Mardi: Exuberant Prose Experiment

[Babbalanja]

Herman Melville's Mardi, and a Voyage Thither is an astounding work.

After he got wildly famous for writing the South Seas adventure stories Typee and Omoo, Melville indulged his philosophical interests and wrote Mardi, which destroyed his reputation almost entirely.

Ostensibly a tale about a voyage in the Pacific that goes horribly wrong, Mardi shows Melville spreading his literary wings. Aficionados of Sterne or Jonathan Swift should do themselves a favor and look into this mad satire: the protagonist's travels include stops at islands like Dominora and Vivenza which strangely resemble modern nations like Britain and America. There are episodes dealing with war, law, and academia, as well as running gags aplenty, that demonstrate a brilliant sense of humor that is seldom ascribed to Melville. For fans of extravagant philosophical fiction, Mardi presents a party of loquacious travelers conducting lively discussions on subjects like astronomy, ethics, religion, and prophecy.

In retrospect, it's not too hard to believe that readers in 1849 weren't ready for Mardi. A couple of subsequent seafaring yarns weren't enough to bring his readership back, and then difficult masterworks like Moby-Dick and Pierre drove the nail in the coffin of his celebrity.

This is a fascinating work that deserves a wider readership. Have any other bibliophiles here read or heard of this strange masterpiece?

[cgrillo]

Three years and nine days since the start of this thread, with no responses? I feel reluctant to reply to such an old topic.

I finished Vol. I recently, and I'm about halfway through Vol. II. I noticed that one thing Melville does incredibly well is give his characters personalities; Mohi, or Braid-Beard, for example, has often reacted angrily when someone (mostly the character of Babbalanja) says something that he doesn't agree with. For example:

[Babbalanja:] "These are the leaves of the book of Oro. Here we read how worlds are made; here read the rise and fall of Nature's kingdoms. From where this old man's furthest histories start, these unbeginning records end. These are the secret memoirs of time's past; whose evidence, at last divulged, gives the grim lie to Mohi's gossipings, and makes a rattling among the dry-bone relics of old Maramma."

Braid-Beard's old eyes flashed fire. With bristling beard, he cried, "Take back the lie you send!"

"Peace, everlasting foes," cried Media...

(Chapter XXVIII)

I was also surprised at how casually Annatoo was thrown aside and left for dead, her name never to be said again throughout the whole book... The same goes for Jarl, my favorite character of Vol. I, who's death was described in a one page long chapter. I am left craving so many details!

[Salamander]

I too am attempting a reading of Mardi on my iPhone. Such a grand portmanteau on such a small platform! I confess that like the main characters. I sometimes doze through the more arcane discourses, but also prick up my ears when the beauty of his prose and precision of his metaphors capture me. But I would like tk know in particular who certain characters like Babbalanja, Braidbeard and Media represent. Anyone?