The Canon of Sir Thomas Wyatt's Poety

Book Description

In early 2006, the Fleet Air Arm's last Sea Harrier FA 2 will launch from the ski jump of an invincible class carrier and fly to RAF St. Athan, in Wales, where it will be placed in permanent storage. This event will signal the end of an era in British aviation that stretches back some 90 years, and includes such illustrious types as the Camel, Fury, Hurricane, Spitfire, Hunter and Lightning. The final all-British single-seat fighter will have been retired from frontline service. This volume serves to chronicle the fascinating career of the Sea Harrier. Built almost as an afterthought by British Aerospace to fulfill a Royal Navy requirement that was restricted by the size of its emasculated 'through deck cruiser' style Invincible class helicopter carriers, the Sea Harrier had proven its worth in combat over the Falklands within three years of entering frontline service. A Cold War warrior, and a veteran of the more recent policing actions in the Balkans, the Persian Gulf and Sierra Leone, the Sea Harrier now finds itself in the twilight of its career due to swinging budget cuts. Yet despite its advancing years, the FA 2 variant is still the most capable fighter interceptor in Britain, thanks to the partnership forged between its highly effective Blue Vixen radar and awesome US-built AMRAAM medium-range air-to-air missiles. The retirement of the Sea Harrier will once again leave the fleet without a dedicated fixed-wing fighter for the best part of a decade. The release of this volume in 2005 will coincide with the final airshow season attendance of the Sea Harrier. The 'SHAR' is a much loved airshow performer, and there will no doubt be considerable attention focused on the jet by the British public. As well as extensive archive material and images from Sea Harrier pilots through their careers, the volume will be illustrated with recent air-to-air ground material taken by Jamie Hunter during the last two years of Sea Harrier operations.

Customer Reviews:

Farewell to the Sea Jet.......2006-08-29

This is a great profile of the famous BAe Sea Harrier that gives insights into the entire life span of the "SHAR."
Interspersed with technical descriptions, engineer, and pilot remembrances, Jamie Hunter has also included many of his outstanding air-to-air photographs of the Sea Harrier.
It is the ultimate irony that the Sea Harrier, who's birth came about from the results of flawed idiotic political policy was also consigned to an entirely too soon retirement due to the same type of flawed idiotic political policy.
From an almost after thought of an aircraft the Sea Harrier evolved into a potent interceptor with an excellent radar and the latest weaponry. It will be sorely missed.

One-Stop Book for the Sea harrier!.......2005-10-24

This is an excellent overview of the Sea Harrier program, and tells the history of the machine from the early-Sixties to its current service demise. Interlaced with this history are plenty of personal anecdotes and a superb selection of photos, many taken by the author. Rounding out the book are some very useful appendices. My personal book of the year so far!

Book Description

A major new Blue Guide to one of the world's hottest vacation destinations. This is the first ever historical and cultural guide to Australia, providing visitors with an unprecedented introduction to the art, literature, film, political history, Aboriginal culture, and natural history of a country full of natural wonders, expansive wilderness, and cosmopolitan cities.

Customer Reviews:

More than you might expect.......2000-03-15

More than "just" a travel guide, this book offers thought-provoking insights into Australian culture through essays that provide an insider's look at the territory for the visitor (or would-be visitor).

I found the section of colorful and quirky Australian dialect especially entertaining and illuminating.

Book Description

Jasmine “Jazz” Gardner heads off to India during the monsoon season. The family trip is her mother’s doing: Mrs. Gardner wants to volunteer at the orphanage that cared for her when she was young. But going to India isn’t Jazz’s idea of a great summer vacation. She wants no part of her mother’s do-gooder endeavors.

What’s more, Jazz is heartsick. She’s leaving the business she and her best friend, Steve Morales, started—as well as Steve himself. Jazz is crazy in love with the guy. If only he knew!

Only when Jazz reluctantly befriends Danita, a girl who cooks for her family, and who faces a tough dilemma, does Jazz begin to see how she can make a difference—to her own family, to Danita, to the children at the orphanage, even to Steve. As India claims Jazz, the monsoon works its madness and its magic.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

What a great story!.......2007-05-12

Mitali Perkins is a wonderful writer who weaves a great story!

