-
Omoo
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
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Publisher's summary
Following the commercial and critical success of Typee, Herman Melville continued his series of South Sea adventure-romances with Omoo. Named after the Polynesian term for a rover, or someone who roams from island to island, Omoo chronicles the tumultuous events aboard a South Sea whaling vessel and is based on Melville's personal experiences as a crew member on a ship sailing the Pacific. From recruiting among the natives for sailors to handling deserters and even mutiny, Melville gives a first-person account of life as a sailor during the nineteenth century filled with colorful characters and vivid descriptions of the far-flung locales of Polynesia.
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Editorial reviews
Narrator Robert Blumenfeld does not sound like a sailor, but like a scholar performing a work by Melville. Blumenfeld’s diffident and professorial tone will make listeners feel as if they are hearing a rare lecture on life along the South Seas in the mid-1800s. Although it lacks the action of Melville’s other works, Omoo excels in reportage concerning every aspect of life for natives, missionaries, and sailors. One can see beyond the romance and caricature provided by other writers, and hone in on real life. Melville is unerringly honest; he critiques what he sees, and takes his humor where he finds it. Omoo is Melville’s closeted take on autobiography. A seasoned sailor, Melville imparts his own calm alertness and wit to protagonist Tomas.
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By: Edgar Allan Poe
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Sacred Hunger
- By: Barry Unsworth
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 22 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In this Booker Prize-winning work, Barry Unsworth follows the failing fortunes of William Kemp, a merchant pinning his last chance to a slave ship; his son, who needs a fortune because he is in love with an upper-class woman; and his nephew, who sails on the ship as its doctor because he has lost all he has loved. The voyage meets its demise when disease spreads among the slaves and the captain's drastic response provokes a mutiny.
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Wise, Perceptive, Heart-breaking
- By S. Coldsmith on 04-16-16
By: Barry Unsworth
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The Lion of St. Mark
- By: G.A. Henty
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Of The Lion of St. Mark, G.A. Henty wrote: "I have laid my story in the time not of the triumphs of Venice but of her hardest struggle for existence, when she defended herself successfully against the coalition of Hungary, Padua, and Genoa, for never at any time were the virtues of Venice, her steadfastness, her patriotism, and her willingness to make all sacrifice for her independence more brilliantly shown.
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A Great Listen
- By Jef on 04-04-05
By: G.A. Henty
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Sufferings in Africa
- By: James Riley
- Narrated by: Brian Emerson
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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In this classic tale of adventure, a young American sea captain named James Riley, shipwrecked off the western coast of North Africa in 1815, was captured by a band of nomadic Arabs and sold into slavery. Thus begins an epic adventure of survival and a quest for freedom that takes him across the Sahara desert.
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19th century shipwreck saga
- By Leslie Grey on 09-05-07
By: James Riley
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Wreck of the Whale Ship Essex
- Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex (Original News Stories of Whale Attacks & Cannibals)
- By: Owen Chase, Thomas Nickerson
- Narrated by: Paul J. McSorley
- Length: 4 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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In one of the most spellbinding accounts of men who go down to the sea in ships, the modern listener is given a seat in the whale boat of Owen Chase as he and his fellow crew and their captain make way in three boats after the wreckage of the Whaleship Essex. The account of how the Essex was wrecked inspired the infamous book Moby Dick and countless movies, including In the Heart of the Sea.
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Excellent telling of the true story
- By Vicki Goodwin on 03-03-16
By: Owen Chase, and others
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The Sea Wolf
- By: Jack London
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Abridged
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Jack London worshiped strong and virtuous heroes, and his stories give great weight to the inevitable triumph of good over evil. His telling of the adventures of Humphrey van Weydon in The Sea Wolf is in keeping with this theme of moral man. His powerful and gripping saga of van Weydon's capture by a seal-hunting ship and the ensuing tangles with its dreaded captain, Wolf Larsen, makes this a classic American tale of peril and victory.
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I won the lottery!
- By Bill on 08-11-17
By: Jack London
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The Mutiny of the Elsinore
- By: Jack London
- Narrated by: John Bolen
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Life has lost its savor for Mr. Pathurst. New York, fame, women, the arts, have all become tedious. Searching for excitement, he books passage on a cargo vessel sailing from Baltimore to Seattle on a route that travels around the treacherous Cape Horn.
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Just can't listen
- By Michael on 06-25-05
By: Jack London
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The Happy Prince and other Tales
- By: Oscar Wilde
- Narrated by: B.J. Harrison
- Length: 51 mins
- Unabridged
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In "The Model Millionaire", the destiny of a young, ambitious, brilliant pauper changes with an act of his misplaced generosity. "The Happy Prince" is one of Oscar Wilde’s renowned fairy tales. From his vantage point, high above the city, the statue of The Happy Prince gives of himself in a way most astonishing. In "The Sphinx Without a Secret", we learn of an enigmatic woman who holds a secret so close, no suitor can win her.
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"Curiouser & Curiouser"
- By Jade Dragon on 09-14-16
By: Oscar Wilde
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The Swiss Family Robinson
- By: Johann David Wyss
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins
- Abridged
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A classic tale of adventure and survival, The Swiss Family Robinson has been a best seller ever since it was published in 1812, just over 200 years ago. Written by Swiss pastor Johann David Wyss, it begins with a shipwreck. A boat carrying a family of settlers to a distant colony is driven onto a reef just off an uncharted tropical island. The sailors desert the ship in lifeboats, leaving the family onboard.
