Dec 29, 2009

Mardi, and a Voyage Thither | Mardi, and a Voyage Thither

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...

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Mardi, and a Voyage Thither | Mardi, and a Voyage Thither

At a glance:

Places Discussed

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