Monsoon Summer.......2007-03-22

Monsoon Summer by Mitali Perkins is a mediocre teen novel. A young California girl, Jazz Gardner, leaves with her family on a summer vacation to India, during the magic monsoon season, for volunteer work. Throughout this book Jazz realizes how strong, generous, and desired she really is. This novel was not the best I've ever read. The author did not do a very good job of explaining the characters. I felt the characters made me bored and they rarely expressed, or showed any emotions. In Monsoon Summer there was not an exhilirating climax, nor a great ending. The plot of this teen novel did not capture my interests. I felt the need to stop reading the book after several chapters, but I don't like to abandon a book halfway through it. Monsoon Summer did not meet my expectations of a wonderful book.

A Magical Book that Will Resonate with Teens and Adults.......2006-09-03

I absolutely loved this book. Monsoon Summer is the story of 15-year-old Jasmine Carol Gardner, known as Jazz. Jazz is the product of her bulky, introverted white father and her petite, activist Indian-born mother. Genetically, and by her choices, Jazz takes mostly after her father, while her younger brother, Eric, resembles their mother. Their family is very close, however, with a strong sense of mutual loyalty. Thus when Jazz's mother wins a grant to go set up a clinic for pregnant women at the orphanage in India where she lived as a child, the whole family leaves California to go along for the summer.

Jazz is quite reluctant to go to India, however, mostly because of her newly-discovered, and undisclosed, love for her best friend, Steve. Jazz and Steve run a thriving business giving Berkeley tourists postcards of themselves in front of local landmarks and nostalgic activist signs. Jazz is worried about leaving Steve to run the business by himself, and even more worried about leaving him to the mercies of other girls from school. She can't imagine actually telling Steve how she feels, because she considers him so much more attractive and popular than herself, and she is sure that he would never be interested in her in that way. Still, she hates to leave him.

Most of the story takes place in the city of Pune, India, during the monsoon season, which many believe is a magical time. Jazz is at first quite resistant to the pull of India, and to the needs of the people around her. This is mostly due to her own self-doubt (and a little bit because of her obsession with Steve). The memory of a failed experiment in helping someone else, one in which her trust was betrayed, keeps her from wanting to get involved. But gradually, the monsoons work their magic on her, and she finds her over-protected heart expanding, as she becomes more brave and confident.

I think that Jazz's self-doubt and complete inability to think of herself as beautiful will resonate with anyone who is, or ever has been, a teenager. This authenticity makes Jazz's gradual transformation an inspiration. I think that this book could help teens to see themselves in a new light.

Jazz and her father both also evolve through the book from being fairly hands-off to being people who take an active part in helping others. Without being preachy about it, Monsoon Summer makes the reader want to get more involved, too. I'm not quite sure how Mitali Perkins manages that feat. I'm personally quite resistant to books that feel like they're promoting some larger agenda. I think that it works in this case because Perkins shows us how Jazz and her father react to a specific situation, rather than simply telling us that we should act in some particular way. All I know is that I cried at the end (in a good way).

I also liked the long-distance relationship between Jazz and Steve, sweet at times, realistically snippy at others. The descriptions of India, as seen through the eyes of someone raised in America, are eye-opening, without being overwhelming. And I liked the way that the author resists the temptation to wrap up every detail, leaving at least one issue unresolved. All in all, I enjoyed this book, and I highly recommend it for teen readers. I also think that adults, especially those who are feeling a bit jaded about life, will find it a refreshing treat.

This book review was originally published on my blog, Jen Robinson's Book Page, on September 2, 2006.

Great Book.......2006-03-06

I thought this book was great! It was fresh and fun and had a good message to it. It wasn't overly " I'm going to be a sanit.' feel to it. I have read it 3 times and it never gets old. It has enough emtion in it to make it a non-shallow book. I would reccomend this to anyone!

