It wanders some but the imagery is beautiful and you just have to fall in love with the language. The philosophy slipped into Mardi is thought provoking without messing with the story line. A good read.

I have reviewed each of the three books in this volume separately, but inasmuch as the texts I read were the very ones used in this volume, I thought I'd review it. (I have it to hand, anyway, so I'll also comment on the packaging, font, etc.) The Library Of America is unrivaled in its textual authority, and the editors who worked on the Melville are Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker and G. Thomas Tanselle. These texts are the Northwestern-Newberry texts, so, if you read any single novel by Herman Melville, make sure the copyright page says its the Northwestern-Newberry text. You won't have any trouble finding a Library Of America edition through your local library or the library system of which it is a part.
The look of the book: Unless your library has snipped to a nub the bookmark ribbon and chucked the dustjacket, you'll have found a very attractive book. The ribbon bookmark is incredibly handy, if, like me, you tend to tear only the smallest portion of a White Castle receipt to use as a bookmark most of the time. You won't risk the piece of paper fluttering away as you walk around proudly with your tome. You probably won't lose place with the ribbon, but if you do, it's attached to the binding. You can find your place again and put that ribbon in the right spot. The font is small but not extravagantly small, and it is a clear, distinct one. The pages are thin but not transparent. The binding is nice and tight but not the kind of binding which makes the inner margins hard to observe. This is old-fashioned book-binding of a sort not often seen post-1980. Thank the Haddon Craftsmen. On the inside of the jacket are lists of other Library Of America selections. After the main text are a chronology telling you the landmarks in the life of Herman Melville and pages of notes on the text. There is no editorializing or criticism in these volumes. That is very wise and, given the sheer intellect of the scholars who worked to issue as definitive a text as possible, proof of their humility.
The novels themselves: TYPEE, Melville's first, written in his mid-twenties (roughly 1846) is a very detailed, colorful and flowing narrative of a sailor's adventure after abandoning his ship off a Polynesian island. He winds up living with a cannibal tribe. While it reads like a novel it is largely an autobiographical account, as is its follow-up, OMOO, from 1848 or so. Melville specifically addressed doubters in the preface to his third book, MARDI. In effect, he said to his readers that if they didn't believe what he told them in his first two memoirs, perhaps they would believe the fiction which was MARDI. As well-written as TYPEE is, MARDI is light years more elegant. As threadbare as OMOO is, MARDI is as bountiful a story as has ever been put between covers.
One thing I noticed is that the chapters of TYPEE are long and don't wind down until Melville has had his say. In OMOO, he seems to have had an idea of giving the reader brief portions. A typical chapter in TYPEE is about twelve pages. An average chapter in OMOO is about three and a half. But by the time MARDI came along in 1849 Melville managed to write very short chapters which, nevertheless, were so rich in ideas that the brevity of the chapters was a revelation.
I suggest reading these books in order. You will see Melville working on his craft. You may, like me, think he faltered somewhat with OMOO, but I think you'll agree he had to write it to get to MARDI. TYPEE is really enjoyable. OMOO has some great observation, the best chapter being one on hunting wild cattle. (Arguably Melville anticipates today's thinking on animal cruelty, but the sheer realism of that chapter is the stand-out feature.) MARDI is an epic satire. Melville channels Swift, especially in chapters dealing with countries of Melville's invention which mirror the United States, Britain and Ireland. MARDI is also a real meditation on belief. It is harrowing in places. Overall it echoes A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, GULLIVER'S TRAVELS and DON QUIXOTE. It also anticipates James Joyce. A lot of the book involves a group of friends discussing poetry, philosophy and history. In this respect it reminds me of the library scene in Joyce's ULYSSES. I'll also point out that, while the characters talk about real figures in history and the arts, Melville has also created a world of writers, philosophers and historical figures. That is, he invents several figures the main characters talk about and quote. Throughout the book the subject of an author's purpose is discussed. Melville is clearly laying out his view of himself as an artist. Joyce had yet to do so: He wasn't born yet.

authentic and intrigue

Finished Typee and Omoo. I love Mardi!

Didn't get to "Mardi," which everyone derides.

Let's face it, Melville's can be a bit boring. However, these 3 stories (if actually true) are quite amazing. Warning though: EACH OF THESE BOOKS CAN SEEM TO BE A VERY LONG READ and holding all 3 in 1 hand makes them seem even longer. So I recommend buying the individual novels.

