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Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Mardi in Montgomery

From the Montgomery Weekly Flag and Advertiser, May 11, 1849; Library of Congress via Gale Primary Sources, Nineteenth Century U. S. Newspapers, GALE|GT3016952761.
NEW BOOKS.-- There is a new work lately published by Harper & Brothers, entitled "Mardi and A Voyage Thither." The author of it is Herman Melville, the author of "Typee" and "Omoo." Mardi is a wild romance of the Pacific Isles, not intended to convey any real impression of them or their inhabitants. It is a singular work, and seems to have been written in a singular mood. It is almost as misty as the dreams of Ossian, though not clothed in the same magnificent ideality. It is allegorical and at the same time satirical, full of a wild speculative philosophy, that indicates much scepticism. The descriptive parts are fine, particularly whenever the scene is on the ocean. The style is free and easy, in some parts really fine, and shows a familiarity with the idiomatic phraseology of all kinds of literature and all classes of people. Parts of it are exceedingly interesting, and the whole, as a specimen of literature, well worth reading. It will be found at the Book Store of Mr. GEORGE LITTLE.
The weekly issue of the Flag and Advertiser was then published every Friday morning in Montgomery, Alabama by John McCormick and Patrick Henry Brittan.

Digitized versions of both volumes in the first American edition of Melville's Mardi (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1849) are now accessible courtesy of the great Internet Archive.



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