Monsoon Summer Works Magic.......2005-05-04

Some say that India's monsoon season creates "monsoon madness". Its magic drives some people crazy-insane but others crazy-I'll-do-things-I-never-would-have-otherwise-done. For 15-year-old Jasmine "Jazz" Carol Gardner, it's the latter.
This California girl's world is turned upside down when her family decides to go to India for the summer - to help out at the orphanage Mrs. Gardner started her life in. Though this trip may not have been Jazz's idea of a summer vacation, it's what she got. Monsoon Summer by Mitali Perkins shows just how India's monsoon worked its magic on her.
When Jazz leaves Berkeley, California, her home, she also leaves her best friend and long-time crush, Steve Morales. With only long-distance phone calls and the occasional letter keeping them in touch, she worries something (not in the direction she wants) will happen to their relationship.
Reluctant to join her mother's good-doing, especially in an unfamiliar place like Pune, India, Jazz's summer starts out looking pretty bleak. As a 5'11" girl who's trapped inside because of the constant rain, she spends a lot of her time worrying about the problems in her life. Problems including her looks (hugeness) and lovesickness. That is, until she finally befriends Danita, a girl from the orphanage who cooks for the Gardner family and has some troubles of her own. Their friendship teaches Jazz that she really can help other people - and maybe herself too.
As this story unfolds you can't miss all the change India's monsoon brings upon a teenage girl and her family and friends. This realistic fiction novel is perfect for the teenage girl who wants to know just how to survive in this troublesome world.
(...)

Battles in the monsoon;: Campaigning in the the Central Highlands, Vietnam, summer 1966,

Average customer rating:

Battles in the monsoon;: Campaigning in the the Central Highlands, Vietnam, summer 1966,
S. L. A Marshall
Manufacturer: W. Morrow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Vietnam War | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Southeast Asia | Asia | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0007DMLCK

The Comic Strip Presents -: Five Go Mad in Dorset, War, The Beat Generation, Bad News Tour, Summer School and Back to Normal with Eddie Monsoon

Average customer rating:

The Comic Strip Presents -: Five Go Mad in Dorset, War, The Beat Generation, Bad News Tour, Summer School and Back to Normal with Eddie Monsoon
Adrian et al Edmondson
Manufacturer: Arrow (A Division of Random House Group)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Battles in the Monsoon. Campaigning in the Central Highlands, South Vietnam, Summer 1966

Average customer rating:

Battles in the Monsoon. Campaigning in the Central Highlands, South Vietnam, Summer 1966
S.L.A. Marshall
Manufacturer: William Morrow & Company, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000I3HGMO

Battles in the Monsoon: Camping in the Central Highlands, Vietnam, Summer 1966 (Vietnam War, No 5)

Average customer rating:

battles in the Monsoon

Battles in the Monsoon: Camping in the Central Highlands, Vietnam, Summer 1966 (Vietnam War, No 5)
S. L. A. Marshall
Manufacturer: Not Avail
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Vietnam War | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Customer Reviews:

battles in the Monsoon.......2007-04-27

those of us who were there know what it like to be in combat in the central highlands. If you weren't there Marshall's realistic writting will put you there. His words are as close as you want to be. Life and death small unit engagements in the jungle and on the artillery firebases. The gripping sacrifices of soldiers facing death is all to personal. Marshall puts names on faces and their faces stare out at you from the numerous photographs. A must read book concentrating on the actual small units under fire in 1966 Viet-Nam

Battles in the monsoon;: Campaigning in the Central Highlands, Vietnam, summer 1966, (Apollo editions)

Average customer rating:

Battles in the monsoon;: Campaigning in the Central Highlands, Vietnam, summer 1966, (Apollo editions)
S. L. A Marshall
Manufacturer: W. Morrow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Vietnam War | Military | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0007DNEK8

Battles of the Monsoon: Campaigning in the Central Highlands Vietnam, Summer 1966

Average customer rating:

Battles of the Monsoon: Campaigning in the Central Highlands Vietnam, Summer 1966
Samuel Lyman Atwood Marshall
Manufacturer: The Battery Press, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GJ02RQ

Product Description

The first study in depth of the United States Army in combat with the Viet COng and the North Vietnamese.

