: 2007-03-27
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Studio: Penguin Classics

Melville’s continuing adventures in the South Seas—now for the first time in Penguin Classics

Following the commercial and critical success of Typee, Herman Melville continued his series of South Sea adventure-romances with Omoo. Named after the Polynesian term for a rover, or someone who roams from island to island, Omoo chronicles the tumultuous events aboard a South Sea whaling vessel and is based on Melville’s personal experiences as a crew member on a ship sailing the Pacific. From recruiting among the natives for sailors to handling deserters and even mutiny, Melville gives a first-person account of life as a sailor during the nineteenth century filled with colorful characters and vivid descriptions of the far-flung locales of Polynesia.

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Typee II
Review: (This review is based on the Library of America edition.)

If you liked "Typee", then you should like "Omoo"; but you should know that the narrative isn't quite as tight. What I mean is that "Omoo" is as excellently written as its predecessor, but it doesn't seem to have much a strong story-line. In short, it's a series of adventures, well told, but there's nothing building. I couldn't even sum the book up in other ways than this: a series of adventures in the South Seas.

If you're into sea and island stories, you may like it. The book is made of short chapters, as usual with Melville, and it's really funny (I always found Melville funny). It's interesting in parts, but on the whole, I think it's a much less successful novel than "Typee". Perhaps this was the beginning of what Melville would later do with "Moby-Dick", a sort of willed unfocusedness.

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