Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$96.62 + shipping
Description: 2nd English edition, 4th issue. 8vo. 17cm x 12cm x 2.3cm. Ex library. pp.xvi/301, text clean and bright, no map after preliminaries. p.19 first line: ". Pomare .". "The Story of Toby," a Sequel to "Typee" to pages 289-301. Library bookplate, pocket and ticket to inside front board, strengthening to inner hinges front and rear. Blue library binding, gilt title to spine. Scarce in this early edition. G+.
Seller: CHILTON BOOKS, SUDBURY, United Kingdom
Price: US$139.13 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Good-. Publishers red blind embossed cloth, a touch damp-stained to front cover edge and spine (as pictured). Covers slightly dust marked. Armorial bookplate (house Hamilton) to front pastedown. Minor foxing to first few leaves. Half of the last leaf of the publishers advertising catalogue to the rear is missing.
Seller: Sapience Bookstore, Hexham, United Kingdom
Price: US$201.54 + shipping
Description: 8vo, 301pp, with black and white map. A good hardback copy in embossed red cloth with wear to extremities and age tanned spine. Gold lettering still visible to spine. Foxed and toned fore edges. Some mild creasing to page corners. Endpapers aged. Occassional spotting. Binding solid, with rear hinge splitting but not separated. Murray's Colonial & Home Library.
Seller: Sainsbury's Books Pty. Ltd., Camberwell, VIC, Australia
Price: US$275.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 2nd British Edition, shows spelling of "Pomare" correctly on page 19. CONDITION Rebound in Tan Buckram cloth with title flag to spine and new liners (unworn) map frontis, Pp ivi 285. Copy is mostly bright and clean, with 2 stamps for the Nelson Istitute to half title and verso of map which also has "The Provincial Council Nelson 1858" in copper plate script. Old repair to tear across one page. A bitt of spotting, some finger marks and toning although mostly very nice. Size: 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall
Seller: Ariel Books IOBA, Auckland, New Zealand
Price: US$281.75 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: RO40170956: 1847. In-12. Relié. Bon état, Couv. convenable, Dos satisfaisant, Intérieur acceptable. 301 pages. Etiquette de code sur le dos. Tampons et annotations de bibliothèque en page de titre. Couverture se détachant légèrement. Quelques annotations dans le texte. . . . Classification Dewey : 420-Langue anglaise. Anglo-saxon
Seller: Le-Livre, SABLONS, France
Price: US$400.00 + shipping
Description: Small 8vo, red cloth with blind-stamped design, spine faded & chipped at the extremes; 2 book-plates. . London: John Murray, 1847. Early edition of Melville's first book. Catalogue in the back, dated 1848, lists this title under Mr. Murray's Home and Colonial Library as "The Marquesas Islanders"
Seller: Argosy Book Store, ABAA, ILAB, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$531.25 + shipping
Description: First edition, fourth printing of the revised edition of the author's first book, 2 vols. in 1, as issued, 8vo, pp. xiv, 149, [5], [151]-307, [1], plus 9 pages of ads paged [15]-xxiii; integral frontispiece map; recent quarter calf-backed marbled boards, gilt-ruled spine in 6 compartments, red morocco label in one; endpapers foxed, very good. BAL 13654; Wright 1, 1869.
Seller: Rulon-Miller Books (ABAA / ILAB), St. Paul, MN, U.S.A.
Melville, Herman. OMOO: A NARRATIVE OF ADVENTURES IN THE SOUTH SEAS. John Murray, London, 1847.
Price: US$560.00 + shipping
Description: Octavo, xiii, 321 pages; VG; bound in contemporary half-burgundy calf, marbled boards, rebacked with modern burgundy cloth, gilt titling to spine; mild wear and rubbing to boards; lacking terminal ads. BAL 13655: State C of page 209, no priority; frontispiece map.; WD consignment; shelved case 2. Omoo is the second book by American writer Herman Melville, first published in London in 1847, preceding the American edition by several weeks, and a sequel to his first South Sea narrative Typee, also based on the author's experiences in the South Pacific. After leaving the island of Nuku Hiva, the main character ships aboard a whaling vessel that makes its way to Tahiti, after which there is a mutiny and a third of the crew are imprisoned on Tahiti. In 1949, the novel was adapted into the exploitation film Omoo-Omoo, the Shark God. [wikipedia]. 1316775. Shelved Dupont Bookstore.
Seller: Second Story Books, ABAA, Rockville, MD, U.S.A.
Melville, Herman. OMOO: A NARRATIVE OF ADVENTURES IN THE SOUTH SEAS. John Murray, London, 1847.
Price: US$600.00 + shipping
Description: Octavo, xiv, 321 pages. In Good minus condition. Half bound in red leather with red cloth boards and gilt lettering on paneled and blindstamped spine. Boards have rubbing to corners and joints, slight bumping to corners, stain on front cover, and white marks on rear cover. Text block has light age toning, foxing to pages, splitting to rear interior hinge, and spine separated from binding at rear interior hinge. State A of page 209, no priority. Frontispiece map. Shelved in Room A. Omoo is the second book by American writer Herman Melville, first published in London in 1847, preceding the American edition by several weeks, and a sequel to his first South Sea narrative Typee, also based on the author's experiences in the South Pacific. After leaving the island of Nuku Hiva, the main character ships aboard a whaling vessel that makes its way to Tahiti, after which there is a mutiny and a third of the crew are imprisoned on Tahiti. In 1949, the novel was adapted into the exploitation film Omoo-Omoo, the Shark God [Wikipedia]. BAL 13655. 1372557. Special Collections.