Diurnal Variation over the Tropical Monsoon Regions During Northern Summer 1991

Average customer rating:

Diurnal Variation over the Tropical Monsoon Regions During Northern Summer 1991

Manufacturer: Storming Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound
ASIN: 1423572092

Product Description

This is a NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CA report procured by the Pentagon and made available for public release. It has been reproduced in the best form available to the Pentagon. It is not spiral-bound, but rather assembled with Velobinding in a soft, white linen cover. The Storming Media report number is A986133. The abstract provided by the Pentagon follows: This study examines diurnal variation of convection over western India, the Bay of Bengal, Indochina and the northern South China Sea during the 1991 northern summer monsoon using combined Japanese (GMS) and Indian (INSAT) geostationary satellite data, ECMWF 850 hPa wind data, and NCEP sea surface temperature analyses. The diurnal cycle is examined in terms of spatial and temporal structure prior to onset and during the monsoon. The northern South China Sea is examined to determine how different periods of synoptic influences resulted in an anomalously strong diurnal signal during June. The wind and SST data are used to examine the relationship between the diurnal variation of convection and both low level convergence and vertical latent heat fluxes. Convection over west India is most common during May and June and starts as a diurnal system over land that becomes organized and propagates westward over the east Arabian Sea. The Bay of Bengal follows the classic land-sea breeze model and convection is modulated by convergence between the land breeze and large- scale monsoon flow. The diurnal cycle is generally enhanced over the ocean during active phases of convective activity. The maximum latent heat fluxes generally occurs prior to maximum convection due to strong monsoon flow enhancing evaporation.

India Centre Quarterly: The Russian Enigma - Summer/Monsoon 1994

Average customer rating:

India Centre Quarterly: The Russian Enigma - Summer/Monsoon 1994
Various Authors
Manufacturer: N.H. Ramachandran
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LQV0Z2

Structure of an Arabian Sea Summer Monsoon System

Average customer rating:

Too Cool

Structure of an Arabian Sea Summer Monsoon System
Forrest R. Miller , and R. N. Keshavamurthy
Manufacturer: Univ of Hawaii Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Customer Reviews:

Too Cool.......2002-02-21

I never actually read this book, but the title speaks for itself. Besides since my dad wrote this, it must be great. Heck pay the 10 bucks for this book-its truly an experience. Take a look, read a book, its reading rainbow, reading rainbow.

Book Description

This CD-ROM, published by ETI and the Harrison Zoological Museum (UK), contains a treatise on all 119 species of bat known from the Indian subcontinent. With over 1000 illustrations, drawings and videos, this CD-ROM gives a detailed understanding of the morphology, variability, geographical distribution, biology, ecology and conservation status of each of the species. Three different illustrated computer-aided keys facilitate the identification of the species. All text is hyperlinked: an illustrated glossary defines specific scientific terms. The bibliography includes over 600 references from journals and books and a gazetteer is added (with illustrations) to specify the ca. 1400 localities mentioned in the text. This CD-ROM is an excellent introduction to the Indian bats and belongs in any modern scientific library.

Book Description

Numerical methods provide a powerful and essential tool for the solution of problems of water resources. This book gives an elementary introduction to the various methods in current use and demonstrates that different methods work well in different situations and some problems require combinations of methods. It is essential to know something of all of them in order to make a reasoned judgement of current practice. Their applications are discussed and more specialised versions are outlined along with many references making this an invaluable, comprehensive coverage of the field.

Book Description

This first volume of The Library of America's complete prose works of Herman Melville includes three romances of the South Seas. "Typee" and "Omoo," based on the young Melville's experiences on a whaling ship, are exuberant accounts of the idyllic life among the "cannibals" in Polynesia. They remained his most popular works well into the 20th century. "Mardi" ("the world" in Polynesian) is a mixture of love story, adventure, and political allegory, set on a mythical Pacific island, that looks forward to the complexities of "Moby-Dick." Together, these three romances give early evidence of the genius and daring that make Melville the master novelist of the sea and a precursor of modernist literature. Two companion volumes--"Herman Melville: Redburn, White-Jacket, Moby-Dick" and "Herman Melville: Pierre, Israel Potter, The Piazza Tales," "The Confidence Man, Uncollected Prose, and Billy Budd" complete this edition of Melville's prose.

Customer Reviews:

The first Library of America book I read.......2007-08-29

Back a few years ago, I bought the entire series of Library of America books, some 173 books, each with as many as 1,600 small-print pages. Typically, each volume contains several books (say novels) by an author.

