Mardi, and a Voyage Thither
is the third book by American
author Herman Melville
, first published in 1849.
is Melville's first pure fiction work (while featuring fictional narrators, his previous novels were heavily autobiographical). It details (much like Typee
the travelings of an American sailor who abandons his whaling vessel to explore the South Pacific
. Unlike the first two, however, Mardi is highly philosophical and said to be the first work to show Melville's true potential. The tale begins as a simple narrative, but quickly focuses upon discourse between the main characters and their interactions with the different symbolic countries they encounter. While not as cohesive or lengthy as Moby-Dick
, it shares a similar writing style as well as many of the same themes.
As a preface to Mardi, Melville wrote somewhat ironically that his first two books were nonfiction but disbelieved; by the same pattern he hoped the fiction book would be accepted as fact.
was a critical failure. One reviewer said the book contained "ideas in so thick a haze that we are unable to perceive distinctly which is which".Miller, Perry. The Raven and the Whale: The War of Words and Wits in the Era of Poe and Melville
. New York: Harvest Book, 1956: 246. Nevertheless, Nathaniel Parker Willis
found the work "exquisite".Nathaniel Hawthorne
a rich book... Read More