Reviews for The Deerslayer

The average rating for The Deerslayer based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-10-21 00:00:00 Deborah Dunn A travelogue and idealized South Sea island adventure story inspired by that time Melville and his crewmate, Richard Tobias "Toby" Greene, jumped ship in the Marquesas and spent a month on Nuku Hiva. I can't blame him for wanting to write about it. It was Melville's first book and a sensational bestseller on its release. Written before "Melville began to study the writings of Sir Thomas Browne. Heretofore our author's style was rough in places, but marvellously simple and direct." as Arthur Stedman points out in his Introduction to the Edition of 1892. Stedman's biographical and critical introduction isn't included in the audio edition (George Guidall, Narrator), but you can find it at Project Gutenberg.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-04-18 00:00:00 Mark Van Heugten "Yet, after all, insensible as he is to a thousand wants, and removed from harassing cares, my not the savage be the happier man..?" ― Herman Melville, Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life Herman Melville's first book Typee is a blend of creative memoir, cultural commentary, and good story telling. Melville recounts and elaborates on his experiences among the Typee cannibals on the French Polynesian island of Nuku Hiva (Marquesas Islands) in 1842. Typee ended up being Meville's best-selling book during his lifetime, no doubt due to both his skill as a writer mated with his romantic story of life among Polynesian savages. The book flows nicely and balances between the chasms of cultural superiority & nobel savage worship that can easily dominate these types of books. Reading this made me think of similar types of long-form journalism that catch fire in our day (Junger to Theroux to Conover to Vollmann). While approachable, it isn't Melville's best work, but shows early signs of motifs that would show up later in Moby-Dick, Billy Budd, etc. ___________________