The quality of the writing they have selected is marvelous. There are very few "dogs". Below are my ratings of all the stuff I've read so far (a miniscule fraction of the total library), along with, of course, my completely nonsensical (often sports or pop culture) author nicknames.

And they keep sending me new books faster than I can read the existing ones...

Practically all that I've read ranges from good to fantastic, and I stop reading ones I don't like, so almost all of the books cited below are worthy by my standards. No stars means good, * means especially good, ** means great, and I think I also gave one or two books ***. The numbers are the series # of the book out of the 173 published so far.

A book of Henry James' fiction (not in the LOA series) that I read about 3 years ago got me started on this quest, a supplement to my quest of playing the entire history of baseball via APBA.

1. Herman "Franks" Melville: Typee* ("Idyllic") 316 pps
1. Herman "Franks" Melville: Omoo ("Picks up where Typee left off") 330 pps

2. Nathaniel "Nate the Skate" Hawthorne: Assorted Stories ("Some hard to follow") 301 pps

4. Harriet "and Ozzy" Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom's Cabin** ("Uncle Tom is no 'Uncle Tom'") 520 pps

5. Mark "Shania" Twain: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer* ("Hilarious moments for a different kind of Tom") 216 pps

10. Nathaniel "Nate the Skate" Hawthorne: Fanshawe* ("Young scholar, romance, skullduggery") 114 pps

6. Jack "Gene" London: The Call of the Wild ("Savage") 86 pps
6. Jack "Gene" London: White Fang* ("Roger Vick-type dog-fighting
action") 198 pps

8. William Dean "Bailey" Howells: A Foregone Conclusion* ("Gripping, intricate romance") 172 pps
8. William Dean "Bailey" Howells: A Modern Instance ("Marriage gone awry in repressed times") 418 pps

11. Francis "Shibe" Parkman: Pioneers of France in the New World** ("What it was REALLY like") 330 pps
11. Francis "Shibe" Parkman: The Jesuits in North America* ("More of these accurate depictions") 382 pps

14. Henry "Don" Adams: Democracy** ("Real politics 1800's-style")

16. Washington "Dr. J" Irving: Early writings ("Boring at times") 87 pps

18. Stephen "Whooping" Crane: Maggie: A Girl of the Streets ("Fascinating but grim") 74 pps
18. Stephen "Whooping" Crane: The Red Badge of Courage* ("True face of war") 134 pps

19. Edgar "Teletubbie" Poe: Assorted Stories ("Truly weird") 188 pps

29. Henry "Edgeron" James: Washington Square* ("Plain woman trapped") 190 pps

30. Edith Wharton "School": The House of Mirth* ("Reese Witherspoon plays role in movie") 348 pps

33. Frank "Chuck" Norris: Vandover and the Brute ("Wolf-man emerges") 260 pps
33. Frank "Chuck" Norris: McTeague** ("Greed prevails") 312 pps

35. Willa "Thrilla" Cather: Assorted stories ("Oblique") 76 pps

36. Theodore "Early" Dreiser: Sister Carrie** ("Young lives go opposite directions") 456 pps

37. Benjamin "Joe" Franklin Assorted Writings* ("Brilliant satire") 87 pps

39. Flannery "Father" O'Connor: Wise Blood ("Liked better at 25") 132 pps

55. Richard "Gary" Wright: Lawd Today!** ("Unforgettable humor, violence") 220 pps

59. Sinclair "Jerry" Lewis: Main Street* ("Small-town USA") 486 pps

69. "Ornery" Sarah Orne Jewett: Deephaven* ("Atmospheric")

