11 h 31 minAudiobook12 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 11 h 31 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does freedom mean when you escape a leaking ship, only to find new masters ashore?
In Herman Melville’s Omoo, an unnamed young American sailor leaves the Marquesas aboard the Julia. The whaler leaks, Captain Guy is sick, and the crew suffers under harsh treatment. When the ship anchors at Papeete in Tahiti, the sailors refuse to sail again. Getting ashore brings trouble of its own.
The narrator finds a close companion in Doctor Long Ghost, a witty sailor with a sharp tongue. Their restless adventures open onto a wider portrait of Tahiti, where missionaries, British officials and French naval officers shape island life. Beneath the humor lies a persistent question: how much freedom can a wanderer really keep?
What you’ll discover
- A ship near breaking Step aboard the Julia, where a leaking hull and angry crew make escape feel urgent.
- A sharp-tongued companion Meet Long Ghost, whose wit and talk carry him through difficulty beside the narrator.
- Tahiti beyond the harbor Look beyond the ship to an island changed by foreign ships, religion and competing authorities.
- Freedom with a price Explore the pull between wandering at will and needing work, wages and shelter.
- Humor with an edge Enjoy a wry first-person voice that turns rough company and restless travel into comic adventure.
Who will love it
For readers who love sea stories, travel writing and humor with a sharp edge, and anyone curious about Melville before Moby-Dick.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A leaky whaler picks up a runaway
- A sick captain and a doctor without a cure
- The crew refuses to sail again
- Life in a prison with open doors
- Missionaries, kings and French guns
- Roaming the island with Long Ghost
- Work, wages and the cost of freedom
- What the book is really about
- A comic voice with a serious edge
Who’s who
- The narratorAn unnamed young American sailor who leaves a bad ship and drifts through Tahiti, curious, wry and always looking for the next place to go.
- Doctor Long GhostA tall, witty, educated sailor known as the ship's doctor, who talks his way through every difficulty and becomes the narrator's close companion.
- Captain GuyThe sick master of the Julia, who is unable to command his crew with any firmness and keeps relying on his officers.
- Mr. JerminThe hard, competent mate who actually runs the Julia and drives the crew with a whaleman's blunt authority.
- Consul WilsonThe British consul at Papeete, who must deal with the angry crew and is not fully sure of his own authority.
- Queen PomareThe ruler of Tahiti, whose real power is limited by the missionaries, British officials and French naval officers around her.
- Zeke and ShortyTwo white settlers on Imeeo who run a potato farm and hire the narrator and his friend for hard, poorly paid labor.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 11 h 31 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 12 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Omoo in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Omoo
by Herman Melville · 1847
A sailor escapes a leaky whaler for Tahiti, where friendship and freedom meet the reach of foreign powers.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Omoo is a sea narrative by Herman Melville, published in 1847 as the follow-up to his first book, Typee. It is based on his own months in the Pacific as a young whaleman, but he shaped it as a novel, with a narrator, a cast of rough sailors and a loose, comic plot.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A leaky whaler picks up a runaway
The story opens at sea. The narrator has left the Marquesas aboard the Julia, an Australian whaling barque that most of her crew would gladly be rid of. She is small, old and rotten in her timbers. The pumps must be worked often, and the sailors joke that she is held together by habit.
The narrator takes a place before the mast, which means he lives in the forecastle with the common sailors. He is not fully one of them. He has gone to sea before, he can read and write, and he carries himself with a trace of the gentleman. Even so, he shares their food, their work and their grievances.
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What is Omoo about?
Omoo follows an American sailor who leaves a bad whaling ship, lands in Tahiti and wanders the islands with a witty companion, Doctor Long Ghost. It mixes comedy, travel description and criticism of foreign influence.
What does the word Omoo mean?
In the book, omoo is a word from the Marquesan islands meaning a rover, someone who wanders from island to island. It fits the narrator, who drifts from ship to jail to farm without settling anywhere.
Is Omoo a true story?
It is based on Melville's own time in the South Pacific in the early 1840s, but he shaped it as a novel. He exaggerated and rearranged events, so it should be read as fiction built on fact.
The author
Herman Melville
1819–1891 · American novelist and poet
Herman Melville (1819–1891) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and poet. He was born and died in New York City and also lived in Massachusetts. He published Moby-Dick in 1851, Pierre in 1852, and The Confidence-Man in 1857. His unfinished Billy Budd was published after his death, in 1924.
More by Herman Melville
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