The Encantadas by Herman Melville

 

I've wanted to read a novel written by Herman Melville for quite sometime. Melville's novel, Moby Dick, seemed a bit too daunting too start with. 

So, I decided instead to listen to the unabridged audio version of The Encantadas by Herman Melville, which is decently narrated by Mark Owen. The Encantadas is the first thing I've read by Herman Melville.

The Encantadas by Herman Melville is a novella with a listening time of 2 hours, 30 minutes. 

The Encantadas is a set of sketches that read like a travelog about The Galapagos Islands. I wasn't impressed with The Encantadas at all. The first half of this novella is so boring that I almost gave up on this novella entirely. The second half of The Encantadas was the most interesting part of this novella. However, I still feel like The Encantadas wasn't really worth my reading time.

Below is the publishers summary for The Encantadas by Herman Melville, which I discovered on Chirp's website:

The Encantadas (or Enchanted Isles), is a series of ten descriptive sketches, and a reminiscence from Melville’s sailor days revealing the ecologically pristine Galapagos Islands as both enchanting and horrifying. Containing some of Melville’s most memorable prose, The Encantadas were a critical success at a time when Melville’s fortunes were down. After publication, the New York Dispatch cited the chapters as universally considered among the most interesting papers of that popular Magazine, and each successive chapter was read with avidity by thousands. The reviewer called the sketches a sort of mixture of ‘Mardi’ and ‘Robinson Crusoe’–though far more interesting than the first named work.

I'm giving The Encantadas by Herman Melville a rating of 2 stars out of 5 stars.

Until my next post, happy reading!!