Seller: Second Story Books, ABAA, Rockville, MD, U.S.A.
Price: US$750.00 + shipping
Description: First edition, early reprint. Not in BAL. Would appear to precede the U.S. edition, or at least be reissued from a version that preceded it, as it appears to be a stereotype conforming to the original, unrevised text of "NARRATIVE OF A FOUR MONTHS' . " with title page reset to include "TYPEE" at head and with comma (vs. period) following last word in title, "LIFE." Includes series title page for "Mr. Murray's Home and Colonial Library" with ad on verso headed, "Mr. Murray's Monthly Library" listing 30 "Volumes already Published" (this one being number "15"); half-title; title page with imprint of W. Clowes and Sons on verso; original "Preface" only (i.e., without the "Preface to the Revised Edition"); contents pp. [xi]-xvi; map on p. [xviii]; 285 pages including the "Appendix" (which was excised for the revised edition and replaced with "The Story of Toby"). "Pomare" p. 19, line 1; printer's imprint (Clowes) appears at center of p.[286]. No terminal ads. Bound by J. Strathearn, Stirling, in 12mo three-quarter polished red calf over marbled boards; gilt and blind tooling to spine; raised bands; gilt title and author compartments blocked in black; all edges speckled. Very good with some rubbing to edges and scuffing to boards.
Seller: Quill & Brush, member ABAA, Middletown, MD, U.S.A.
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 1st Edition, precedes American Edition, State A. Publisher's original blue cloth rebacked with decorated black leather in clamshell box. Bound without advertisements in back. Gilt lettering and decorations on spine of the book. Clamshell box is bound in blue cloth and backed with blue leather. Gilt lettering on spine of the box. Box measures 6" x 8." Book measures 4 3/4" x 7." 321 pages, complete. One black-and-white frontispiece map of the "South Seas; or Pacific Ocean," complete. Box is very clean and intact except for a few small stains and marks. Pages are very clean and intact except for occasional foxing. Covers are intact but have marks and smudging on the front and back. A Very Good copy in a Near Fine box. Herman Melville (1819-1891) was an American author who was part of the Romanticist movement and the American Renaissance period. Melville is best-known for writing the novel, Moby-Dick (1851). As noted in the title, Omoo is a sequel to his book, Residence in the Marquesas Islands, which also goes by the title, Typee. Like Typee, Omoo is semi-autobiographical and based on Melville's own experiences in French Polynesia. Typee takes place on the Marquesas Islands and is based off of Melville's stay on the island of Nuku Hiva, whereas Omoo mostly takes place on Tahiti. While Melville said both books are autobiographical, scholars have concluded they are more accurately a combination of autobiography and fiction. What is notable about Typee and Omoo is Melville's depiction of the residents of French Polynesia. At a time when Polynesians were commonly derided as "savages" by Westerners, Melville was relatively sympathetic toward the people of French Polynesia and even questioned the usage of such a term. The following is referenced from the Bibliography of American Literature (BAL), no. 13655: 1st Edition, precedes American Edition, State A.
Seller: Barry Cassidy Rare Books, Sacramento, CA, U.S.A.
Melville Herman. OMOO: A Narrative of Adventure In The South Sea. London John Murray 1847, 1847.
Price: US$2035.00 + shipping
Description: First Edition, the English issue, preceding the American issue by about a month. State A of the signature mark on p. 209. Full page cartographic frontispiece and the illustration at p. 78. 8vo., in an antique binding of dark brown-maroon over brown cloth boards, the spine with gilt panel enclosing the title lettered in gilt. [xiv], 321 pp. A handsome and very well preserved copy, with just pleasing bit of age. A fine survival of an important book, Melville's second. FIRST EDITION, OMOO is a story of the Marquesas and was written out of Melville's own sojourn there. This English issue preceded the American edition. the work is loosely based on the author's experiences in the South Pacific. In this story, which picks up where Melville's first book, TYPEE, ends we find our un-named hero leaving the island of Nuku Hiva. He ships aboard a whaling vessel that makes its way to Tahiti, after which there is a mutiny and a third of the crew are imprisoned. The narrator meets and forms a friendship with the vessels surgeon, a tall thin man known to his crew-mates as "Dr Long Ghost".
Seller: Buddenbrooks, Inc., Newburyport, MA, U.S.A.
Melville, Herman. Omoo.. John Murray, London, 1847.
Price: US$2800.00 + shipping
Description: First British edition, which precedes the American edition of this classic Melville work Omoo. Octavo, original cloth. In very good condition, bookplate to the front pastedown. BAL 13656. Uncommon in the original cloth. 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 Melvilleâs 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.
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.