11 h 31 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead 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
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.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Escape leads to an uncertain ship
- An island can become a home
- Jokes give way to urgent choices
- A protest becomes a mutiny charge
- Kindness loosens the jailer's grip
- Protection conceals the taking of Tahiti
- Foreign influence reaches into daily life
- Freedom depends on welcome from others
- Small kindnesses outlast failed plans
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Omoo in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Omoo
by Herman Melville · 1847
A sailor escapes a cannibal valley onto a whaler where the mate drinks, the captain hides, and a tall doctor schemes.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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“The greatest seer and poet of the sea for me is Melville.”
In short
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.
Omoo at a glance
- Reading time
- About 6 h 40 min5 h 20 min fast, 7 h 55 min slow
- Length
- 95,400 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1847by Herman Melville
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
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.
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Details
- First published
- 1847
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 7 h 30 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
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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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.
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.
“Poor wretches, martyred in the cause of the Fine Arts!”
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