MARDI: AND A VOYAGE THITHER

BY HERMAN MELVILLE

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOL. I


1864


DEDICATED TO My Brother, ALLAN MELVILLE.



PREFACE

Not long ago, having published two narratives of voyages in the
Pacific, which, in many quarters, were received with incredulity,
the thought occurred to me, of indeed writing a romance of Polynesian
adventure, and publishing it as such; to see whether, the fiction
might not, possibly, be received for a verity: in some degree the
reverse of my previous experience.

This thought was the germ of others, which have resulted in Mardi.
New York, January, 1849.