The narrative of facts probably best exemplified in the literature of exploration was an immensely popular genre in mid-nineteenth-century America. In White Lies, John Samson offers full contextual readings of Melville's five major narratives of facts Typee, Omoo, Redburn, White-Jacket, and Israel Potter. Samson demonstrates that in these novels Melville critically rewrote the sources on which he drew, in effect making the genre itself a subject of his writing.
In his introduction, Samson discusses Melville's knowledge of the genre and its ideology. He then...
The narrative of facts probably best exemplified in the literature of exploration was an immensely popular genre in mid-nineteenth-century America....