72. John "Franken" Steinbeck: The Pastures of Heaven** ("Modern Gothic") 170 pps

74. Zora Neale "Zorro" Hurston: Jonah's Gourd Vine ("Black preacher")

97. James "I think I'm going" Baldwin: Go Tell it on the Mountain ("Conversion experience") 216 pps

101. Eudora "The Explorer" Welty: The Robber Bridegroom ("Ridiculous fairy tale") 88 pps

103. Brockden "Les" Brown: Wieland* ("Early Gothic chills") 228 pps

111. Henry "Etta" James: Assorted Stories 1864-74** ("Consistently compelling") 430 pps

117. F. Scott "Ella" Fitzgerald: This Side of Paradise* ("Ultimately sublime") 252 pps

126. Dawn "Boog" Powell: Dance Night* ("Small-town romance in 1920's") 204 pps

134. Paul "Super" Bowles: The Sheltering Sky* ("Sophisticates lost in Africa") 252 pps

148. James T. "Turk" Farrell: Young Lonigan* ("Coming of age in tough streets") 176 pps

164. William Faulkner "Pontiac, Buick, GMC Trucks": Soldier's
Pay*** ("Unique, gripping") 256 pps
164. William Faulkner "Pontiac, Buick, GMC Trucks": Mosquitos** ("Indescribable romp") 284 pps
164. William Faulkner "Pontiac, Buick, GMC Trucks": Flags in the Dust ("Doomed family") 336 pps
164. William Faulkner "Pontiac, Buick, GMC Trucks": The Sound and the Fury ("Bewildering") 268 pps

The Growth of a Seeker.......2000-11-18

Among the early products of the wonderful Library of America Series were three volumes devoted to the novels of Herman Melville. This volume consists of Melville's first three novels, Typee(1846), Omoo(1847) and Mardi (1849)

Melville's novels are based, more or less loosely, on his life at sea. The first two novels describe voyages to the Marquesas and to Tahiti. They are filled with lush descriptions of scenery, and tales of adventure. Of the two, Typee is filled with encounters with cannibals and Polynesian maidens while Omoo presents a wider canvas of characters and scenes. Both books emphasize the sexual openness and relative simplicity of Polynesian life as compared to life in the United States and both books are critical as well of attempts to Christianize the islanders. These are not unusual themes today and probably were not as radical in the 1840s as one might suppose. The stories are well told and the descriptions alluring. These books made Mellville's reputation as a young writer.

Mardi, however, is the gem of this collection. Its relationship to the earlier novels can be analogized, say, to the relationship between the young Beethoven's first symphony on the one hand and the growth of language and thought in the second and third symphonies on the other hand. Melville prefaces the book with the note that his first two books were fact-based but were received with "incredulity" while Mardi was pure romance and "might be recieved for a verity." (Little likelihood of that)

The book as in a baroque, ornate, and bravado style that Melville would bring to completion in Moby Dick. It is an allegory involving the search for Yillah, a strange, mthical maiden, through the seas of Mardi -- Polynesian for "the world". The narrator is accompanied by King Media, by the philosopher Babbalanja, the singer Yoomi, and the historian Mohi. There are many wonderfully exasperating discussions. They wander far and wide in search of Yillah and in there wandering we here many religious allegories and many depictions of the Europe and United States of Melville's own time. There are shadowy maidens, villans, long scenes in the empty wide ocean, and pages of Melvillian thought and bluster.

The book is high American romanticism and presents a religious and personal quest by the narrator that resounds of similar quests by many in our own day. For example, there is a famous unfinished novel of the religious quest called Mount Analogue by a French writer, Duhamel, which fits quite compactly into just a few chapters of Mardi. Mardi is a long, maddenlingly difficult book but worth the effort.

Book Description

This is the first edition of Typee to place its most riveting features—the highly charged and complicated accounts of sexuality, tattooing, cannibalism, and taboo—in a broad historical context. Twelve rich selections from the writings of Melville's predecessors and contemporaries, along with eight illustrations, will help readers develop a fuller sense of where Melville's treatment of these topics is unconventional and why it matters. The volume also includes a complete list of the excisions and revisions insisted on by Melville's American publisher, further proof of how much his text was pushing the boundaries of acceptable literature of the day. Typee offers an alternative for instructors wishing to teach briefer Melville fiction.

Download Description

At one time the most popular of Melville's works, Typee was known as a travelogue that idealized and romanticized a mysterious South Sea island for readers in the ruthless, industrial, "civilized" world of the nineteenth century. But Melville's story of Tommo, the Yankee sailor who enters the flawed Pacific paradise of Nuku Hiva, is also a fast-moving adventure tale, an autobiographical account of the author's own Polynesian stay, an examination of the nature of good and evil, and a frank exploration of sensuality and exotic ritual. This edition of Typee, which reproduces the definitive text and the complete, never-before-published manuscript reading text, includes invaluable explanatory commentary by John Bryant.

