Mardi, and a Voyage Thither (Cyclopedia of Literary Places)
At a glance:
- Author: Herman Melville
- First Published: 1849
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Allegory
- Time of Work: Mid-nineteenth century
- Genres: Long fiction, Sea story
- Subjects: Nineteenth century, Mistaken or secret identity, Islands, Kings, queens, or royalty, Legends, Gods or goddesses, Sailing or sailors, Pacific Ocean
- Locales: Islands, Pacific Ocean
Places Discussed
Mardi. Fictional archipelago located in the west- central Pacific Ocean. Melville’s narrator Taji places the islands about sixty degrees west of the Galápagos Islands and to the north of the Ellice, Marshall, and Kingsmill Islands of what is now Kiribati. Taji happens upon the previously undiscovered islands after jumping ship from a whaler and experiencing a series of increasingly improbable high seas adventures. Eventually, he lands on an island ruled by Media, a philosopher-king who represents Herman Melville’s ideal platonic ruler. A search for the...
[The entire page is 871 words long]
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