Book summary
Samenvatting van Omoo
- 8 min. leestijd
- 11 key ideas
- Binnenkort te beluisteren
A sailor escapes a cannibal valley onto a whaler where the mate drinks, the captain hides, and a tall doctor schemes.
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Omoo in het kort
Samenvatting: 8 min leestijd
- Leestijd
- Ongeveer 6 h 40 min5 h 20 min fast, 7 h 55 min slow
- Lengte
- 95.400 woorden
- Bibliotheekniveau
- Gemiddeld longer sentences, everyday words
- Voor het eerst verschenen
- 1847by Herman Melville
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Hoelang het duurt om de klassiekers te lezen · Bijgewerkt
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Omoo in short
Omoo follows a sailor through the South Seas of the early 1840s. He leaves an island valley on a sickly whaler, sees her crew refuse to work, and spends weeks in a loose Tahitian jail. He then crosses to Imeeo, tries farming, and walks the coast until he reaches the queen's court.
What Omoo is about
What do you do when you escape a cannibal valley, board a whaler, and find the ship in worse shape than the shore you left? Herman Melville answers that in Omoo, his second book, which follows Typee.
The narrator climbs aboard the Julia, a small Sydney whaler. The crew is sick, the captain is weak, and the mate drinks. You meet Doctor Long Ghost, a tall, learned rogue, and you see what missionaries, traders and French guns did to the island world.
Voor wie is het?. This book is for lovers of sea stories, island travel, rogue companions and sharp social comedy. It suits anyone curious about the old Pacific and how outsiders saw Tahiti.
The 11 key ideas
Key idea 1 · free to read
A Rescued Sailor Boards a Sick Ship
The narrator has just slipped out of a valley on Nukuheva in the Marquesas. He boards the Julia with untrimmed hair and a native cloak. The captain takes him for one cruise only, free to leave at the next port.
The ship is a worn Yankee barque with shaky masts and rotten bulwarks. Yet she sails like a witch. Captain Guy is a young Cockney, pale and sickly, whom the men mock as Paper Jack. The real ruler is the mate, John Jermin, who loves strong drink and knocks men down so kindly that they forgive him.
The most vivid man aboard is the doctor, known as Doctor Long Ghost. He becomes the narrator's friend and guide.
A ship run on bluster and drink is a ship where anything can happen.
- 2Begin gratis met lezen
Deserters, Taboo and a Tattooed Renegade
The Julia first calls at Hytyhoo on St. Christina, where eight of her men went ashore weeks earlier.
- 3Begin gratis met lezen
Sickness, Superstition and Pranks at Sea
The Julia sails west with no clear aim.
- 4Begin gratis met lezen
The Gale, the Coral Islands and Tahiti
On the way south a warm gale hits.
- 5Begin gratis met lezen
Mutiny, a Drunken Mate and a Close Call
The men are furious that the captain wants to go ashore and keep them at sea.
- 6Begin gratis met lezen
Irons on a French Frigate
The anchorage in Papeetee does not end the trouble.
- 7Begin gratis met lezen
Life in the Calabooza Beretanee
The prisoners are marched along the shaded Broom Road to a house on a green slope, called the English Jail.
- 8Begin gratis met lezen
The French Take Tahiti
Melville stops the story to explain the political trouble.
- 9Begin gratis met lezen
Missionaries, Customs and a Fading People
Melville turns to what Christian teaching and foreign contact have done to Tahiti.
- 10Begin gratis met lezen
Farming, Hunting and a Forbidden Dance on Imeeo
Tired of the stocks, the narrator and Long Ghost slip away by night to the neighboring island of Imeeo.
- 11Begin gratis met lezen
A Court That Will Not Receive Them
The two friends reach the village of Partoowye, where the queen has fled.
Read all 11 key ideas now
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Vragen over Omoo
What is Omoo about?
Omoo follows a sailor who leaves the Marquesas on an Australian whaler, joins a crew that refuses duty at Tahiti, lands in a native jail, and then wanders across Tahiti and Imeeo with a clever companion, Doctor Long Ghost.
What does the title Omoo mean?
Melville presents Omoo as a word for a rover, a person who wanders from island to island. It fits the narrator and his friend, who drift through the Pacific without a fixed home.
Is Omoo a true story?
It is based on Melville's own experiences as a sailor in the Pacific in the early 1840s, but he shaped events and characters for a lively narrative. It was published in the 1840s as a sequel to Typee.
Who is Doctor Long Ghost?
He is the ship's tall, pale surgeon who quotes classical poets, plays pranks and tells tall tales. He becomes the narrator's closest companion on shore, and his schemes drive much of the humor.
Is Omoo easy to read?
Yes, in the sense of its voice. It reads like a series of lively sketches with short chapters, vivid scenes, plenty of jokes, and a narrator who explains island customs clearly as he goes.
Verwijs naar deze uitgave
Melville, Herman. Omoo. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/omoo.
Melville, H. (2026). Omoo. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/omoo (Original work published 1847)
Melville, Herman. Omoo. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/omoo.
@book{melville2026omoo,
author = {Melville, Herman},
title = {Omoo},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/omoo},
note = {First published 1847}
}
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