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Not as good as I hoped
- By Travis and Becky Pitcher on 01-30-21
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Jules Verne Collection
- Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Around the World in 80 Days and The Mysterious Island
- By: Jules Verne
- Narrated by: Jim D. Johnston
- Length: 43 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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From the pen of one of the literary world’s finest explorers of the imagination, these classic tales of fantastical habitats and intrepid adventurers delve deep into every mysterious corner of planet Earth. Whether you’ve adventured with Verne before or are only just setting off on your maiden voyage, this collection encompasses the most extraordinary adventures the father of science fiction has to offer.
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Classics, But Hours of Scientific Exposition.
- By Sarah on 05-02-21
By: Jules Verne
What listeners say about Omoo
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kendra
- 07-21-24
Melville continues where he left off...
(1847). Melville continues where he left off in Typee without any fuss. The young author knows how to keep things simple. The mutiny aboard the dysfunctional whaler the Julia and his misadventures in and around Tahiti are laid out in a very orderly and digestible manner. In all locations the author plays the amiable tour guide (a role he would later bring to such fanciful heights aboard the Pequod). Many of the scenes are enchanted. Yet even in the most desperate situations or before undeniably lamentable sights, he maintains his mild, wry voice, well suited to showing the ludicrous side of things. (It's hard to think of antecedents to this comic and unusually readable style of writing, and easier to think of comparisons from decades later--Jerome K. Jerome, for example). Even the rats and roaches infesting the cramped ship are humorously described, though living in such conditions must have been truly appalling (along with everything else, Melville was a tough son of a bitch). You're also introduced to a panoply of colorful characters, coming from all walks of life to meet in that far-flung spot on the globe. Most of these personages are quirky, but some are more moving. The picture of the inept and despised landlubber is a timeless portrait of the bullied, written with compassion.
In Typee Melville fashioned a remarkably Hollywood plot out of his experience of "indulgent captivity" among the cannibals. Suspense, action, adventure, humor, romance, a thrilling climax. This material lacks the same readymade structure, yet sails along quite delightfully. I loved it. I'm nearing the last of the popular Melville, the books praised in his day and our own (and yes, that includes Moby Dick), and can see in the offing the more notorious productions. It'll be hard to go from such an eminently sane work as Omoo to ones that caused fear, even for Melville himself, that he'd gone mad.
The narrator is quite good, especially at dialogue, but he has a curious habit of ending declarative statements on an up-note.
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- Tad Davis
- 05-20-17
Sequel to Typee
Omoo finds the narrator of Typee once again at sea but not much more willing to carry out his responsibilities. He and most of his shipmates reach a point where they simply refuse to work; so they are put ashore on Tahiti where they are loosely held in a compound by the island's consul.
The narrator and a tall companion he calls Doctor Long Ghost eventually make their way from Tahiti to the neighboring island of Imeeo now known as Moorea). They wander around the island, courting the native girls (sometimes being stabbed with a thorn for their troubles), attending feasts, witnessing special dances. Eventually the narrator decides to leave, signing on to a visiting whaler; Long Ghost decides to remain behind.
The book is entertaining: Melville has a wry sense of humor and a humane sensibility. He respects the natives as human beings in a way few other Europeans or Americans do. He accepts them on their own terms. He believes the Christian missionaries who frequently visit the island have done more harm than good: mostly, under their influence, the happy, languid and hospitable life of hunting and gathering is exchanged for uncomfortable clothes and even more uncomfortable ideas. The novel is also surprisingly discreet - surprising at least to me, who grew up with a far more sensual image of Tahiti. Once or twice, the stages of undress in which they find the natives are referred to, but whether any of the various young women the wanderers take up with are more than friends is never really discussed.
Robert Blumenfeld is an excellent narrator, reading most of the book in a cheerful style and providing a variety of voices. If you've read or listened to Typee, you probably should take this one in too. (Arm yourself with a map or two before you go.)
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3 people found this helpful
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- Shirley Burns
- 03-06-24
South Pacific Ramble
Delightful rambling story not really about anything in particular but nice vignettes of life on the sea and in the South Pacific in the mid 1800s. Delightful narration in the audible edition.
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- Darwin8u
- 05-16-14
See Melville's Fiction Genius Pushing Hard
Omoo is Part II of Melville's adventures in the South Pacific. Typee, his first book, focused on the French Polynesian island of Nuku Hiva (Marquesas Islands). Omoo starts after Melville leaves Nuku Hiva, and centers on his adventures on a whaling ship, the ship's subsequent "soft mutiny" and his imprisonment with a majority of the ship's crew on the island of Tahiti.
Melville writes travel memoirs the same way my father-in-law would tell stories of his youth: built on a solid framework of veracity, but completely filled-out and fattened with fiction. Both my wife's father and Melville, however, were d@mn good storytellers. Early Melville is fun because after reading these books one grasps a firmer hold of the author and the influences that brought on his later, great novels. Here is a man writing a memoir and you see the fiction genius pushing hard against the boundaries of his own narrative.
Melville's prose is straightforward and his narrative is quick. He also approaches the people of the South Pacific with a dignity and reporting that was very very forward thinking for the time. He avoids both the 'savage' and the 'noble savage' world views that so dominated Western thinking at the time. Melville's views of Christian missionaries (although he heavily redacted them before publication) still managed to keep it from being printed in the US.
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16 people found this helpful
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- James F. Cash
- 06-07-24
The ways western civilization corrupted the ways of the native island people.
Given the history of the world and the approach of European cultures to dominate it, I’m sure these Islands and the indigenous people would eventually have to blend in, however the damage done to their culture in the name of Christianity by the missionary is in hindsight disgraceful.
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