On Typee: A great starter story to Mardi and you must read this first. Melville gives an incredible detail of how Polynesians lived in perfect harmony. So, if you are at all interested in their culture and the story of a man who, although was a captive, was embraced and treated like a king by the island dwellers. A good read.

On Omoo: The continuing story... plus. (I can't say more).

On Mardi: I can't say too much here as I was a bit bored and tired after finishing the 1st 2. So I need to revisit this one again before I make any review.

Not Melville's best. It is no Moby Dick.

These books feel both archaic and 100 years before their time. All three are nominally South Seas adventure stories, but the plot quickly takes a back seat to other concerns, whether it's a anthropological study of the Marquesan Islands in Typee or an extended essay on the effect of civilizing missions on so-called primitive societies in Omoo. Mardi is by far the longest novel in this collection, around 650 pages in this edition. Halfway through the novel, Melville pretty much abandons the story altogether and gives us page after page of historical, philosophical, political, and theological speculations. Alternatively brilliant and frustrating.

Typee and Omoo are relatively straightforward and enjoyable travel romances. Interestingly, Melville's first two novels take place largely on land.

Mardi is the more enigmatic third in this series. Beginning as a straightforward sea romance it quickly becomes something else. Mardi is - so far as I can tell - the eaglet of Melville's genius first pecking at the eggshell of the travel romance format that had previously constrained it. There are moments where, however clumsily, the shell is penetrated and the sublime exterior is realized in new forms and styles. This experience clearly influenced Redburn and White-jacket - the books wherein Melville once and for all perfect this format in preparation for Moby Dick which becomes something new entirely. The book ends enigmatically - after surveying and surviving all of Mardi (the World) in search of Yilla - Melville has appeased his maddened faculty of Reason (in the form of Babbalanja) by reconciling it with the word of God. Finally, he casts off both History (Mohi / Braid beard) and Poetry (Yooma) and sails beyond the bounds of Mardi (The World) into the endless sea of Eternity pursued by Death.

There's much to marvel over in these three books and they bear witness to Melville's ambition and early development as a writer.

5 stars for Typee & Omoo, 2 for Mardi (read 2/13). Mardi's only real interest is as Melville's first attempt at imaginative, allegorical/symbolical fiction. He failed miserably, and Mardi probably won't be of interest to any but Melville diehards.

As with other Library of America editions, this book is excellent if all you need is the primary text(s); LoA editions do not include much in the way of scholarly notes or commentary (sometimes there will be a "note on the text" but, generally, nothing more). LoA editions being uniform, I have always found them to be of high quality, meaning the paper is a nice, bright white; the font is clear and pleasant; and, of course, each book is hardbound.

Typee and Omoo, the first two novels Melville wrote, are quite readable for the average reader. If you find Moby Dick difficult or tedious, fear not, these two stories are much more accessible. Both stories possess details of historical interest, well-woven with the main stories and numerous short episodes. Typee has a bit more suspense, a bit more drama than Omoo (Omoo may have more humor), but both stories keep you interested with a suspense natural to a story of a man marooned amongst a strange island culture. Scholars and the erudite may recognize both stories as quasi-idealized test cases for Rousseau's 'natural man', and similar philosophical theories.

Mardi is a very different matter, having been Melville's first attempt at literature of high seriousness. The moral criticisms Melville levelled at Christian missionaries in his first two books, in Mardi became a broader critique of Christianity and religion in general. The story of Mardi is really a thin skin stretched over a -- rather didactic for a novel -- sprawling dialogue of metaphysics, peppered with allusions to all kinds of literature. The structure is not unlike Canterbury Tales or the Decameron, but the dialogue is far more didactic. Mardi is a must-read for Melville scholars, as it prefigures much of the religio-philosophical concerns raised in Moby Dick and virtually all other stories he wrote.

On the whole, these are three very fine stories, and well presented in the Library of America edition.

I want to reread this book because it is referred to in the nov. 25, 2018 NYT article by Jeffrey Gettleman, writing about the young missionary ( John Allen Chau) killed by native islanders when he invaded them trying to convert them to christianity.

I am curious about Omoo, too. There was an old story about one island w a reputation of benignity and peace and its neighbor with a reputation for fierceness and bloodthirstiness in war -when in reality the actuality was flipped. (It might have been Greenland vs Iceland -distant voyagers knew that one of them was uninhabitable but with little go on except words - I am sure that Iceland avoided many invasions!)

And a scifi story about two creatures - one large and threatening, on distracted, sad and meek. The Large threatening one is full of bluster because it is terrified - and the small one is sad and withdrawn because it knows it will be guilty of violence.

How to transform what we see around us to literature?