Mardi, and a Voyage Thither, Vol. 1 (of 2)

Before Moby-Dick consumed him, Herman Melville wrote something stranger: a novel that refuses to stay still. Mardi opens on the whaling ship Arcturion, where a restless sailor named Taji has already grown weary of the sea's endless monotony. He craves conversation that matches his intellect, but finds his shipmates crude and dull. When he persuades the weathered old sailor Jarl to join him, the two make a audacious escape into the Pacific, seeking something Taji cannot name but desperately needs. What begins as adventure gradually transforms into something more elusive and profound, as Melville abandons the factual precision of his earlier South Sea narratives and spreads his wings toward pure symbol. This is Melville unmoored, hungry, reaching toward the visionary work that would soon redefine American literature. For readers who want to witness a great writer finding his voice, this is where the transformation begins.