{"id":"01KG8AM2SCGBSEA79QT55A3BN9","cid":"bafkreidd4nmkzvefaguyiqzcpwwy7sa7p5jwqpmfqfo4g7wjryz4r2vwjq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":526,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.200Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","start_line":465,"text":"to meet him until it became necessary to obtain his portrait for an\r\nanthology in course of publication. The interview was brief, and the\r\ninterviewer could not help feeling although treated with pleasant\r\ncourtesy, that more important matters were in hand than the perpetuation\r\nof a romancer’s countenance to future generations; but a friendly family\r\nacquaintance grew up from the incident, and will remain an abiding\r\nmemory.\r\n\r\nMr. Melville died at his home in New York City early on the morning of\r\nSeptember 28, 1891. His serious illness had lasted a number of\r\nmonths, so that the end came as a release. True to his ruling passion,\r\nphilosophy had claimed him to the last, a set of Schopenhauer’s works\r\nreceiving his attention when able to study; but this was varied with\r\nreadings in the ‘Mermaid Series’ of old plays, in which he took much\r\npleasure. His library, in addition to numerous works on philosophy and\r\nthe fine arts, was composed of standard books of all classes, including,\r\nof course, a proportion of nautical literature. Especially interesting\r\nare fifteen or twenty first editions of Hawthorne’s books inscribed to\r\nMr. and Mrs. Melville by the author and his wife.\r\n\r\nThe immediate acceptance of ‘Typee’ by John Murray was followed by an\r\narrangement with the London agent of an American publisher, for its\r\nsimultaneous publication in the United States. I understand that Murray\r\ndid not then publish fiction. At any rate, the book was accepted by him\r\non the assurance of Gansevoort Melville that it contained nothing not\r\nactually experienced by his brother. Murray brought it out early in\r\n1846, in his Colonial and Home Library, as ‘A Narrative of a Four\r\nMonths’ Residence among the Natives of a Valley of the Marquesas\r\nIslands; or, a Peep at Polynesian Life,’ or, more briefly, ‘Melville’s\r\nMarquesas Islands.’ It was issued in America with the author’s own\r\ntitle, ‘Typee,’ and in the outward shape of a work of fiction. Mr.\r\nMelville found himself famous at once. Many discussions were carried on\r\nas to the genuineness of the author’s name and the reality of the events\r\nportrayed, but English and American critics alike recognised the book’s\r\nimportance as a contribution to literature.\r\n\r\nMelville, in a letter to Hawthorne, speaks of himself as having no\r\ndevelopment at all until his twenty-fifth year, the time of his return\r\nfrom the Pacific; but surely the process of development must have been\r\nwell advanced to permit of so virile and artistic a creation as ‘Typee.’\r\nWhile the narrative does not always run smoothly, yet the style for the\r\nmost part is graceful and alluring, so that we pass from one scene of\r\nPacific enchantment to another quite oblivious of the vast amount of\r\ndescriptive detail which is being poured out upon us. It is the varying\r\nfortune of the hero which engrosses our attention. We follow his\r\nadventures with breathless interest, or luxuriate with him in the leafy\r\nbowers of the ‘Happy Valley,’ surrounded by joyous children of nature.\r\nWhen all is ended, we then for the first time realise that we know these\r\npeople and their ways as if we too had dwelt among them.\r\n\r\nI do not believe that ‘Typee’ will ever lose its position as a classic\r\nof American Literature. The pioneer in South Sea romance--for\r\nthe mechanical descriptions of earlier voyagers are not worthy of\r\ncomparison--this book has as yet met with no superior, even in French\r\nliterature; nor has it met with a rival in any other language than the\r\nFrench. The character of ‘Fayaway,’ and, no less, William S. Mayo’s\r\n‘Kaloolah,’ the enchanting dreams of many a youthful heart, will retain\r\ntheir charm; and this in spite of endless variations by modern explorers\r\nin the same domain. A faint type of both characters may be found in the\r\nSurinam Yarico of Captain John Gabriel Stedman, whose ‘Narrative of a\r\nFive Years’ Expedition’ appeared in 1796.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJPEC473FXAMQWHHC31BK","peer_type":"frontmatter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM2S3TNS154VVNMCMT07P","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AM2SCVXAKD33TG2J0XVHA","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.388Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:32.695Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}