Publisher's Synopsis
Typee, in full Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life, first novel by Herman Melville, published in London in 1846 as Narrative of a Four Months' Residence Among the Natives of a Valley of the Marquesas Islands. Initially regarded as a travel narrative, the novel is based on Melville's monthlong adventure as a guest-captive of the Typee people, natives of the Marquesas Islands (in present-day French Polynesia), following his desertion from the whaler Acushnet along with shipmate Richard Tobias Greene in July 1842. Melville injured his leg in the escape from the Acushnet, and Greene was allowed to leave the Typees to find Melville a doctor, but he became sidetracked and never returned.