Customer Reviews:

"Too Romantic to Be True" .......2007-08-18

Melville's famed magnus opus, "Moby Dick" should not be tackled without this adequate introduction to his work and dazzling literary adroitness. Do not have any apprehensions animated by a seemingly simplistic or bromide plot, for once a reader foreign to Melville's work grasps the exquisite prose and sincere romanticism ingrained in all of his novels, you're soon to become a captive of it's pages bound by an aroused imagination. Soon to learn the fame and notoriety surrounding Herman Melville is certainly not without reason and like many noble literary giants that have gone before us, his masterpieces withstand the test of time deservingly of the title, "Classic."

The quixotic idea of emerging as a castaway on a dissolute tropical island hidden from the world, deep in paradise with only the company of an exotic but mysterious native people should not deter you from believing "Typee" is of any similarity to other inferior postdating stories of the like. Melville combines a brilliantly adventurous travelogue accompanied by earnest philosophical reflections balancing it all out with anthropological observations of the Island's primitive peoples, as well as recollections of his own home. This famed novel was an ebullient endeavor during it's day which hints the emprise of such modern films as "Castaway" while engrossing the empathy of multiculturalism found in "Dances With Wolves." It is feasibly the first accurate portrait painted of South Pacific life through the eyes of a Westerner, influencing many travelogues to follow focusing on the region in the same fashion of Stevenson and Becke.

Numerous editions have been published since the original. The Penguin Classics Edition provides an introduction by author John Bryant who puts the story into context and Melville's conclusion of the supporting character's fate, written two years prior to the first edition in "Sequel: The Story of Toby."

When first published in 1846, "Typee" was an immediate hit. Readers of the era in the US and even in Europe already knew to expect stupendous things from the then obscure author. This is exemplified by the book's quantum leap to stardom. The original draft was submitted to be published in New York but was rejected supposedly because it was "too fantastic" to be true. The apparent fact that after more than a century and a half of being published readers still have an appetite for Melville's original work, must persuade even the most discriminating of literary tastes of the caliber of his writing. Do not be deceived by the age of "Typee." You needn't be a diehard classical literature enthusiast nor scholar to appreciate this very readable, gracefully written novel. Which is contrary to the sometimes unfathomable rhetoric of the bygone antebellum era. It remains still just as amusing and captivating to readers today.

"Typee" was the first of a trilogy of autobiographical novels set in the South Pacific dealing with Polynesian life. Readers of the author's lifetime couldn't get enough of his masterpieces still acclaimed today. Although not quite as well known as "Moby Dick" is to modern day readers, "Typee" is no less gripping or eloquent.

Eden Gone Bad.......2007-05-04

(This review is based on the Library of America edition)

Melville's first book - and you can call it a novel, because it is - is quite an impressive work. I have to admit that during my reading of it, I didn't know how much was non-fiction and how much was fiction. In the case of a non-fiction book, I would have been rather astonished by Melville's work. But the fact is that this isn't a non-fiction book, and that as a reader you should think more of a literary work. But do not be sad!

For what Melville does remains awesome. The book begins like a novel; the narrator seeks to escape his whaler and remain some time on one of the Marquesan Islands. After numerous adventures, he's eventually caught by the Typees, and from that point on, the book becomes close to an anthropological study of the exotic habits of the tribe. Melville is very insightful and witty, and more often than not, funny. His prose is rich and wonderful. A pure pleasure to read.

"Typee" is a peek at some kind of long lost Eden, where no one has to work for a living - fruits can be plucked any time - and where there seems to be no evil. The Typees all have perfect beautiful skin, due to countless bathings during the day, and they're seldom seen to either cause or receive any harm. However, things aren't so dream-like, and the narrator is constantly haunted by the ghost of cannibalism, especially as he has no clear idea of why his captors detain him and yet treat him kindly.

The author manages to produce some very interesting comparisons between the exotic "savages" and the Western Man, and this reminds me of many a sociologic book. Society, culture, humanity, all of these - and more - are considered from a very unique perspective in "Typee". Life among the cannibals, in an Eden of sorts, that is, in short, what the novel is about. Excellent read from a master of literature.

No Metaphysics, Just a Review.......2007-01-28

Realizing that at least some people might want to know if the book is a good read or not, I'll write a review that hopefully wont read like the opener to a thesis on early american literature: Here goes...

I liked it! I thought this Mellville guy writes and interesting and egageing story. Perhaps he does go into details that the story doesn't need, but even his tangents on trees and fruits, etc. are well written.

Worth the money, worth the time, and worth the attention. Plus, there is the added benefit of acting like a literature snob on a review.:)

Its a book, people. Relax, and enjoy.

Typee.......2006-09-12

Typee was a difficult book to read but worth the effort. There isn't much plot beyond "Tommo's" rehabilitation at the hands of the Typee and his fears that they might be cannibals. Is he being nursed back to health or fattened for a future supper? As with Moby Dick, the bulk of the text is in the form of essay and commentary. There are lengthy discussions on the language, the architecture, the music (or lack thereof), taboos and tatoos, and diet of the Typee. These extra chapters though don't have the humor that is present in Moby Dick. They are still an interesting observation on one subset of Polynesian culture.

Symbolism and Imagery........2006-01-17

All things considered, Typee is an excellent book considering it was Melville's first. The themes hidden inside a simple voyage onto the Nukuheva island are utterly breath-taking. Although Meliville states that "He has stated such matters just as they occurred, and leaves every one to form his own opinion concerning them,"(xx), we all know that the truth was stretched out such as the fact that, in reality, he was only on the Islands for four weeks, not four months. But his imagery, symbolism, and entire demise of the meaning of "civilization," is what makes this novel, a remarkable one.

The magnificent scenery and what it stands for is the readers first see as Melville's first main themes in Typee. Melville's imagery is what catches the attention of his readers. They delve deep within the picture he displays with the words he selects. The entire island that is described constantly through the story gives a sort of reference to the garden of Eden, but of course has a hidden meaning. Some critics interpret the reference to the garden of Eden as a symbol for innocence. But when Tommo first hears of the dreaded Typees, he only believes in their cannibalism. After living with them for four months, he always has that first reaction of the Typees in the back of his mind. Other critics would argue that the injured leg that Tommo is mysteriously diagnosed of only comes and goes according to his true feeling of the Typees at that moment. The Garden of Eden is known for it's beauty, it's tranquility, and it's innocence. All these things are attributes of the island but yet they also show that there cannot be innoncence without violence. The Typees are figured out in the end and the sayings are true but not how the rumors are spread. Tommo figures out that the "savages" are more civilized than the white men are back at home. Those French that landed to come take over are not helping the savages; they are destroying their villages and culture, like "savages." Ever since the beginning, Tommo notices that the savages are probably the truly more humane of the two. "'Yet, after all,' I quoth to myself, 'insensible as he is to a thousand wants, and removed from harassing cares, may not the savage be the happier man of the two?'" (29) This quote demonstrates two things. The undoubtable influence Shakespeare had on Melville and the remarkable foreshadowing that was to display the complete way of life, even of those most "savage," the Typees.

Another main part of Typee is the theme of forbidden romance. Tommo falls in love with the beautiful Fayaway and in the end, he could not even console her as she sobbed while he escaped in a row boat home. Melville proves in his writing that even though Tommo was entirely happy at times, there was always a moment of doubt. Here he demonstrates that even though this is "paradise" or "utopia," man will always miss his own culture no matter how violent they can be. Even though Tommo degraded the white man at every sign of native compassion to each other, he still wanted to go back. Don't forget that he was a prisoner in this peaceful place, and he escapes the island through the one thing that he feared, violence. Was it that he had learned the way of the Typees or had it always been there?

ROMANCES OF HERMAN MELVILLE : Typee, Omoo, Mardi, Moby-Dick, White-Jacket, Israel Potter & Redburn

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ROMANCES OF HERMAN MELVILLE : Typee, Omoo, Mardi, Moby-Dick, White-Jacket, Israel Potter & Redburn
Herman Melville
Manufacturer: Tudor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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